Life with the Ball's: Marcus Got His Mission Call!

We've been waiting for six weeks for his call! Usually it takes 2-3 weeks but to make a long story shorter, his call came (it's an email with a link so no snail mail anymore) while he was in Texas with his lacrosse team for spring break. I told him he had two choices. He could read it by himself and then call everyone to share his news, but if he wanted to read it in front of any family or friends I would have to be in the room. This mom was not about to watch him read his call over FaceTime! I did that for five months while he lived in UT so I put my foot down this time. Marcus obliged and said, "What's another week anyway?" So he finished his TX trip, flew back to WA, then flew to UT while the rest of us finished our spring break at the Oregon Coast. I picked Marcus up from the airport Monday afternoon and got home just in time for his friends and our ward family to gather at the house.

It was so exciting! And in typical Ball fashion, it was total chaos until the last possible minute as I scrambled to find and iron a white shirt for Marcus. Naturally he decided to dress up for the occasion with no warning for me. Randy set up the zoom call as he'd sporadically shout out, "I'm so excited! Ahhhh!! I wonder where he's going!" I ran around like a drill sergeant setting up chairs and a large world map. We had pens and labels for everyone to sign their name on and place their guesses for where they thought Marcus would go. Two people actually guessed Brazil!

Here's a link to watch him open his call

Marcus had his BFF, Porter, print out his call. Porter covered the paragraph with Post It Notes so Marcus couldn't skip ahead to read where he was assigned and put it in a sealed envelope. Porter confirmed to Marcus that he was NOT going to Idaho and that his mission started August 1st. So much work to keep things a secret until the big announcement, right?!

I'll let the millions of pictures we took do the rest of the talking but I will say that I haven't smiled that much in a long time and the happiness our whole family felt was unparalleled. The brothers are so proud of Marcus and are starting to realize that he is about to leave the nest for good. I have mixed feelings. Part of the time I want Marcus to stay home with me forever and part of me can't get him out the door fast enough. I think this is normal? Maybe? Either way, we love Marcus for making this decision to serve a mission, intentionally preparing to leave as soon as he graduates, and encouraging all his friends to do the same.