Our Call
In early November 2019, we received an email from the office of Elder Ulisses Soares, an apostle in our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, asking us to set up an interview. We scheduled a Zoom interview with Elder Soares for Wednesday, November 6, 4pm ET. On the day of the call, we set up Steve's computer in the family room of our home in Johns Creek, GA. A few hours prior to the call, a technical team out of Salt Lake spent some time with us making sure that everything was all set for the call, the lighting, the background, the sound. A few minutes before the appointed time, we dialed into the call and waited while the technical team again made sure that everything was all set before Elder Soares joined us. We spoke with Elder Soares for about 15 minutes and he was warm and friendly and kind and made us feel at ease right away. We answered questions about our health, our financial situation, the well being of our children, the well being of our parents, and if we were in a position to accept a long-term assignment for our church. At the end of the interview, we hung up thinking that this was the beginning of a multi-year series of interviews and we didn't expect to hear anything else for quite some time.
Much to our surprise, we received an email shortly after this first interview, this time from the office of President Dallin Oaks, also an apostle and a member of the First Presidency of our church, asking us to set up a time for a second interview. We indicated that we would be in Utah for the week of Christmas and suggested that we meet then. We were told that this would be "too late" so we scheduled the interview with President Oaks for Tuesday, November 26, 11am ET. We were left wondering what "too late" meant.
The week of the interview we were in New York City visiting with our son and daughter-in-law, who had just given birth to our third grandson, Bennett Cash Colton. We set up the call on Steve's computer in our hotel room, again with help from a technical team in Salt Lake making sure that the set up was sufficient. We had been counseled by family members that the First Presidency didn't "interview" and that instead they extended callings, but we still anticipated that this would be another general interview for a possible church assignment well into the future.
We could not have been more surprised when President Oaks, within two minutes of the start of our conversation, asked us if we would be willing to accept a three year assignment serving as mission leaders starting in July 2020. I wanted to hit pause on the computer screen and look at Steve and say, "What just happened?"
Instead we kept our composure and we both found ourselves accepting an assignment that had completely taken us by surprise. We talked with President Oaks, who was also warm and engaging, for about 45 minutes, reviewing details about what to expect in the coming weeks and months. We learned that we would be serving in an English-speaking mission and that we would receive information about our mission location sometime in late December to mid January.
I was out running errands the afternoon of Monday, December 16, and at this point I had been repeatedly hitting refresh on my emails for weeks. I hit refresh for about the 1000th time and saw that an email had come through from the missionary department, with an attachment containing our official mission call and assignment. Steve was just as excited as I was to open our call letter and we agreed to meet right away in my car in the parking lot where I was parked. As Steve drove to where I was, I called our children, who lived in Seattle, NYC, Houston and Beijing, so that we could read the letter with them.
The most emotional moment for me was reading my name Jeri Cash Colton at the very top of the letter, followed by these lines "You are hereby called to serve as missionaries and mission leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are to represent the Lord as ministers of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. ... Your united purpose will be to invite others to come unto Christ ..." This was an assignment that I could wholeheartedly accept and my emotions were hard to keep in check. It was, of course, a thrill to read this line "You are assigned to labor in the Philippines Olongapo Mission," especially for Steve, who was returning to the country where he had served as a young missionary. The letter was signed by Presidents Nelson, Oaks and Eyring, who I believe are apostles on the earth today just like Peter, James and John in the New Testament, and I was deeply impacted by the sacredness of this invitation to serve.
Much to our surprise, we received an email shortly after this first interview, this time from the office of President Dallin Oaks, also an apostle and a member of the First Presidency of our church, asking us to set up a time for a second interview. We indicated that we would be in Utah for the week of Christmas and suggested that we meet then. We were told that this would be "too late" so we scheduled the interview with President Oaks for Tuesday, November 26, 11am ET. We were left wondering what "too late" meant.
The week of the interview we were in New York City visiting with our son and daughter-in-law, who had just given birth to our third grandson, Bennett Cash Colton. We set up the call on Steve's computer in our hotel room, again with help from a technical team in Salt Lake making sure that the set up was sufficient. We had been counseled by family members that the First Presidency didn't "interview" and that instead they extended callings, but we still anticipated that this would be another general interview for a possible church assignment well into the future.
We could not have been more surprised when President Oaks, within two minutes of the start of our conversation, asked us if we would be willing to accept a three year assignment serving as mission leaders starting in July 2020. I wanted to hit pause on the computer screen and look at Steve and say, "What just happened?"
Instead we kept our composure and we both found ourselves accepting an assignment that had completely taken us by surprise. We talked with President Oaks, who was also warm and engaging, for about 45 minutes, reviewing details about what to expect in the coming weeks and months. We learned that we would be serving in an English-speaking mission and that we would receive information about our mission location sometime in late December to mid January.
I was out running errands the afternoon of Monday, December 16, and at this point I had been repeatedly hitting refresh on my emails for weeks. I hit refresh for about the 1000th time and saw that an email had come through from the missionary department, with an attachment containing our official mission call and assignment. Steve was just as excited as I was to open our call letter and we agreed to meet right away in my car in the parking lot where I was parked. As Steve drove to where I was, I called our children, who lived in Seattle, NYC, Houston and Beijing, so that we could read the letter with them.
The most emotional moment for me was reading my name Jeri Cash Colton at the very top of the letter, followed by these lines "You are hereby called to serve as missionaries and mission leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are to represent the Lord as ministers of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. ... Your united purpose will be to invite others to come unto Christ ..." This was an assignment that I could wholeheartedly accept and my emotions were hard to keep in check. It was, of course, a thrill to read this line "You are assigned to labor in the Philippines Olongapo Mission," especially for Steve, who was returning to the country where he had served as a young missionary. The letter was signed by Presidents Nelson, Oaks and Eyring, who I believe are apostles on the earth today just like Peter, James and John in the New Testament, and I was deeply impacted by the sacredness of this invitation to serve.
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