Brad Wilcox: Receiving My Call As Mission President (funny story)

in January of 2003 I came home and Debbie met me at the door which was a little surprising because it was cold outside but she said I want to talk to you on the front porch so I said what's up and she told me about how her grandmother had passed away Debbie had been involved with helping to care for her grandmother at the end and so she told me about her grandmother's passing and we talked through the experience and and the coming funeral and things and then I said okay well let's get inside because I'm feeling cold and she says no there's one more thing I need to tell you I said what and she said elder earings office called today the secretary called and wants to meet with us and my first thought was oh no you know somebody's written some letter because they didn't like something I said in a talk or somebody's mad because I said something to their kid and and hurt somebody's feelings I mean because elder Eyring was the Commissioner of church education I thought that maybe I'd done something at an EFY or at a fireside or something that had come to his attention that was wasn't positive so my initial reaction was oh no why does he want to talk to me he's probably going to get mad at me and then it was Debbie who said well no because he wanted to talk to both of us and that's when I was able to calm down a little bit and think that maybe instead of being in trouble that maybe they had a calling for us and so we met with elder Eyring which was a very special experience he spent well over an hour with us and he kept saying this is a preliminary interview this is not a call we just need to find out your circumstances and find out your situation and so he was very very kind but then he would always say now when you get called remember to do this with your missionaries and then he'd say now this isn't a call but when you're with your missionaries be sure to tell him about this and then later he'd say now this isn't an official call but when you work with your missionaries you testify of this and so I kind of felt like it was our preliminary interview and part training from elder Eyring on how to be an effective mission president but we're very grateful for that special time that we had with him a time in which he treated us with so much respect but also so much compassion and he bore testimony to us with tears in his eyes and I just felt like he was investing his whole heart in helping us realize the importance of this I had always in my mind thought mission presidents had to be wealthy because I figured they had to stand the expenses of their own mission and I certainly was far from wealthy and I found out that the only thing he really cared about was if we were out of debt and when I was able to tell him that we were out of debt except for the house and except for one car then he said well can you rent the house and cover the mortgage and I said yes and he said can you sell the car and I said yes and Debbie said oh she said I finally have a car that works because all we'd ever had were used cars that were always breaking down and and she's I finally have a car that works that I just kind of gave her a look that said elder Eyring just asked us to sell our car we're selling the car so we had a great experience with him and he assured us that if we were to be called we'd receive a call from the office of the first presidency and it was shortly after that that we did get a call from Elder foul secretary and said that he would wanted to meet with us so we had a remarkable chance to spend a little time with president Faust who was so gentle he was much more matter-of-fact much more businesslike than elder Eyring who had taken so much time and visited with us on such a friendly level president Faust schedule obviously was much more crammed and and busier and he was much more to the point but he had just given in General Conference his talk about the engine that could and so when he said finally to me do you think you can be a mission president in a Spanish speaking mission I said I think I can I think I can I think again and that was Debbie's turn to look at me and give me a look like what are you saying to a member of the First Presidency but elder Faust laughed and that's my claim to fame is that I had a chance to chuckle with elder Faustus he got the biggest kick out of me alluding back to his talk when I was accepting that call to serve but it was a humbling experience it was a invigorating experience it was a little terrifying because we had no idea where we were going to be serving and I had always thought that if I was young I I was in my early 40s when this happened and so I thought gosh they're probably going to send me to some far-flung edge of the world because I'm younger but now I realize that young men who are called often go to the capital cities where there's going to be schools for their children because we would be taking three of our four children with us on the mission my son would be at school and then going on his own mission and so we I didn't know that at the time but but then later we received our call to Chile Santiago East and we were so excited to open that call and so excited to share that news with our children I remember gathering the little ones sixth grade seventh grade and having a little family night and saying do you believe that president Hinckley is a prophet and they said yes and I said so would we do anything that President Hinckley asked us to do and they said yes and I said well president Hinckley's asked us to go to Chile for three years and they said and they started crying and I looked at my wife and I said what did I do wrong where did my reasoning break down here but she says oh they just need a little time to adjust and and they adjusted and we had a wonderful experience as a family serving together in Chile and I'll always be grateful for those memories of being with those special representatives of Jesus Christ and I'll always be grateful for the chance to serve with Debbie and with our children in a mission that will forever be a part of who we are as a family and we loved it

Channel: Lifey

Views: 36,134

Rating: 4.9101124 out of 5

Keywords: Brad Wilcox, mission president, call, mission call, funny, story

Id: O-FDVCtaYJE

Length: 7min 15sec (435 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 21 2017