P-Day Phone Calls

I know that I am a spoiled missionary mom. These are no longer the days of waiting for snail mail to arrive every couple of weeks, or only getting to have a 1 hour phone call twice a year on Christmas and Mother's Day. My missionary gets to video call home almost every week, and sometimes I can convince him to send an email and photos, so that I can send his happenings on to family and friends.

I am so grateful to be able to see his face and hear his voice, to know that he is happy and thriving. Not only has Caleb been eagerly and cheerfully serving his companions, other fellow missionaries, and friends in wards and communities across Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, but he has been serving our family with his example of Christ-like love and sacrifice. 

Somewhere in between all the tracting, calling, teaching and training, he continues to squeeze in time to enrich himself by learning. Since he has been a zone leader over the Portuguese, Spanish and Mandarin speaking elders and has had to go on splits with those companionships, he has been busily teaching himself to speak, pray and testify in all three languages. He is by no means fluent, but he can introduce himself, do an approach and testify of Christ. He has also inherited a guitar from one of his apartments, and has continued the process he started at BYU teaching himself to play. It makes my heart so happy to see him growing.

Sometimes, his calls don't come until nearly the end of his day. Often just as we are about to start our own Family Home Evening. He is staying busy. And that's how we want him to be. He tries not to think about coming home and returning to everyday life. He loves being a missionary. I love him all the more for it. 

I recently reached out to his mission office to see if there is a return date in place. It will be Saturday, June 17th. I'll be honest. It is later than I had expected. I had assumed it would be closer to the date he was set apart as a missionary, June 2nd. He will miss Brendan's high school graduation, but I know that he will doing the Lord's work up until the moment he is released. We wouldn't want it any other way.