Okay, story time.
Jonathan has been preparing for a mission for quite a while and finally was able to put in his papers on July 3. His family has been unaware that all of this was going on except one sister, Megan. She was the one he had on his side to help circulate rumors of his choice to not serve a mission. It had been going pretty smoothly and the three of us were able to convince most of his family that he was going to marry me instead of serving.
Jonathan got ordained to the office of an elder on Sunday, July 15. By this point, his family knows something is going on. Will it be a mission or marriage? One of his brothers-in-law questioned him about it and up until this point Jonathan could just easily avoid the question, but this time there was no way. He had to straight up lie to Jacob. Dang, we wanted to avoid that at all costs.
The morning of July 15 Jonathan's bishop told him that he checked the status of his call. The First Presidency had received the papers and had made a decision. The call should be leaving Salt Lake that week, so we were anticipating getting the call on Wednesday, July 18!
Tuesday rolls around and Megan decided this was a good time to spread the word that Jonathan wanted to have a family meeting the next day to make an announcement. Megan passed along the message to everyone to be supportive no matter what his announcement would be. The family is freaking out at this point.
Wednesday arrives! Jonathan is super anxious (who wouldn't be?). He probably checked the mailbox 5 or 6 times in the morning. Finally the mail came!...without a mission call. :( Now Megan, Jonathan, and I are freaking out. What do we do? We can't reschedule the family meeting without giving away our secret. So we came up with a new plan.
The family met at Cassie's house around 6:00. There they all started guessing, what is this big announcement? Half thought mission, the other half guessed marriage. Jonathan and I arrived around 6:30 all dressed up, and I was carrying roses we bought on the way (for a dramatic entrance). The family is all anxious and curious. People begin to get impatient so we were rushed to the backyard so Jonathan can make his announcement. He and I stand there - he says some pretty words to me, gets down on one knee and says, "Charity Perry, I love you. Will you marry me?" He pulls out a fake engagement ring. I pretend to gasp while I hear real gasps from his brothers and sisters. I reply, "Yes...but..." and then he stands up to hug and kiss me. Everyone starts clapping, but hesitantly. I finish my sentence, "...but there's something you need to do first." He smiles and says "You're right."
He grabs a scythe out of his briefcase, walks over to his younger brother and says, "Jacob gave me this as a reminder of what I'm working toward. That the field is white and ready to harvest. I'm now passing it on to you because any day now I should be getting my mission call." More gasps and louder cheers come from his family now! Cassie walks up and gives him a big hug, then one for me. The rest of the family follows with words of "congratulations", "best of both worlds", and "welcome to the family"!
Everyone asks to see my ring so I explain that we're not actually engaged, but I am promising to wait for him. They call me family now. :)
Jonathan pulls me away from the crowd so we can put his suit coat in the truck and just get a second away from everyone. He grabs my left hand and says, "this is a pretty ring" and pulls it off my finger and starts searching his pockets. His face falls and he's getting agitated again. Things have been downhill all day, so now he's really upset. Searching his pockets again, he finally finds what he's looking for and slips a silver ring with an emerald onto my finger. It's gorgeous! My real promise ring - not that junky piece of costume jewelry I bought years ago. So we rejoin the crowd and all start making our guesses where he'll be going.
The next day we continue to hope that it comes because we've heard of other cases where people have received their calls on days other than Wednesday. Again, no call. We wait until next Wednesday... still no call. By this time we're all getting disappointed. Jonathan calls the Post Office, the bishop; the bishop calls the mission office. Meanwhile we have no idea what's going on. We resign ourselves to another week of waiting.
Thursday, July 26 Jonathan calls me around noon. It came! The Telford family gathers again and those who live far away are on a skype call with us.
"Dear Elder Telford, You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Australia Brisbane Mission." AUSTRALIA! The cheers begin and die down again so we can hear the rest of the letter. English speaking, and he is to report to the Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, November 28.
Now Cassie and I are extremely excited! Jonathan gets to come with us to Walt Disney World in September! Woo hoo!!!!
Brisbane, Australia. I can't believe it. I'm so excited for him because I know this is one of the greatest missions in the world - everyone wants to go! I am also excited because I have a friend there currently who will be able to inform us about the mission, the culture, and the entire experience. I'm just so excited!!
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