Called to serve

My mission call came in the mail on Wednesday August 31st.  I opened it at 10:00 PM and very happily read,

Dear Sister Croft: You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You are assigned to labor in the California Oakland/San Francisco Mission. . . You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, October 26, 2011.  You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Spanish language.

I am so excited!  The thought of serving in California had actually not crossed my mind at all.  Before I opened my call, my best guess had been Canada, but I had never guessed California.  It feels totally comfortable though, and I am so excited to serve!  I am especially excited to become fluent in Spanish.  I know the Lord has given me this assignment because it's exactly where I need to be, and I'm sure that will become more and more clear as time goes on.

So now, some facts I've learned about my mission area (mostly from Wikipedia):

• Oakland is the 8th-largest city in California.  San Francisco is the 4th most populous city in CA and 13th most populous in the United States
• Oakland has a Mediterranean climate with an average of 300 sunny days a year.  YESSS.
• San Francisco has the oldest Chinatown in the United States
• The racial makeup of San Francisco is 48.5% White,  6.1 % African American, 0.5% Native American, 33.3 % Asian, 0.4% Pacific Islander, 6.6 "Other, " 4.7% mixed race, and 15.1% Hispanic or Latino.  Oakland is similarly super diverse.  Awesome!
• Oakland has been consistently listed as one of the country's most dangerous large cities.  Nice.

pictaaaaaas: