Count down continues 53 days to go.....

Australia Sydney North Mission

It doesn't seem real that its so close but the rest of the family is counting down the days . I don't want to go along with them but everyone is counting so I count....

Today is Sunday, its 9.00 pm We are relaxing listening to some uplifting, spiritual music, we have a friend over , Shannen and brother J are visiting with him, little brother J. is on the phone with his cousin, Dad is still out on church business and I am writing this blog which for me it count as family history time.

Today Shannen went to say good bye to one of her closest friend that is leaving to serve a mission in Japan,  she also said good bye to another one of her friends close to four weeks ago (she is serving in the Sydney North mission as well) , and two weeks before Shannen leaves another close friend is leaving to Peru , the four of them attended the missionary prep classes and are very happy to be among the first girls that answered to the call of Pres. Monson to go early if they want to serve. Its been a little over  a year since THE announcement of the lowering of the age for girls to serve a mission. It's an exciting time for this girls.

The Count Down

Australia Sydney North Mission

In fact it has been two months since Sister Valdes' Call and we are halfway there before she leaves exactly on the 13 of March 2014!.

She received her call the day before her 19th birthday, and opened it on her actual birthday , we were so nervous , we invited our family and close friends which amounted to close to 50 dear friends, we all knew it was her birthday, I promise I even bought a cake to sing her happy birthday....but with all the excitement of the call we forgot to even mention it!!!...I feel so bad as I think about it!, I had one of my dearest friend bring her a lovely present a nice pair of pearl earrings, and of course her grandma and aunties brought cards with gifts in them. But I know, for her she received the best present on her special day, from the Lord , a call to serve Him, and now looking back that's all it count!.

It was a hectic evening also because we wanted our family from overseas to be part of the moment, through Skype and phone. We had planned with every one, to be ready for us to make contact when she was ready to open the letter, we bought a better camera to hook it up to the computer, we paid a premium fee for Skype for a day to be able to have multiple connections as video calls. But with that and all we couldn't connect with half of the people we wanted to, at the important time the connections didn't work. For some there wasnt electricity available, for another the phone got disconnected that same day or the day before, for another it was too early and couldn't wake up, for another we had calculated the wrong time difference and was instead waiting for our call an hour or two later. I was glad though that my mum's phone line that's always problematic to connect, that night actually did work and she was able to be present on the phone, I am particularly glad that another one of my dear friends took the phone and was describing to her all that was happening with every detail and my mum says that she felt as present as everyone else there. I was also very glad that aunty Y. was able to connect through skype and she even taped the actual moment and took pictures from he end! all the way from the USA!!

We had "completos "(Chilean hot dogs) for supper and one of my sisters in law brought delicious quiches to share.

We had asked everyone to have a guess as to where they thought Shannen was going to be called, We got a large map of the wall put it up on the wall and asked everyone present and not present to tell us the country or city of their choice guess and to stick it up on the map.

I will maintain our family and close friends updated on how she is going by posting here her letters  and some pictures with the permission of the people in them.