The timeline for turn-around of calls for youth missionaries was always pretty predictable. But for senior missionaries, it's very not predictable. There must be a more complicated review process involving doctors, assignment specialists, etc. before the actual mission assignment is made by a member of the Quorum of Twelve.Our application was finalized and submitted in mid-March. We knew it would take several weeks to go through the system. Meanwhile, we went on with our plans, that included a "celebrate Bonnie's retirement" trip to China from April 9-19. We knew there was a chance the call would come while we were traveling; fortunately, since mission calls are now delivered electronically instead of by paper, that would not necessarily present a problem. I had arranged to have my phone set up with international access, and with a VPN client that would allow me to bypass the very restrictive firewalls in China.
