Before We Reported

This post is LONG but it lays all the ground work for some very tender mercies that we have been blessed with the last few months.

The decision

We have known for several years that we wanted to serve a mission together as a senior couple. Len had mandatory retirement in 2005 at age 60. We decided when he retired to wait until 2007 to serve so that we would have military retirement and Social Security to pay all of our expenses--those at home and on a mission.

We wanted to serve because we were young enough not to have health problems and because our family life was pretty even keel--no weddings and no babies on the calendar! 2007 was a perfect time to go on a mission.

We met several couples who had served more than one mission, some had even served 4 or more!  I had never considered more than one, although, in the past, we had known others who had served more than once. It seemed like we would serve one mission and be done.

Since returning home, I have thought about going again many times, but never felt it was time.

In Nov 2011 we had our tithing settlement with Bishop Brown and he said our Stake Presidency was asking for more Senior couples to consider serving a mission.  He asked us to prayerfully consider serving a second time.

Again, no weddings and no babies on the calendar but the big question was--What do we do with our house? One day in late December or early January the name of a couple in our ward came to mind. They seemed pretty ideal for the JOB! We invited them over for dinner and they were dumbfounded when we proposed the idea--they thought we were inviting them over for an Amway pitch!!! So very funny. They thought about it for a couple of weeks and decided they would take us up on the offer. Now, the process began--

The application

We decided that the best time to go would be July 2012 so that we could be done by July 2013 in time for Malena's 8th birthday (Malena is our granddaughter who lives in Colorado Springs, CO). Being at her baptism was very important to us. Once the bug was put in our heads, Len started contacting the podiatrist about his feet and the Norton's Neuroma that was still bugging him, even more than before the surgery he had in 2009. The Dr. told him that they could do another surgery and see how that worked. He had surgery in late January and the Dr. did find a lot of scar tissue and more damaged nerves. She was much more aggressive this time in removing the nerves and scar tissue. Although he was really sore for several weeks, it was better overall than after the first surgery.

The mission application was all done online using a password that we were given by the Bishop. The same application is used for young 19 year old Elders, 21 year old Sister Missionaries and Senior Missionaries. There are a few questions that are kind of strange for senior couples to answer and there are a few questions that are not asked that would be better for Senior missionaries. One question asks if you are able to bike 6 miles and walk 3 miles a day. One question they need to ask is if you can remember why you went from one room to another!

The Dr.'s exam is pretty basic but then all kinds of things are brought up that lengthens the time it takes, like colonoscopies and heart stress tests and waiting for the Dr. to get all the test results and his forms sent to the Bishop.

Unlike young Elder and Sister missionaries, Senior missionaries can request a certain area to serve. They do not always get their choice, but it helps to request if there is a special place they want to serve. Our first mission we did not request any place but we decided we loved our mission so much that we wanted to return. We put in a request to again serve in the Family and Church History Mission. We were told there was a 90% chance they we would get our choice. We both were totally fine with serving any place where we were called because we knew it was where the Lord would need us. I did say many times that I had already emotionally moved to Salt Lake City even though we did not know where we were to serve!

Unlike younger missionaries, senior missionaries can apply 6 months before they are ready to serve. We have never been ready that far out--we usually decide about 6 months before we want to leave that we want to go! We decided that our availability date would be 1 July 2012.  We set 1 May  as our deadline for our applications to be sent in to Salt Lake but we did not quite make that. We met with the Stake President on 9 May and the Stake Clerk sent them in the next night.

The waiting began . . .

The wait

We had lots to keep us occupied while we waited for the call to arrive. The week our papers were sent in, Julie and Emily came to visit. Julie had a wedding to attend and Emily came to spend time with Julie and Stephanie. Julie was also packing up all her belongings that were still at our house and she was shipping them to St. Louis.

We had a fun time with the three girls spending several days with us. As usual, it was way too short. The only thing that would have made it better was to have the rest of the clan with us.

Julie’s right knee had been acting up and giving her problems for a few weeks. She was on crutches and it was very hard for her to get around on her own. Len and I decided that we would fly back to St. Louis and be there when the pod came with all of her “stuff”. Flying stand-by can be a real challenge these days but all worked out great. We spent a week in St. Louis and had a great time with Julie and we were glad that we had gone to help. We were getting anxious because we knew our call should be arriving in the mail in the next couple of weeks. I just wanted to know where we were going!

We flew back to Tucson the day after Memorial Day a little nervous about leaving Julie in such tenuous circumstances—being single and on crutches made her totally dependent on others for transportation ANYWHERE she went! We left with the understanding that we would fly back any time she needed us, all she had to do was call. She had a Dr. appointment that week. He ended up ordering an MRI with the results to be discussed on Monday. She called on Monday with news she was having knee surgery on Thurs.! It was decided that Len would go because I had an important Dr. appointment on Thursday and my Mom was flying in on Saturday for an appointment, the next week, with a specialist that she had been waiting six months to see.  

Monday evening, 4 June, our daughter Stephanie called and dropped the surprise of the century. She is pregnant!!!! Background=she will be 42 years old on 30 June, she has been married for 7 ½ years and we had about decided that she and Darrell would not have any children. Talk about an excited Grandma. Stephanie was doing so well she didn’t even know she was pregnant. Darrell was in total shock!

Len came home late Friday, 8 June. We still had not gotten our call. Mom went home the next day and at church on Sunday the Bishop checked and our call was in the mail. Sunday night we talked to Julie and it was decided we would go back to St. Louis to help her out a little longer. We wondered how we could go help her, get our house ready, get things packed to take and report on our mission by 6 July. That shows how much we were counting on going back to Salt Lake on our mission—new missionaries in the mission begin the first Friday of each month.

We decided I would leave on Tuesday and fly to St. Louis and that Len would drive on Wednesday and Thursday. He would drive the first day to Colorado Springs and stay with our daughter, Jennilyn and her family and then on to St. Louis on Thursday. I spent all day Monday packing and preparing for 6 moves—what was staying in Tucson, what I was taking to St. Louis, what Len needed to take in the car (all the presents for Malena for the next year’s worth of holidays, things that Julie had forgotten when she moved and the things I would need, I would take the bare necessities with me on the plane), stuff to take on our mission without knowing where we were going and stuff to take to my mom on the way to Utah (either to SLC or the MTC). It was a VERY busy and stressful day. The waiting continues . . .

The call

In advance, we had called all the kids, my Mom, and a few other out-of-town people, to set up what would happen when we got THE letter. Skype phone calls for some, our land line phone and a couple of cell phones for the others--all on one big conference call. When Len went to the mailbox on Monday afternoon 11 June, THE letter was there! Now, all we had to do was put the plan into action.  In the meantime, Jennilyn had left on a business trip to Huntsville, Alabama and would be just landing at the designated time for the conference call. Quick text, email and phone calls to move the time back.

That evening at 7:30 pm, our home office looked like a command center when it was time for “THE conference call”.  Len opened the envelope as we all waited to see where we would go. It seemed we were more nervous about when we would report than where we would report.

We were called to serve in The Family and Church History Headquarters Mission in Salt Lake City!!!! The best part of the entire letter was the report date—3 August 2012—one month later than we had anticipated. Perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We could go help Julie and have time to come back and prepare to leave. We were extremely humbled that Heavenly Father knew what we would need and that even though Julie’s knee surgery and problems developed AFTER the paperwork had been sent to Salt Lake, He took care of those needs!! What tender mercies He extends to us.

I flew to St. Louis the next day and Len drove to meet me, two days later. We were able to spend a little over two weeks with Julie. It was really hard when the time came to leave her but things were a little easier with her best friend Trena and good friend Paula there to take over.

We drove to Colorado Springs and spent several days with Jennilyn and her family. It was especially sweet to spend time with our beautiful granddaughter.

We finally got home on 5 July and knew we had a little less than one month to get it all together.

The preparation began. . .

The preparation

The last time we left it was much different. Our daughter Julie was staying in our house and we had rented a totally furnished apartment. We basically just packed up a few personal items, bedding, towels, one computer, our genealogy stuff and clothes.

This time we had to pack the things to furnish an apartment (not the big furniture), our personal items, genealogy stuff, 2 desktop computers (we also have laptops), and our clothes. Last time our car was not enough room coming home, so we knew it would not be enough room going. We decided to drive both our little truck and car.

We also needed to get the house ready for the sweet people who are going to be staying there for a year. It is amazing all the things we do on a daily basis that is hard to explain to someone else. We are so very thankful to Kathi and Dennis for being such wonderful caretakers!!!! It has been such a blessing to be able to pick up and leave and not worry, a bit about our house.

Just about there. . .

And we’re off

We decided to leave on 31 July and drive the first day to St. George, UT to stay with my Mom. It is 10 hours to St. George, for those of us that drive the speed limit. We didn’t have to be in SLC  until Thurs., 2 Aug when we had to pick up our keys and sign the lease for our missionary apartment.

There was just one kind of scary thing-- the fact that I fall asleep so very easily in the car. It has been said that I have been asleep before the car was out of the driveway (as the passenger). If I am busy talking, I don’t have a problem staying awake, so I tried unsuccessfully to find someone to ride with me.  I had no problem staying awake and my secret was--singing along to a 1990s Backstreet Boys CD and chewing gum HARD and FAST for 10 hours. I did not realize how hard I had been chewing until we stopped and my jaw ached so badly I could hardly eat that night but it was better by the next day!

Just 5 hours away. . .

The Arrival

Thankfully, the trip from St. George to SLC was uneventful and again I had no problem staying awake, singing and chewing gum!

Good friends, Al & Judy Roberts, who live in West Jordan, a suburb of SLC, came to the apartment. They guys unloaded the vehicles and the girls chatted, made up the bed and put a few things away. Trena, our “5^th daughter” and her husband, Morgan Quick were in town from Cortez, Colorado and stopped by to say hi and see our new living quarters. We chatted for awhile and got caught up and then all 6 of us went to Sizzler for dinner.

Great way to be welcomed back to Salt Lake. It's a good thing we had a few days to get settled before Monday and training began.