Georgia Macon Mission President Homecoming

Like most missionaries, Doug just loved his mission president. He worked in the office for 6 months, so he was able to get really close to him. So when we heard of his homecoming, Doug was really excited to go. What wasn't as exciting was the fact that he lives in Malad, Idaho. Not exactly the Las Vegas of Idaho (although, I'm not sure any Idaho city can be described that way!) Luckily his sacrament meeting is last of the 3 block meetings starting at 1:00. So we didn't have to be there until 2:45, which meant a nice Sunday to sleep in. The drive was not bad at all and we ended up having a great time. The thing that astonished me was how many missionaries drove up for the occasion. I was thinking that if it was held in Provo, Utah there would be a ton of elders and sisters around, but not in Malad. Boy was I wrong. After the president's son and wife spoke, President Evanson asked all of the missionaries to come up and sing the Georgia Macon mission theme song. Literally half of the congregation went up. There must have been over 100 missionaries there! The Bishop commented that thanks to the Evanson's sacrament meeting attendance doubled, and I could tell that he was not joking. That old, tiny chapel didn't exactly meet the capacity - we were sitting on folding chairs in the overflow (which was really weird because the overflow was off to the side, instead of the back of the chapel). The coolest part of the meeting was when President Evanson stood to give his talk. The first thing he did was have Doug (sorry, Elder Carlson) stand up! He was all, "I saw Elder Carlson come up to sing...where is he? Stand up, Elder Carlson." Then he proceeded to tell the story of a zone conference when Elder Holland came to speak to the Georgia Macon mission. Doug happened to be sitting on the front row of that conference and was confronted by Elder Holland! He got right up in his face and said, "Ah, Elder Carlson. Answer me this question. What type of change did Alma have?" Although Doug totally knew the answer and had just been reading about the story he went totally blank because he was "star struck!" He stammered and finally gave a stupid (and completely wrong) answer while his mission president was sitting up on stage yelling the answer..."A mighty change - a mighty change!" I guess Doug took quite a bit of heat for that little incident for weeks to come. Well, years to come, since he is still talking about it! Elder Holland then told the missionaries that they were to have a mighty change, and not just while on their mission. And since Doug was his "chosen" to confront in front of everybody, he told him that if he went home from his mission and slacked off he would "punch him in the nose." Needless to say, Elder Holland is now Doug's favorite apostle! After President Evanson's story about Doug (which I think made Doug feel really special, to be singled out of 100 missionaries) he went on to give a great talk. After sacrament meeting we went across the street to the elementary school where President Evanson's wife is the principal. They had prepared for a large group with tons of really good food and Doug's favorite waffle cookies from the mission. It was really fun for Doug to see all of his old mission buddies and I loved looking through all of Sister Evanson's scrapbooks and seeing Doug in most of the pictures. And as his wife I can say, I am so glad that those 2 years are over!!