Benjamin and Enoch's Calls

Friends since birth, Ben and Enoch decided to start their mission paperwork after the trip they took with Daniel to the Grand Canyon.  Then after the trip they took to Big Bend.  It got delayed it seems, not for education or work, but just for time spent together.  Like the end of an era, these kids didn't want to turn the page, at least not without each other.  There is always a big group of friends that they do things with, the more the merrier.  With more and more serving missions, there are fewer and fewer staying home and the pressure is on to "get out there".  Actually adulthood and responsibility are calling.  As adults, we know these can be fun times as well, but why give up something that is so stinking great?  These words were not actually said, mind you, but I saw their relationships, they came to rely on each other, they became each other's strengths. SO!  Onward and upward, the time came and more excitement began to build as some began to come home and share their amazing experience serving the Lord in a faraway place. The age change took place when Benjamin was almost 18.  He said he still wanted to go when he was 19.  Now having waited until age 20, he realized he definitely was not "ready" at 18.  Daniel filed his papers before turning 18, so as a result, they will be serving only 3 months apart.
On this day (for the video below) we were all excited to open Enoch's call. While at home getting ready to go, I checked the mailbox one more time.  I was overcome with joy as I ran into the house and presented Ben with what he had been checking for daily for the last 3 weeks.  In fact we had a running joke about who would discover it in the mailbox first.  I won.  Benjamin was elated and didn't tell anyone until after Enoch opened his call to Idaho.  He snuck it in his shirt and revealed that he had it with the crowd half paying attention.  His dad and I didn't have much time to prepare having known only a couple hours beforehand.  Rachel and Daniel found out with everyone else.  They all thought Ben was kidding just to get in on the fun.  We all settled down very quickly when he simply started opening it!  If you watch the video, you can hear 3 different people chanting "Russia, Russia"...I checked later why they said that and there are several reasons.  The first being it is the farthest place they could imagine, second, Benjamin does many accents and Russian is one of his better ones.  The third reason is that his bro and friends believed he would go there after recording him saying something in Russian while talking in his sleep.  Weird thing was they looked up the words which were actually Russian.  So when he read Russia Samara Mission, some still thought he was joking.

So after eagerly studying Cyrillic all summer long there came a change and a reassignment from Samara, Russia to Frankfurt Germany.  Putin decided he didn't like all these other choices his population had at their disposal.  He actually made it illegal and placed a fine on any individual or establishment that proselyted or even taught anyone about religion outside their own church building.  This included homes and how they monitor that is scary to think about.  Russian Orthodoxy would reign supreme for now.  So the church decided to reduce its numbers and only send the mTc elders who were mostly done with their training. They would be called volunteers, not missionaries or Elders.  In the end, Benjamin may be called upon to testify against Putin for his decision to take away this opportunity for those who were waiting to hear the gospel, the opportunity that Benjamin would have provided in a way that only he could do.  BUT, alas, change happens and we adapt as we may.  That was a hard day for me as well.  Later when his response to a question came as "Nein" instead of "Nyet", I realized he had made the transition in his head.  His attitude is admirable, he is not a whiner.  We were told in a letter from the church that our son's name had been taken to the temple by one of the twelve apostles and he prayed for the specific place that Benjamin should go.  When I read that, it gave me peace because I knew that he is needed in Germany as well.  Now as he is teaching a Russian woman, it may be that things work out just the way they should.  In fact he has stories of how years ago the Lord had to put many of these events in place in order to make them happen in an effective way.  This whole process boggles the mind, but it reaffirms my testimony that this is His work and the Kingdom of God on the earth.