True Loves Challenge

Chapter 22

Rosie's POV

"It's here! My call! It's in the mail!" I yelled to Sammie from the door of our apartment. Since we have been going to college together the last eight months, we now live together.

I put in my papers early. I will be turning nineteen on the sixth of March. Today is the first. So, I am still eighteen but still worthy to go, as long as I leave after my birthday.

I ran into the living room where Sammie was sitting. "You got it?"

"I got it!" I was jumping for joy. I have been planning to go on my mission ever since my brother Russell put in his papers. I was fourteen years old. I am so lucky that I was able to finish my semester so I could do like my brother did, and my father, and Matthew.

"Help me call friends! I will call my family first." I got the phone and called up my mom and told her to come over as soon as she could. Luckily, she is off work today. I bet she wouldn't want to miss my call. My daddy retired, so he is now always home watching my autistic sister Jessica.

After Sammie and I called everyone I wanted, people started to arrive, one by one. It took about two hours for everyone to come. Once Emma and Sophia came in through the front door, I announced that I was going to open it. I opened the seal, took out the paper, and started reading.

"Dear Sister Anderson, you are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the England, London mission." I broke out crying. I have always wanted to go to England. I am finally going! I continued reading. "You will report to the England mission training center on April sixth, two thousand nineteen, to prepare to preach the gospel in the English language." I stopped reading and broke into harder tears.

One month exactly after my birthday, and I will be on the plane to England. I got down from standing on the chair, and started to talk to Sophia. She is jealous, I can tell.

Another hour past and people started leaving. I told my mother, "Thank you for coming!" and she and my dad and sister left. People kept leaving until it was just Sammie and I.

"Just wait, Matthew will get home, then you will, and then you two will get married."

"Whoa, marriage?! I haven't even though about marriage yet!" I got kind of freaked out by that question.

"Well, Matthew has for sure. I saw it in his eyes when he got his mission call. Once her got down from that chair and looked at you, I saw a look in him that I have never seen before." Sammie stood up to get into the kitchen. I sat on the couch trying to remember the look in Matthew's eyes that night. His look was a little different, but it wasn't enough for me to notice that way. I thought that it was the excitement of receiving his call.

I walk into the kitchen to continue our conversation. "How could that be marriage? That night he received his call, he whispered in my ear that he couldn't control the excitement from the call."

"No, that excitement was thinking about once you both get home and get married. He was thinking about marriage."

"I don't think so. The whole time I was opening my call, I was thinking about England, not after it."

"Were you thinking about marriage when he left?" I shook my head. "Then he was. There is always one person in a relationship that thinks about the future more than the other."

She's right. Before I started dating guys, I would always see the guys I had crushes on and dream about our own future. When I started dating them, I started to focus on the here and now. I guess that the boys wanted to take the responsibility of thinking about the future.

Instead of responding verbally to Sammie, I grabbed a cookie that Sammie just finished baking before I came running in with the call. "Hey, those were for the neighbors!"

"Sorry, I wanted a cookie and this is bothering me now." I walked into the front room and picked up my call sitting on the table.

You are hereby called to serve in the England, London mission. You will report to the England mission training center on April sixth, two thousand nineteen. Then after that, I have eighteen months until I am home again and until I see Matthew again.

Matthew. Now I'm thinking about marriage. Now I can picture a life with Matthew, a ring on my finger. I look at my bare ring finger on my left hand. I want a ring to be there. I want that ring to be from Matthew.

I walk into the kitchen and Sammie is sitting at the kitchen table, waiting. "Are you thinking about marriage now?" I nodded. "You want a ring on that finger of yours?" I nodded. "Good. It might take a while, but it will happen soon." I smiled. "I wish that there was one on my finger too." Sammie looked dreamily at her finger.

There was a knock at the door. I volunteered to go and open it. The moment I do, I'm shocked. He puts a finger on his lips and told me to pretend he isn't here. I did so and walked over into the living room and read the rest of my mission call. Once I am done reading it, I look back to the kitchen and see Sammie facing her back to him.

He picks her up from behind like Matthew does to me and scared Sammie screams like she is about to die. "Rosie? What..." She looked at him properly. I smiled at her sudden excitement. "Robbie?" Robbie smiled and hugged and kissed her. "Why are you home?"

"There was a problem in Iceland. They sent all of us home before things got bad." I immediately thought about Matthew. Is he safe? Will he be okay? You never know when things will turn bad.

"I will be sent to another area for these next sixteen months. I am going to Knoxville, Tennessee."

"Robbie that's great that you're going back out!" Sammie hugged him.

Once the hug was done, Robbie went into thought. "Sammie, there is something that I have been thinking about these last eight months. I have wanted to ask you this for a while now, and I have decided that today is the day to ask." Robbie pulled out a little box from his pocket and got down on one knee. "Samantha Rose Hyland? I love you with all my heart. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"

Sammie started to cry. She nods in sign of saying yes. Robbie stands up and kisses her.

Sammie got her wish. She is now engaged and has a ring.

Matthew, soon, not yet but soon.

April sixth came, I cried when I said goodbye to my family. For eighteen months, I won't see my family or my friends.

Once we got to the airport, I hugged my mom first. "I love you mom."

"I love you too baby." I pull apart and give her a little kiss. I do the same to my dad. Hugging my dad, I start to remember how little I was and when my dad used to hold me on his shoulders. Now I am nineteen years old and am already almost his height. I am the tallest girl in the family, but I am still not quite as tall as my dad or my brother Russell.

Thinking about Russell, I move over to him and melt into his hug. He is my only brother; I don't want to be without him again. He was on his mission three years ago. I don't want to leave one of the most important men in my life.

I hug my in-laws and then move to my sister Maida. Then it was time to hug my only niece, Lily. I tell her how I won't be back for eighteen months, and she started to cry. She doesn't let me go for about two minutes. Eventually, my dad takes her away and I say one last goodbye.

Once I get home, Russell and Mila will have a little baby boy. I can't believe that I am going to miss the baby coming onto this world, it makes me sad, but I will be coming home to a new and adorable baby.

I get through security and onto the plane. I think about Matthew leaving me in the airport as I leave my family. The image of him leaving is still fresh in my mind. You will see him in eighteen months. He will be there waiting for you at the airport. He promised, and he keeps his promises.

I go to sleep on the plane, content in my thoughts. I am going to serve the Lord and be happy. My family will be blessed with the feeling of having another missionary out, and Matthew will be home.

Eighteen more months, and I will be another step closer to marriage. I am another step closer to eternal happiness. It is right at my fingertips almost in my grasp.