Elder Call Arrives in Pocatello; assigned to Pocatello West Stake

The sun wasn't even up when Elder Call and ten other missionaries awoke at 4 a.m. to leave the MTC on Tuesday, March 10, for their journey to Pocatello. We weren't sure what mode of transportation they would take to get there--after all, Pocatello is just a hop, skip, and a jump north from the MTC. But it turns out he and the ten other missionaries were blessed with a fun ride in a 26-seater prop plane to their own personal fields that are white and all ready to harvest. Here's his email from 11 March 2009:

Hi Dad,

That is great that Brother Stewart is in the Stake Presidency, I had a thought that it might be him. That is exciting to have a new stake presidency!

Today is the our first real day in our areas, but it is preparation day so it doesn't really count.

Yesterday was exciting. Our plane had room for about 26 passengers. There were 3 passengers and 11 missionaries going to Pocatello, it was tiny (propellers). Our flight was only about 40 minutes and we landed in Pocatello a little after 9:00 AM.

We went to the mission office for a littler tour and then to the mission home. We spent most of the day in the mission home for orientation. It was good but we were all really tired. We had to get up at 4:00 AM and leave the MTC at 5:00.

We had an interesting flight, the plane was vibrating the entire time, and sometimes it felt like it was fishtailing.

The mission had a transfer this morning and we were all assigned our companions. Mine is Elder Burton. He is pretty nice and fun. He has been out for 13 months and spent 5 months in Ririe. Elder Burton said there are a ton of Wheelers in Ririe. [Elder Call's paternal grandmother is a Wheeler.]

He is from the same stake as Grandma and Grandpa Call in Texas. His dad was the high councilor over the Bedford Ward for a while.

President and Sister Somers are really friendly. They told me that they know Brown Monument [Elder Call's maternal grandfather's business in Logan, Utah], and have had several family member's headstones made there, including President Somers' dad's headstone. They also say that Aunt Carole Brown was their gym teacher and they loved her.

I am assigned to be in the Pocatello West Stake. I can't remember which Stake the Evans are from, could you ask them and what ward? Elder Burton says we cover 3 wards and that is small. He had 18 wards once and that was a nightmare. It is really weird to think that they had to correlate with 18 ward mission leaders!

I am kind of nervous about it all, but I am sure that within the next couple of weeks I will get over that. Elder Burton says that the mission goes by really quickly.

What is going on at home? How are the youth doing? I'm sure that Ryan, Dan, Jared and Aubrey are excited to be finally graduating. [Tell all the young men they] need to come out on a mission soon, it will be great, and they will have a ton of fun at the MTC! Tell them that they shouldn't delay going on a mission, that they will regret it and that the longer they wait the harder it will be.

All of the people here in the mission are great. Elder Burton and I are pretty much complete opposite. He is very outgoing. He is cool and will be a good trainer.

Love,

Elder Call