The Stars At Night....Are Shinning Bright

I AM GOING TO HOUSTON TEXAS!!!!! Oh my gosh I am so so so so excited. I know that my cute mom and sister have probably done a wonderful job of spreading the word so I am sure that you have probably heard, but you do not know the whole story, so I will tell you!

WARNING: This post could get a little long. I will try to be concise. We all know this is not my strong point in writing.

OK so LAST WEEKEND I went up to my Grandma Marilyn's house in Cottonwood Heights because it was Buttlervile Days AND the 24th of July Celebration. I went to Sandy on Thursday for our Family Sports Night to play soccer and then spent the night so I could walk in the parade with Abbey and Sara, my gorgeous cousins, the next day. After the parade we were hanging out in the park and doing all kinds of super fun things. While we were waiting for the fireworks I decided to call mi familia (note the Spanish, thank you!). My wonderful father informed me that MY MISSION CALL HAD BEEN ISSUED AND WAS IN THE MAIL! FINALLY this would be the week. The only slight problem was that I had an efy session. We thought of waiting until saturday and having a little family get together, but lets just say that I have very little patience and there was no way that I was going to do that. On wednesday at efy we have free time from about 3:30 to 5:30. As a counselor I have a meeting at the start of free time until about 4:00. We decided to meet at my dorm in Helaman Halls at 4:30 on Wednesday to open it.

Wednesday came. I WAS SO NERVOUS BUT UNBELIEVABLY EXCITED. I told all the girls in my group and all the kids in my company that I was going to open my call in chipman Lobby at 4:30. Classes were dreadful. I usually love going to classes and learning with my youth but the day just dragged on. At lunch I texted my roommates to see if they could check the mail. They were out and about. I could not stand it any longer. I got permission from my BC to leave campus during the second block of classes. I went to the store and back to my apartment to check the mail. I got there around 2:00 PM. I slowly walked the stairs to my apartment. I found our mail key and walked to the mailbox. My little heart was pounding out of my chest. I turned the key and there, sitting proud and bold in our box, was...NOTHING. That is right. It did not come. MAILBOXSAYWHAT? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? SERIOUSLY? Seriously. My daddy told me that my call was coming today and HE NEVER LIES. BAH. I called my mom broken hearted and practically in tears. She tried to calm me down. I was not so much upset that my call was not there. I knew that it was issued and would come on it's own time. I was just upset because my entire family was counting on it coming and would soon be on their way to Provo. I called my aunt Tara and told her to spread the word that my call did NOT come. I called my grandma, who was working at the conference center and planning on leaving early to be there when i opened it, and left her a message saying to go back to work.

I left my apartment and headed back to campus for my meeting. On my way there I was practicing my speech to give to my kiddos...."It's ok girls! It will come next week! HAHAHA! You guys are more upset then I am and it is MY call. No use being sad over something we have no control over..." BLAH BLAH BLAH! LIES. I WAS SO UPSET. Suddenly I get the following prompting
"What if the address on your call is wrong..."
ME: It's not. I am not stupid, Spirit. I did not write the wrong address on my mission papers! HEL-LO!
"It might be. You moved right before you filled out your papers AND you were in Washington when you filled them out so it is very possible that you were not sure of your address or that you wrote the wrong address..."
ME: Good Point (which is the only kind of point the spirit makes). I Do remember thinking that i need to text Jaimie and triple verify our new address....

I got back to my dorm and quickly got online to check my mission papers. They read as follows....
Send To: Sister Katelyn Michael Christensen
600 North 420 East
Provo, UT 84606
PERFECT! That is my address!....Wait....Almost. Something missing? Anyone, Anyone??? LIKE AN APARTMENT NUMBER! Yeah. There was no apartment number on there. This upset me so much more. I just had visions in my head of my Call being lost somewhere between here and SLC. It would takes WEEKS FOR THEM TO FIGURE OUT WHAT WAS WRONG AND FIND ME!

New Impression - "Call the Post Office Katelyn..."
Me: "That won't help."
Spirit: "OH JUST DO IT! CALL THE POST OFFICE NOW!!!!!!"
Me: "That does make sense. It is somewhere around here and I might be able to have them flag it..."

I called. This Indian man with a very thick accent told me that my "letter" was probably already "returned to sender" and that i needed to call the preson sending it and let them know my correct apartment number. WHAT?!?!? Is there SERIOUSLY nothing you can do? This is not just anything...this is MY MISSION CALL!!! Let me just call up president Monson and tell him. I will be sure to do that. I'll make a note of it. He is on my speed dial. This man obviously did not understand. I hung up and got a prompting to call again. This time I did not hesitate and THIS time an older woman who DID know what she was talking about answered. She transfered me to my exact carrier. I told that man my problem. He started going over all of our options, none of which involved opening my mission call that day. suddenly he said...
"Can you just hold on for one second Miss....?"
"Christensen. My name is Christensen."
"Wait....Did you say Chritensen?"
"Yes. Yes I did. Katelyn Christensen. C-H-R-I-S-T-E-N-S-E-N..."
"I will be right back. I need to check something."
I waited. He came back
"SISTER CHRISTENSEN! We were wondering if you would call us. We are so glad you did. We have your mission call right here in our hands. I can have someone bring it over to you right now...."
OH MY GOODNESS! My call IS HERE!!!!! Thank Goodness for the gift of the Holy Ghost and little Tender mercies of our Heavenly Father.

I was late for my meeting by this time so I called Big Brother and asked him to stop at my place and get the call. Riley said he would bring it. My Counselor meeting ends. Everyone gathers around. There were so many people! My entire company of thirty youth and my amazing co-counselors, my grandma, Riley and Darin, Stefanya, Holly and her boys, Tara and the little ones, and Kelle and her girls. SO FUN. My dad was actually crabbing so I had to have my parents on two separate phones. I teared open the letter and read the following words....

Sister Christensen,
You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints. You are assigned to labor in the TEXAS HOUSTON MISSION.

Cheers. Hugs. Laughter. Tears. PURE JOY AND AWESOMENESS.

Riley then asked "What language?" LANGUAGE? Holy Cow. I had assumed and accepted the fact that because I was going to be serving in the United States, I would more than likely be speaking English. I scanned the paper for the words. I than read "You will prepare to preach the gospel in the SPANISH LANGUAGE!!!!" (exclamation points added for excitement emphasis)

WoW. Just, Wow. I never actually told anyone this and I did not write this on my papers because I did not want to sound picky or influence where the Lord would have me serve (not that it would)...but I had three things I REALLY REALLY wanted in a mission call....

1. To learn a language. DONE. I took some Spanish in High School and I was actually pretty good at it when I spoke it everyday. I have lost a lot of it because in college I have studied ASL, but I am so excited to learn. I am planning on getting my Masters in Speech Pathology and learning Spanish is really going to give me a small edge.

2. To NOT go someplace cold. The average LOW January Temperature is 48 degrees F. 90% Humidity Baby! Heavenly Father knows me so well. He did one better and is sending me someplace warm...well, HOT!I THis is actually what I wanted, but in my journal i wrote "someplace not cold" because it sounded less demanding. I AM SO EXCITED!!!

3. Someplace Awesome. I did not want to go anywhere dull. I wanted culture and excitment, and BOY DID I GET IT! Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, the largest city within the state of Texas, and "the energy capital of the world."
As of the 2008 U.S. Census estimate, the city has a population of 2.2 million.
The Theater District is located downtown and is home to nine major performing arts organizations and six performance halls. It is the second-largest concentration of theater seats in a downtown area in the United States, second only to New York. Houston's skyline has been ranked fourth most impressive in the United States; it is the third-tallest skyline in the United States and one of the top 10 in the world.
The population of Houston is the youngest and one of the most diverse in the world.

Ladies and Gents...CHECK, CHECK, AND CHECK!!!

And for those of you that are wondering, The Texas Medical Center in Houston is the largest medical center in the world with one of the highest densities of clinical facilities for patient care, basic science, and translational research. The center contains 47 medicine-related institutions, including 13 hospitals and two specialty institutions, two medical schools, four nursing schools, and schools of dentistry, public health, pharmacy, cardiology, and other health-related practices. PLUS the assistant to my heart doctor here is Utah just moved to Houston to become a Cardiologist herself. I will be more than well taken care of.

I never really considered Houston Texas, but Heavenly Father did, and I would say that it is pretty much PERFECT. I am so excited to get started learning Spanish and to teach the people that the Lord loves, sing it with me now, DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS!

COUNTDOWN TO HOUSTON: 87 Days 3 Hours and 22 minutes