Natalie in the Iowa Iowa City Mission
Seventeen and a half minutes on Saturday night, starting around 9:30, three days before you leave the MTC for Iowa. Mom and I were each on our own device at home and you were in your dorm room packing and running laundry the whole time.
This was your first real P-day call home, about two hours and forty minutes on a Tuesday (your P-days ran Tuesdays that first week and go back to Mondays once you're in the field). You reported in person the Wednesday before, July 15, so this was your first six days. Mom and I were home; about forty-five minutes in I had to duck into a work meeting, so I muted myself and stayed on the line and dropped back in when I could. Most of the call is you and Mom, and Bryson called in from his car near the end. I've filled in the parts I missed from the recording.
This is the drive down. About an hour and a half of recording, in two parts, from the last checks at the house to the host stand at the MTC. All seven of us minus Kaitlynn: me driving, Mom, you, Bryson, Alexa, and Mason. We stopped at Raising Cane's on the way. Much of the audio is a mess and a lot of it did not survive; what is here is what could be made out.
About fourteen minutes, two days before we drove you to the MTC. You were at home with your packing spread out; Kaitlynn was on video from Chile. Mom and I were in and out. I was working in the garage for most of it.
This was the call where you decided. Kaitlynn was on video from Coyhaique. Mom, Mason, and I were home in Herriman with you. Three threads ran through the call, but the load-bearing one was the family prayer Kaitlynn ran for you - the same exercise she uses on the mission with investigators stuck on a baptismal decision. By the end of your turn in that prayer, you had your answer, and you said it out loud: you would serve a mission, not go to college.