The When of Missionary Work

Everyone's been asking, when are you leaving?
Wow, guys, I know y'all have been itching to kick me out of California, but..
Just kidding:) I leave November 29th!

When you go on a mission, you have to choose an availability date. You can be called to report anytime on or after this date. When I first started my paperwork, I felt that November 1st was the day I should choose, so I put it down on my paperwork and forget all about it.
Finishing up my paperwork, however, ended up taking much longer than I expected. By the time I got around to submitting the final work, September was quickly bleeding into October. I was feeling a little anxious about having a report date in nearby November, and I wondered if I should change it. My stake president (a church leader helping me submit my paperwork) offered to change it for me, but asked why I would need the extra time. I looked at him and said, only half joking, "I need to shop for SHOES!" Whether or not my stake president had to hold back an eye roll at that comment, I'll never know, but he did say I could change the date later if I wanted to.
Soon afterwards, I stumbled across a scripture that should be familiar to any student of the Bible:

28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 

29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things

-Matthew 6:28-29, 32

Well. Talk about a nice, comfortable, slap in the face.
After reading that scripture, I decided to just go forward in faith and figure that everything would work out with my November 1st availability. And it has. I have plenty of shoes, believe me.
Anyways, I'm just glad I didn't verbally mention the fact that I wanted to be around on November 2nd to watch a certain very important movie starring a very important Hemsworth. That comment would've won me some serious eye rolls. Luckily, even things like Thor have a way of working themselves out. 😉😉😉