'The Big Yellow Envelope'

4 July 2014 was the day the big yellow envelope finally came in the mail !  It was a friday morning James wanted to wait to open the letter until Sunday so he could have all his friends there...   WHAT?  Sunday? do you know how unbelievably hard it was to have this big yellow envelope sitting there on the kitchen bench just calling to be opened? Yellow is a bright happy colour, it's inviting and draws attention.  It was a gruelling nearly 3 days  James was very patient and calm about it just sitting there on the kitchen bench all that time.  I can't lie, but the thought of sneaky steaming it open crossed my mind every other hour, but we resisted and it was totally worth it in the end.  See, this was not just any ordinary yellow envelope.  It wasn't just an envelope that told him where he was going. THIS yellow envelope came from the church Presidency. This envelope meant they had prayed specifically for him, by name,  as to where James should serve. This envelope represented the next step in his life.  The direction his life would now go.  It was the culmination of all his hard work, his ups and downs and the faith knowing that this is where he needs to go. This yellow envelope just sat there, doing nothing, sealed! ahhhh

See the size of this  A4 sucker? and oh so bright!

6th of July was the 'grand opening'.  We had a sausage sizzle at our home after church, then surrounded by about 50 family and friends .... he FINALLY opened that big yellow envelope...  this is what happened!.......

Firstly we asked everyone to guess where he was going to go...here are the pics of that big sheet of paper...

front

back

I don't think I could give justice to the atmosphere filled with love and anticipation by writing about what happened when that big yellow envelope was finally opened - so here is a video

As you can see...emotions were strong and free...the spirit was definately felt there that evening.