Many young sisters are having the chance to serve a mission at a younger age since President Thomas S. Monson's announcement in the October 2012 general conference, but not many can say they are going at the same time as their mother.
Andraya Salcido, 20, is serving in the Texas Houston East Mission, Spanish-speaking, and her mother, Sister Yvonne Salcido, is serving in the Illinois Nauvoo Mission.
Not long after a divorce, Yvonne Salcido noticed she kept thinking about serving a mission. She always pushed the thought out of her head, telling herself she would go when she retired. Though all but one of her seven children were moved out and had families of their own, she was busy working, going to school and she had her home to worry about. One day she received a clear prompting in the temple that she should sell her home, and, as she got things ready, a friend suggested she serve a mission after the house was sold.
"And when she said that it was just like the Spirit went through me from head to toe," Sister Salcido said.
Sister Salcido put her house up for sale and had three offers in three weeks. She put in her mission papers and received her call that November.
Her daughter Andraya began having thoughts about a mission when she was 19. She decided she was receiving promptings from the Lord and she needed to seriously consider a mission — right now. She fasted and prayed about it one day in the temple and received an answer that she should go on a mission.
Then came the general conference that changed everything. Andraya was working when she was suddenly barraged with text messages and phone calls. She called her mom first and found out the missionary age had changed.
"I knew I had a confirmation of the prompting that I'd already had in the temple," Andraya said. "That was why I needed to find out so early that I was going to go on a mission, so that right when I got the call to serve that I would do it." Her papers were in a week and a half later.
In the end, they got their calls a week apart and left a week apart. "There is no way anyone could've ever orchestrated how everything has worked out," Sister Salcido said. "I think sometimes we think that when we submit to the Lord's will that it won't be what we really want, but when we submit to the Lord's will it's actually better than we could ever imagine." — Michelle Garrett
