Friday, Daniela got her mission call. This is a pretty Big Deal, as when you decide to go on a Latter-day Saint mission, you basically just say you’re willing to go wherever you’re needed. That could be Kentucky or it could be Hong Kong, and it’s clear that’s a pretty wide spread. You don’t put down a preference for where you’d prefer to serve, though you can mark down how willing to learn a new language you’d be, and your medical/dental status might have an impact as well. (When you apply, you submit medical and dental forms that note any issues you might have.)
So when it came time for Daniela to open her call and find out where she’d be living (and when she’d be going) for the next 1.5 years, it’s understandable that she was pretty nervous. Not that she didn’t want to go to specific places, but more that it’s a big thing that will affect her for 18 months and then for the rest of your life after that. My 2 years in Germany changed who I am, though it was more the people, culture, and experiences I had there that did the changing.
If you’ve been on Facebook, you likely saw the video. She’ll be going to the Czech/Slovak mission (Slovak speaking), leaving July 29th. We’re all ecstatic. This is the exact same mission Tomas went to, and it’s the same place Denisa is from. This will let Daniela connect with half her heritage and understand it much more completely. It’s a place she’s traveled many times, speaking a language she has a fair bit of familiarity with already.
Many people have said, “Well, of course she’s going to Slovakia. I don’t know why you’d think she’d have gone anywhere else.” Keep in mind: there are over 80,000 missionaries serving in the world at any one time. Figure 2/5 of those are women, so around 32,000 sister missionaries, give or take. There are around . . . 12 Slovak-speaking sister missionaries. I could be off by 2, but not much more. Say there’s a max of 40 in the whole Czech/Slovak mission. That gives you a sense of how few slots there are for missionaries to go there, which should also give you a sense of why we didn’t think it was nearly the same done deal others assume.
And as Daniela has said multiple times: She was happy and excited to go anywhere, though she was apprehensive about what some locations would entail. Slovakia’s not an easy mission, by any stretch. We know first hand from Tomas just how few members of the church are there and how little support the missionaries get, compared to places with a much stronger member base. But there are tons of advantages, as well.
In any case, we’re very happy for her, and a little overwhelmed by all the things that need to happen in the next 4 months to get her ready to go. Thanks for all the well wishes. I’ll try to post letters from her here, in the same vein that I posted things from Tomas a few years ago.
Congratulations, Daniela!