interview

October 13, 2010

Last Wednesday, Doug called me from California. He told me that he had just received a phone call from one of the assistants to the Quorum of the Twelve. Needless to say, I haven't slept that well this week. Doug arrived home yesterday afternoon ill a cough, cold and flu-like symptoms. We have talked about the possibilities of things that might be asked of us in an interview. I went to the temple last Friday night also as part of my personal preparation. Today, Doug was resting. We chatted some, but actually it was pretty quiet.

We arrived at the tele-conference room about half an hour before the interview was supposed to start. We got our end set up and figured out how to work the zoom in and out function on the remote. A brother called in from Salt Lake about twenty minutes later and did the same thing on his end. Then he told us that Elder Nelson would be in to talk with us in about ten minutes.

Elder Nelson came in and sat down. He asked us if we had ever done a tele-conference before. Of course, the answer from Doug was yes and the answer from me was no. Smiles all around. He asked us where we were and if the facility was nice and we answered. Then he said that he would not be issuing a call to us today. Then with no further ado, he asked me to tell him about our family. I can't remember the order from there, except that he asked us about our lives and our plans are for the future.

About 2/3 the way through the interview, he told us that he was looking for mission presidents and asked Doug how he would feel about that. It was great moment for me and I felt the Spirit very powerfully. It was a mistake for me not to have tissue available. Next he talked with me about my 14 year old daughter and what I felt the impact would be on her. It was my turn to make Doug cry. I mentioned that she had just received her patriarchal blessing on conference Sunday. There is quite a few references to missionary work in her blessing and I felt that she would see it very much as the beginning of the fulfillment of that blessing.  He said that he had asked me that question specifically because mom's have a better handle on what the impact will be like on their children, but I told him that I had no hesitations that Brianna would handle it very well.

The funniest thing that happened over the course of our half hour interview was when he said that he wanted to give us some advice. And then...all the sound went completely static. We heard nothing! When the sound came back, we were like...we missed the advice...and we were all laughing as we explained what happened. So he gave us the advice again, at least we think he did.

"Brother Carter, take your wife to get an ice cream."

The interview came to a quick end after that. I am sorry to report that we did not go out for ice cream. The adrenaline rush of meeting with an apostle for half an hour kept me buzzing for quite a long time after the interview. I'll deposit that and collect on it another day.

Elder Nelson told us that they would be making calls for mission presidents between November and February upcoming. He said that they like to have it all completed by April conference and that there is a seminar the end of June.

In many ways, it seemed surreal. I wanted to keep talking with Doug about it. That really happened, right?

Doug has a terrible cough. He was awake all night. And he kept me awake all night.

Realistically, I have to concede that I would have been awake anyway since my brain was going crazy playing "what if" games and "what shall we do about ______, if we are gone for three years." Apparently, he was doing the same.