It's hard to describe the feeling of getting an email while sitting in the library that says "The status of your Application on the Missionary Department website was just upgraded from "Ready for Assignment" to "Call Letter Sent". Maybe you have but if you haven't let me describe it to you. Your stomach drops and you break out into a sweat. The biggest grin comes upon your face and you are just the happiest you've been in a while. The next week that follows is possibly the longest yet somewhere in you, you anticipate what's coming next. The way I deal with certain "big" moments in life is by forgetting that they happened or are happening that way I can focus so for me the next week, I forgot that my mission call was on it's way. And so every time someone mentioned "my call", I got way nervous. Fast forward a week and it's Wednesday. Now I'm antsy. I finally get that break in my schedule where I can get to the mailbox. I get there, put my mail key in, take a deep breath, and pull out a crisp white envelop with the words Sister Natalie Stevenson written on it. I would describe what I felt at that moment but I couldn't tell you. I walked it up to my room, put it on my bed and that was it. I had no desire to open it nor was I nervous. The reaction I thought I would have, no. I had decided that sleepless night that I was going to open it with those I love around me. I proceeded to call my mom who told me to open it, that it would be our little secret, we could get grandma on the phone and no one else would have to know. Oh mother, that is not how a once in a lifetime moment is suppose to happen.
I'll explain what I was thinking at this moment. My thoughts came out in a phone call with my father. During this process, you can't help but think of where you could possibly go. Some of these places that came to my mind were Baton Rouge, somewhere in South America, Nevada (which I was convinced I was going), Mesa Arizona and Hong Kong. When the Hong Kong came to mind I thought, you know what I could totally see that. And that never left me. During this conversation with my father, he said "okay, natalie, the call has been made, it's sitting there, where would you really want to go?" I thought and wondered if I should really say where I wanted to go. Since it was sitting on my bed, I thought it was okay to admit. I said, "Dad, I would love love to go somewhere Asian. I know it would be extremely difficult but I would love it. I have never been to that part of Asia and it's the next stop on my list. So if I got called there I would be in heaven." That was that. Deep down I wanted to go Asian. In this conversation I told Dad that this whole time I have been praying and getting into my mind that you go where you are needed. That this is a call from God and he knows and sends you where you are needed, where only you can reach certain people and where you are meant to be. I'll admit the main reason for this mentality was in case I got called somewhere stateside and I was a little disappointed. I would know that that's where I was suppose to be.
It's quarter to 10 and it's almost that time. Part of me didn't want 10 to come at all because once you open that thing, that's it. You know where you are going and from that point on its game on. Once I got Riley on Skype I came out of my bedroom to find my living room of my apartment packed. And I mean packed. It was an amazing thing to see all the people that were there for me. People from home, girls from freshman year with their husbands, my Jeru family and wardies. I felt the love in that room and I am so grateful for all the support that surrounded me in that moment. Thank you to all who were there. We'll I had Riley on one computer, Mom and the fambam on the other and Dad on the phone next to me, with Quin an arm reach away on the couch. I took a deep breath. Was I nervous, honestly, no not really. I didn't know what was wrong with me, I thought I would be crying at this point but I didn't even feel close. I tear the envelope open and like everyone else, maneuver the packet on top of the letter so I could pull it down and not see everything at once. And I start to read. "Dear Sister Stevenson: You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Japan Tokyo Mission." And then I start to jump. And jump until Brooke grabs me and hugs me as I go into...shock? I don't know what you would call it. Insanity joy? I have no idea what I was feeling in that moment. Possibly just pumped. Tokyo Japan. Holy Freakin Moley! (here's the movie for your viewing pleasures)
As I continued to say Tokyo Japan over and over I received congratulations and tears from others in the room. But my eyes were dry, I guess it was pumped that I was feeling, no time for tears when you're pumped. And then the question came from someone, "what went through your mind when you saw Japan Tokyo?" As I thought about it, it was kinda a "YEAY! Totally! Oh my freakin no way!" or a combination of those. What that means is it didn't shock me. I guess you could say that when I read Tokyo Japan I knew it. This is probably the hardest part of the story to describe but I wasn't as shocked as I thought I'd be. It was kinda a cool phenomenon. Luckily for me, and like most people in mission crowds there's at least one person who was in your mission and for me it was Bushman. Could I ask for a better person to have been in the same country as I am going to. No. So for the next while, he told me all about Japan, espcially the language. That's when it hit me. Oh wait, I'm gonna have to learn Japanese. Hold the phone. Oh crap. That's gonna be hard. As he started saying words, I was a little uh oh. But then the real natalie kicked in, the stevenson in me if you will and I said, yes this language is going to dominate me but bring it on cause if there's one thing I know it's that at the end of eighteen months I will be able to speak Japanese. I went to bed that night on cloud 9, not knowing what really happened to me but I slept that night. And the countdown began.
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