Called to Serve

Some of these final weeks in Honduras have been especially challenging for Elder Call: he’s been serving as the Assistant to the mission president in the midst of political protests and rioting, and he's also developed an infection from some what was likely unclean water that he drank. So, he’s sick, tired, and happy. The happy part comes from helping people to change their lives for the better, and Elder Call shares a few short stories about that in this audio letter from December 18, 2017.

An audio letter Elder Andrew Call recorded on December 1st, 2017, after a long, busy day of serving. How service helps us to see others from God's perspective, even on our not-so-good days. Plus, Elder Mosley expands his list of acceptable foods!

After a long hiatus, the Called to Serve podcast is back. This episode features excerpts from December audio letters from Elder Andrew Call (serving in Monterrey, Mexico). Listen to his parables of the fishermen and the football.

Thad's son, Andrew, is headed on an LDS mission. His mission call arrived at his Provo dorm room in February 2017. We all assembled, in person or electronically, to hear Andrew discover where he was called to serve.

Welcome to a new missionary on the podcast, my nephew Elder Nate Haruch! Nate is the roommate of my second oldest son, Andrew…they’re attending Brigham Young University together this year. Just a few weeks ago Nate received his LDS mission call, and today we’re going to listen to the audio recording of him opening it on that special day.

In this January 2017 audio letter, Elder Call describes a teaching situation with an investigator, and a member named Juan Carlos who accompanied the missionaries. Missionaries can become really polished at teaching, but Juan Carlos threw the elders a bit of a curve ball, and Elder Call learned something special.

Many past episodes of Called to Serve have featured Elder Spencer Call reporting from his mission to Honduras. In this week’s audio letter, Elder Call did something a little different: he recorded a personal letter to two of his teenage sisters with counsel on being a teenager and preparing for adulthood.

Elder Richard Crowley sent an audiotape from his mission in Australia in March of 1981. He and his companion recorded a "day in the life of a missionary," with a goal to find someone to take to a fireside that night. Finding, teaching, haunting "milk bars", and more.

In January of 2017 Elder Call interviews his new, and first American, mission companion: Elder Elmer!

Elder Call and his companion are zone leaders, which means that they help to lead and train about 40 missionaries in their local area. Earlier this month Elder Call spent a week doing divisions with seven missionaries, and profiles each one.

My nephew Eric Knudsen completed a mission to St. George, Utah in 2014, and on a Sunday in July of that year, with lots of family gathered around, he shared some of his experiences, both the good and the bad.

It’s hard to believe that Elder Spencer Call has now completed, in October 2016, one-third of his mission. I asked him in a recent letter to send us an audio letter where he takes stock of his personal progress after eight months….and what follows is his response. Copyright 2016 by Thad Call. All Rights Reserved.+ Read More

It’s easy to forget that serving a mission is about serving people. For Elder Spencer Call, an unplanned event when a member really needed him, on a day already scheduled full with missionary work, leads to a decision.           Copyright 2016 by Thad Call. All Rights Reserved. Thanks to composer David+ Read More

LDS missionaries typically teach people who are looking for more meaning in their lives, and who want to change. That means that their investigators often dealing with personal or family struggles….and those missionaries are exposed to issues that they might not have encountered before, like employment issues, poverty, broken homes, and addictions…and Elder Spencer Call+ Read More

When Elder Spencer Call was a teenager, he was a Boy Scout, and for a year of his time in the Scouts, I was his Scout leader. In this audio letter, recorded on the fourth of July 2016, Elder Call connected his experience in Scouting with his mission….and no, it wasn’t about the knot tying+ Read More

This week’s podcast is an audio letter from Elder Spencer Call recorded in June 2016. He’s currently assigned to Puerto Cortes, and he talks about life in Puerto, with its big city gangs, guns, and brownouts. And, bonus, a short experience at the end about one of the weirder perils missionaries face…what happens when you+ Read More

Last week was a busy week for Elder Spencer Call in Puerto Cortes, Honduras. Elder Call’s latest audio letter home relates two special experiences: baptizing three members of the Hernandez Family that was reactivated in the Church, and being guided to a new family to teach.           Copyright 2016 by Thad+ Read More

Have you ever been asked to do some service, and really not been in the mood? Today on Elder Spencer Call’s August 8, 2016 letter home, he shares a story about the blessings of serving, even when we’re not feeling like it. Service, and Hurricane Pearl’s advance towards Puerto Cortes, this week on the podcast.+ Read More

When he recorded this audio last April, Elder Call had been serving in the country, in a smaller town named Santa Cruz de Yojoa. In this podcast, he describes what it’s like to visit the much larger city of San Pedro Sula. Country mouse meets city mouse, this week on Called to Serve.  

Podcast Episode #9: Some of the everyday funny experiences that occur on a mission: like mishaps with speaking a foreign language, learning to get along with your mission companion, meeting a dog named Lucifer, and more.  

Elder Spencer Call remembered that it’s his cousin Emma’s birthday, and he sent her birthday wishes in English and in Spanish.  

Elder Call tells about about the Honduran summer, washing clothes by hand, and his three new goals as a missionary. And more, of course.  

Elder Spencer Call’s March 28, 2016 audio letter: How Holy Week before Easter is celebrated, a special investigator, and BONUS: he and the other three missionaries in the apartment sing an Easter hymn in Spanish.  

Elder Spencer Call describes what it’s like to do missionary work in that country, and some of the challenges he’s experiencing: addresses, the heat, and the D-word: “discouragement”.  

My oldest son, Spencer, began serving an LDS mission to Honduras in early 2015. Spencer is serving in the Honduran city of Santa Rosa de Yojoa. Today we’re listening to an audio letter that Elder Call sent home on February 29, 2016, detailing an experience with an investigator family and a remarkable dream.  

Cousin Mike Petty was in town on business, and we had him over for dinner. Afterwards we sat around the table with the microphone going, and Mike told stories about his mission to Norway.  

I reached Sister Call on Tuesday, August 20, 2013 at the Vanuatu mission office. I was so excited to talk to Mom, I forgot to plug in my headphones. Consequently, the audio is pretty echoey – trust me, the audio gets better in subsequent episodes as I figure out this podcasting thing.

Called to Serve is a podcast about Call and Crowley missionaries, past and present. Early episodes of this podcast (like this one) originally focused on Elder John and Sister Mary Lynn Call (my parents) as they served their mission to Vanuatu. Later episodes broadened the scope to other family missionaries, past and present. This episode:+ Read More