9 October 2007. Kimberly called home to tell us it had arrived and we knew we would have to wait until everyone was off work. We planned to open it with the modern technology of webcams, home phone and cell phones. Once we were finally all connected, including: Taylor, Mom, Dad, Candice, Nikki, Mike, Zub, Blaine and Jo, Taylor finally started opening his call - ever so slowly, holding little pieces of paper up to the webcam so all watching would feel the anticipation. Mom types: "Open, Open, Open!" And Taylor pauses to crack a joke. "Just open it," everyone cries. "It is open," Taylor says. "Well then read it already!" The family types: "read, read".
Taylor begins reading: "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 Tonga Nuku'lofa Mission......
You should report to the MTC on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the gospel in the Spanish language. Just kidding! ... in the Tongan language.
The family offered a few comments of congratulations as Mom began researching the mission and gathering information on the needed supplies. After a few minutes the excitement began to settle and the end of the conversation drew near. "I guess we better go" said Mom. "Not yet, can't you talk a little longer?" asked Taylor. It seemed obvious to Mom that Taylor still wanted to talk so the family stayed on the line a little longer. However, he didn't say much more and it had been a long day. It was now after nine and Mom in a rush to get everything done for the phone call hadn't eaten all day. "I'm hungry, I've got to go. Tell me how to spell it one more time." Taylor says "You want me to spell it out, " and types: Guatemala Guatemala City North Mission!! (Reporting to the Guatemala MTC, speaking Spanish).
Mom, who isn't sure how to respond, finally gathers herself to repeatedly exclaim, "You Jerk! Are you serious. You aren't going to Tonga. You Jerk!" Mom later told the family that when she first heard the call to Tonga she wanted to be excited for Taylor, but all she could think of was the movie "The Other Side of Heaven" and that Taylor would get the soles of his feet eaten by rats. In short, Taylor was fully satisfied with the response he received from his cruel little plan.
It turns out that a few months earlier Taylor heard of a missionary who came home at lunch to find his mission call sitting in the mailbox. The missionary opened the call, copied it, changed the l
ocation, resealed the call, and set it back in the mailbox for his family to find. That evening as family was gathered, the missionary announced the phony call. His mother burst into tears, "My son is going to Iraq."Taylor knew the moment he heard this story that he must follow in this missionary's footsteps. And so began the search for the perfect mission call, you know the one that would get the best reaction when announced to family and friends. The days passed quickly, and before we knew it the call was sitting in Kim's mailbox and Taylor still hadn't settled on the right mission call to announce. As the family gathered on webcams and cell phones to witness the ceremonial opening, Taylor was reviewing an online list of church missions. Then an idea po
pped into Kim's head. She ran the location by Taylor, and he agreed it would do the trick. He quickly scrawled the mission's official name on his hand then joined his anxious family. Holding the call just right, so he could easily read the words written on his palm, he carried out his well-thought out plan.*Note: If you enlarge the picture of Taylor's hand, you can see the words tonga nuku'lofa written on his palm.
