NOM

My cousin received her mission call and had a Facebook Live opening party last night. I didn't watch, I just saw her post this morning "Guys I'm going to Italy."

I'm happy for her, I hope she has a good time. I just look at it a bit differently now. It seems a mission is starting to evolve from - "I'm going to serve Jesus" to "I'm going to this exotic place"

She's going to Milan, Italy. I don't suspect she'll see much activity in the form of baptisms, but hey, I would love to go to Milan.

Meilingkie - isn't Milan the European church headquarters?

At first, I thought, you'd had enough of the church and were going as far away as possible - to Italy.

It does sound like a nice place to live - so much history! And my impression of people is they are friendly and blunt.

Korihor wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2017 9:00 am My cousin received her mission call and had a Facebook Live opening party last night. I didn't watch, I just saw her post this morning "Guys I'm going to Italy."

I'm happy for her, I hope she has a good time. I just look at it a bit differently now. It seems a mission is starting to evolve from - "I'm going to serve Jesus" to "I'm going to this exotic place"

She's going to Milan, Italy. I don't suspect she'll see much activity in the form of baptisms, but hey, I would love to go to Milan.

Wow...I love Italy and if she's going to serve a mission, that's a wonderful country to spend time in. I've heard it's a really tough mission though. The temple has had lots of trouble getting built there too (I think it's going to end up taking at least 10 years from when it was announced to finish it if all goes smoothly from here on out).

(I also thought you were going to Italy when I read the title of the thread and thought "Lucky...." and I immediately felt kind of jealous....ok... a lot jealous )

AllieOop wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2017 2:52 pm
(I also thought you were going to Italy when I read the title of the thread and thought "Lucky...." and I immediately felt kind of jealous....ok... a lot jealous )

If you haven't realized, I like to employ click-bait

Korihor wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2017 3:27 pm If you haven't realized, I like to employ click-bait

Yeah...and I fall for it everytime

Korihor wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2017 9:00 am My cousin received her mission call and had a Facebook Live opening party last night.

The whole "opening mission call party" that has sprung up with the age change is pretty weird / interesting to old folks like me who were "away at college" when we got our calls...

You should go pick her up when done. Built in travel guide and translator.

Hello Korihor

Milan is the area office in Europe where they handle the financials.
HQ is Frankfurt.

Korihor wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2017 9:00 am My cousin received her mission call and had a Facebook Live opening party last night. I didn't watch, I just saw her post this morning "Guys I'm going to Italy."

Would your cousin have been equally excited if the mission call was for Idaho or Wyoming? If you could look in the heart of hearts inside each Idaho missionary I'm sure that may instances will show a profound disappointment that it was a lame, English speaking mission. They could just drive home in an afternoon, have dinner with the family, and drive back to their area if they wanted to. The church has to make every mission call into a big deal and continually emphasize that each is directly from God.

I have mixed feeling about this. On the one hand she will have a tough time. Europe is difficult to get people to talk about religion, and yet the pressure to perform is intense. I went to Norway. I had pretty much 18 months of agonizing on my kneed pleading for success, and feeling like dirt when it never came. Then the mission president would dump more dirt when it never came. Only after I said "screw you all" did I begin to enjoy the experience. On the other hand she may never visit an exotic place like that again and see things that may widen her horizons. If at all possible, help her understand that up tight missionaries do no one any good.

As far as places to spend 2 years you could do a helluva lot worse than Italy. I served there, it's a fantastic place. She will not baptize much though but welcome to the club of a lot of missionaries.

It seems a mission is starting to evolve from - "I'm going to serve Jesus" to "I'm going to this exotic place"

Seems to me it's always been both? Going someplace "cool" to serve Jesus has always been the hope in the mission computer lottery. Alot of my friends were pretty jealous I got Italy when they got calls to places like Toronto Canada and Orem Utah. Although the Utah missionaries had the last laugh serving in a cupcake mission where everyone fed them and loved them.

LaMachina wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2017 2:15 pm She will not baptize much

This seems redundant in the Mormon context.

Enoch Witty wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2017 2:17 pm

LaMachina wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2017 2:15 pm She will not baptize much

This seems redundant in the Mormon context.

Lol, nice catch!

LaMachina wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2017 2:19 pm

Enoch Witty wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2017 2:17 pm

LaMachina wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2017 2:15 pm She will not baptize much

This seems redundant in the Mormon context.

Lol, nice catch!

Touche!

Corsair wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2017 12:32 pm

Korihor wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2017 9:00 am My cousin received her mission call and had a Facebook Live opening party last night. I didn't watch, I just saw her post this morning "Guys I'm going to Italy."

Would your cousin have been equally excited if the mission call was for Idaho or Wyoming? If you could look in the heart of hearts inside each Idaho missionary I'm sure that may instances will show a profound disappointment that it was a lame, English speaking mission. They could just drive home in an afternoon, have dinner with the family, and drive back to their area if they wanted to. The church has to make every mission call into a big deal and continually emphasize that each is directly from God.

I hear it was pretty rough being a missionary in San Diego in the 90's.

As bad as it is going to ID or WY, it could be worse. Growing up in SLC, the missionaries there would all admit they felt deflated being called to SLC. Kids from ID and AZ would be called to SLc or Provo and be sad. Most of them spent their summers in Utah visiting family only to go there for 2 years as a missionary.

I was greateful being raised in SLC so I couldn't be called to a Utah mission.

I think my Cuz would have been slightly less thrilled for an 18 month tour of a western state instead of Italy.

An old roommate was waiting for his mission call. I taunted him for the entire time we lived together: "You're getting called to Provo, Utah, buddy!" Then the call came: Provo. Freaking. Utah.

In retrospect, maybe this was a prompting of the Holy Ghost.

Enoch Witty wrote: ↑Wed Feb 15, 2017 7:36 am An old roommate was waiting for his mission call. I taunted him for the entire time we lived together: "You're getting called to Provo, Utah, buddy!" Then the call came: Provo. Freaking. Utah.

In retrospect, maybe this was a prompting of the Holy Ghost.

This puts your revelatory accuracy at least on par with Joseph Smith and far ahead of Thomas Monson.