Sister Alyssa Gisseman...

Friday was the eagerly awaited day...Alyssa's mission call arrived!!  She had been hoping for a foreign mission, preferably Central or South America. I got the envelope out of the mailbox and waited not-so-patiently for her to get home. She was only about 5 minutes behind us. She was so excited to see the envelope and immediately said she thought it was a foreign mission because of the postage amount on the envelope ($1.92, which apparently is the postage amount for foreign mission calls?).

We gave her the choice of opening her call then or later in the evening and she said either was fine but Mark said open it now. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was dying to find out where she would be going and when!!  We quickly got family on every available phone line and the iPad (FaceTime and speakerphone...wonderful inventions!) and she opened her call. She was so excited to read that she will be serving in the San Pedro Sula West mission, a new mission that will be opening in July. She will go to the Mexico MTC on October 2. We are so excited and so proud of her.  She is so excited about this new chapter in her life.

She will definitely not need any winter clothes for her mission, unlike her roommate who is going to Romania!  She will be in a hot, humid climate with a long rainy season, so we need to find shoes for that kind of weather.  Suggestions?

The rest of the evening was spent relaying the news to family, posting it on Facebook (including a video of her opening her call -- posted on both her FB page and mine), and looking up information about Honduras.  We're going to find a Honduran restaurant in DC to try.  One thing that worries me is that her mission is headquartered in the most dangerous city in the world...highest rate of violent crime in the world!  Even the Peace Corps has pulled their volunteers out. But I know the Lord will protect her in the important work He has for her to do in Honduras.