I put my mission papers in two and a half years ago and haven’t heard back- should I call someone?

By Soon-to-be-Elder (maybe) Josh Crawford

Ever since I was a little kid, I've dreamed of going on a mission. Serving others. Baptizing the multitudes. Going door-to-door and meeting new people. Ya know, all that good stuff.

Well anyway, on my 19th birthday, I turned in my mission papers to my stake president. He told me my confirmation would come in the mail shortly.

It's been, like, two and a half years since that day.

Should I call somebody, or. . .?

I don't really know what to do. I mean, President O'Donnell said it would be here "shortly." He wouldn't lie about that, right? I figured "shortly" would have meant a few weeks, six at the most. But maybe God is trying to teach me something. Like how his timetable is different from ours, I don't know.

I'm not sure if I should contact President O'Donnell about it. First of all, he was released a year ago. Second, I'm pretty sure he died three months ago. And I don't really want to bother the new Stake President. He's got a lot of stuff to do.

Should I tell my parents? They're pretty busy and have always respected my independence, so they haven't made any mention of it. They'd probably have some advice for me. But is this really an issue that should concern them? It's not like it's about anything that important in their lives. Just me leaving for two years. Most parents deal with that fine I think.

Maybe I should write President Monson. He could let me in on what's going on. Except. . . well, wait, he's pretty busy. He's got all that prophet and seer stuff to do. Probably translating the sealed part of the Book of Mormon for all I know.

Meh. I'll give it another month. I can't imagine God would make me wait thirty-one months for the call. But then again, that whole timetable thing. I mean, he's been up there for like an eternity or whatever, so my wait is nothing to him. I wish I had a God-time to me-time conversion chart so at least I'd know. Oh well.

By the way, has anyone played the new Call of Duty? It's amazing. I'm becoming quite an expert. . . Now don't go judging me. What else do I have to do? I finished my first year of college, now time to focus on the mission. But in the mean time, I can master Call of Duty. So. . . yeah. . .