And the number is 92!

Thursday of each week we receive a list of all the missionary calls that will be sent out from our office on Monday. The official calls arrive on Monday and they are mailed from here to the service centers in the various countries and usually the missionary will pick them up from there. In New Zealand we mail them directly. To this point the largest number of calls we have received on any Thursday/Monday is 56.  This week: 92!  Yup, 92!  That is more than all the other places outside of the US and Canada except for Southwest South America.  I am so stocked about this number that I thought I would tell you a bit about this set of calls!

Out of the 92, 45,  FORTY FIVE, YUP 45 are Sisters!  So that means that 47 of them are Elders. Just about parity!

Now here is a breakdown of where they are from:

Australia:  19
New Zealand:  16
Tonga: 11
Samoa: 30
Fiji: 5
Kiribati: 4
Tahiti: 4
Marshall Island:1
Papua New Guinea: 1
Vanuatu:1

I would bet that some of you have never even heard of some of these places.  I know I did not know where all of them were before we were called to come here.  

Now here is the breakdown of where they are going to go:

Philippines: 31
United States: 18
Australia: 10
Samoa: 6
New Zealand: 4
England: 4
Papua New Guinea: 4
Argentina: 2
Russia: 2
Ghana: 2
Tonga: 2
Tahiti: 1
Brazil: 1
Korea: 1
Singapore: 1
India: 1
Vanuatu:1
Guam: 1

Now the paper recommendations for each of these missionaries will be taken from the one file and I will write on them four things: their six-digit missionary number, the MTC they will attend, the date they enter and the mission they are assigned to and then I put it into a different set of files. I often wonder how these little girls and boys from the huts of PNG or Kiribati are going to do in Preston England or New York City. Then I wonder how these Elders and Sisters who have spent their missions in Washington DC or London or Salt Lake City will ever be able to return to the little houses in Fiji and the Marshall Islands!

Oftentimes a stake president will write that it would be a great blessing if this candidate were to be called to a place where the church is mature and has fully developed programs so they will be able to return to and be leaders in their homeland. I am often so touched by the Spirit as I see where these sweet looking young people are being called.  

Count yourself blessed. You are in the know at least a week before the candidate knows himself!