those of you called stateside, was it a letdown? were you hoping for foreign?

I was actually very much expecting a stateside call (due to health concerns) but I was surprised with a call to Thailand. I assumed that the Lord knew what he was doing (foolish me).

I wanted Scotland SOOOO bad!

Everyone assumed my TBM Hispanicky-looking TBM daughter would get Mexico, like I did, but she opened hers letter and saw Japan-Osaka. How life-changing might that have been!

But she decided becoming a wife in Zion was a better deal and got engaged, and then married. Sorry, ghawd...

Something about you and skirts. . .

Along with those temple secrets.

"Excuse me, sir, this is a little embarrassing...but I've wondered all these years: is anything worn under your kilt?"

"Nay, lassie, it's as good as it ever was!"

just your girlfriend's lipstick ~

Osaka is not really the greatest city in Japan. (Partly thanks to our US Army Air Corp in WWII). I would not want to be doomed to tract out Japanese interested in Mormonism there. There are some really interesting cities nearby though. Takoyaki is one redeeming item.

At that time, I had no idea about any of the cities in Japan . . .

I was just stoked about her learning Japanese. I figured it couldn't hurt!

I can only imagine my dread had I been forced to go and awaiting the call. Was it a letter or a phone call?

Those mission calls are signed personally by President AutoPen. He likely even carries them to the mail room.

I didn't want a foreign language mission. I didn't want that struggle on top of everything else. In fact, I sort of intentionally flunked the language aptitude test they had us take back in those days. So I was relieved I was being sent to central Canada. Well, except for the winter thing.

I got the call in 1975, before all the hoopla of opening them. My mom cried when she saw a paper about required vaccinations for Argentina. Here I’d been daydreaming about a mission to French Polynesia. In retrospect, I’m glad I went to Argentina Buenos Aires South. I spent 21 months in country and got to come home three weeks early to attend the block at the Y. Following that, I did an 8-week study abroad program in Mexico. I regret not doing a program in Spain the following year but my hormones were raging and I was married six months after my return from Argentina. And that’s what two years of mission celibacy did for me.

I distinctly remember several years ago, someone in this group shared a video of a guy opening his mission call, which was to Winnipeg. It was so obvious he didn't want to go on a mission. His dad was talking to him with a pronounced Utah accent. He said, "Winnipeg is where the Lord wants ya..." His kid looked like he wanted to cry.

Mom looked like she couldn't wait to turn the guy's room into a sewing nook.

People kept leaving them negative comments about how obvious it was that the poor dude didn't even want to be on a mission. Dad finally made the video unlisted, then private, and then took it down altogether.

Winnipeg would be a buzz kill if you were expecting/hoping for somewhere exotic. Winterpeg has 2 seasons..winter and mosquitoes!

I will never forget how disappointed the guy was. And his dad was a really devout type. I felt sorry for the mishie to be.

I didn’t serve a mission until after college, and I frankly wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to go. I was completely afraid that I’d be called stateside. I had already worked out contingency plans for a US call: I would go to a New England, Mid-Atlantic, or California mission; otherwise, I would just find a job.

When I opened my call and saw France, I just laughed. My family were baffled. They started guessing lots of other places, that I would have been thrilled to go to: Germany, Russia, Japan. I had to explain that I was laughing because I didn’t want to go to France, but it was better than the alternatives.

(They always were horrible guessers.)

Tyson

Like everybody I was hoping for France which was the sophisticated man's Shangri La in my mind.

A nephew not long ago who lived in Florida got the Salt Lake City mission. I can't even imagine the disappointment. My older brother got Canada which he described as Brand X America.

I got Argentina. I opened it, looked at it, and didn't even think about it. A few weeks later I looked up in the Atlas just to see about where my destiny lay . As most of us were back in the sixties I was very geographically challenged and assumed I would be saving a lot of half clothed natives and would be fighting off pirhanas, boa constrictors and giant hairy spiders. Buenos Aires, aka the Paris of the Americas, was a very pleasant shock upon arrival. I loved Argentina. The country was a gift to me.

My husband’s daughter went to South Salt Lake. She was disappointed, but it turned out to be a good experience. It helped her get down off her high horse.

Met an elder from Miami AZ who was sent to Miami FL.

At the MTC, he made a sign and attached it to his dormitory door.

They made him take it down. Was told that it was disrespectful.


Somebody in the missionary dept had a sense of humor :D

willard richards Wrote:
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> those of you called stateside, was it a letdown?
> were you hoping for foreign?


It's not YOUR mission
It's their'$

Missing anything?

I bought a book to learn German (inspired?) And started to.

When the letter came, my parents were out of town and I picked up the mail...opened it and said, "Fort Worth, Texas."

I went, "OK." I wasn't thrilled, but OK.

Went to MTC for 2.5 weeks, but first day "in the field" the mission president told me I'd be learning Spanish.

Actually, he first asked me if I knew Spanish (no). I have a Spanish surname. Had I taken any Spanish classes before? (no), Well [end of the rope], "Would you like to learn Spanish?" Of course.

Good, you're going to learn Spanish--here's a bible and BOM in Spanish, plus the book they give you at the MTC. Good luck.

Yes, a let down. But sorta changed the pieces on the board and made things interesting. And yes, I learned Spanish on my own and use it everyday 30 years later. F them.

I'd like your take on my best source of 'street' Spanish on my mission: 'Los Supermachos' by Rius. This comic book began publication in the summer of '65. I arrived in DF in October of '65 and somehow became enchanted with them and began collecting them.

They confirmed what I was hearing in the streets.

"pos este...que te iba a decir..." became my two favorite "gimme some time to think about its", taking the place of the English language stallers, "um" and "uh"

"Me tope con el pader", where 'pader' substitutes for pared...

I think I had edition 1 to 118 when I left. I'd shipped them home, along with other souvenirs. I hear they'd be worth a couple of hundred dollars now, if my mom hadn't begun lending them out.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Los+Supermachos+rius&rlz=1C1CHZN_enUS941US941&oq=Los+Supermachos+rius&aqs=chrome..69i57j0j0i22i30l8.6869j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Lo único que no enseñaba es como coquetriar, y nunca aprendi, por eso de las faltas de oportunidad.

Indian love call is better than a mission call. Just listen to Slim Whitman: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0FhQxZnSqc0