Rachael Debenham's Mission

We finally know where Rach is going on her mission!

I'm so sorry to keep you all in suspence. She wanted to be the one to tell but she gave me permission to tell the fam on the web site:

Don't laugh too hard:

Rach has been called to serve in CLEVELAND, OHIO!!!

Specifically in the Kirtland Visitor's Center!!!

Through a series of miraculously events Rachael was able to fly home on Saturday. We hiked to our rock above the Billings temple and said a prayer and watched Rachael open the envelope which had sat idle while she toured scotland. Initially, Rach was very dissappointed. She had her heart set on going somewhere exotic, specifically, Asia.
Her dissappointment did not last. She recieved a father's blessing and is comforted knowing she is needed where she is sent.

Her parents are relieved she isn't going to a third world country. The fact that we already know the area well is such a comfort. After all the moving around we have done it is a relief that she is going somewhere where we know many of the people she will be working with.

Rachael has a foot-in-the-door already with many of the people she will teach. She was a child there and picked strawberries on the John Johnson farm, picked apples there too, starred in the Footsteps of Faith play in 1997 and charmed all the African American children in her class with her memorization of the Gettysburg Address.

Brother Carl Anderson was the director of the Institute that I taght at in East Cleveland and he is the brother who showed Liz and I where Edward Partridge's home was in Painsville. He also is who the brethren turned to when it was decided to build a visitor's center in Kirtland. His daughter Emily was our babysitter there and she guessed Rachael would serve in Cleveland!

Rachael's Grandma Lilamae says there is someone in Cleveland who needs her. Rachael's Aunt Liz says that missionary work can be done everywhere on the planet, including Delta, Utah. Our Bishop's son asked Rachael what she did wrong to be sent to Cleveland. Rachael's mom says the souls in Cleveland have worth equal to those anywhere else on the planet that may seem more exotic...and quite honestly, Cleveland was another planet to me because of the difference in culture there!

Rachael already knows the dialect. She speaks Jive fluently and learned from the strong matriarchal culture there that women deserve to be strong and have a right to stand up for themselves and others when needed.

She wants to go to law school in the east and is hoping to be able to do research on her p-days.

We are all thrilled. Especially me. I will be able to picture my baby girl working in Kirtland, teaching people who may be related to her or she knew as a child.

Wahoo!

Oh. She leaves on June 23rd. Her farewell will likelly be in her ward in Provo at 8:30 A.M. on June 20th. Hope you can all come!