The Adventure Begins........
We are going on a Mission!!! We have been called to the ENGLAND, London Mission and we enter the MTC in Provo August 5, 2013 and leave for London August 9, 2013. We have been called to be MLS missionaries--which stands for Member/Leadership/Support. Basically we'll be doing what the mission president asks us to do.
We've had an interesting 18 months. It's been filled with a lot of Tender Mercies. We thought we would have been out for a year by now, but the Lord had different ideas.
We started making plans months before Byron retired a year ago in May. Our first priority was Chad. We had to make sure he would be OK if we were gone for 2 years. We Hoped he could stay home and not have his life too disrupted. Scott & Lindsay had just returned from law school in Florida and were looking for work. They wanted to be in Sacramento and were willing to live in our home and be here with Chad, but the jobs were hard to find. they ended up looking ALL over the state. After much work and prayer, Scott found a job in the AG's Office in Sacramento. That was our first Tender Mercy.
When Byron retired we had to go on Medicare because of our advancing years, but Chad wasn't covered. We were not able to find any insurance that would cover him even though he had a current physical and was very healthy. We didn't know what to do. After working and praying on this matter for 8 months, we were informed that he would qualify for Medicare in January. This was a Tender Mercy!
In filling out the mounds of paperwork to go on a mission, we found that the church wants to know three things--how long do you want to serve, where do you want to serve, & what kind of a mission are you interested in. We found that it's kind of like saying your prayers; the Lord would like us to be more specific. We had all kinds of suggestions from lots of different people--some of them in influential positions. Last summer we were on one of our many "good-by" trips, when we ran into a person I had known in high school. He happened to be serving on the missionary committee. We told him of our desire to serve a mission and he then counseled us about being "specific" and he also told us that ALL missions were great, but his personal feelings were that a mission for him, was Working with the People! He also counseled us to let them know where we wanted to serve, etc. For us that was a direct answer to our prayers because we were stuck trying to figure out what we should put down. It felt Right for us. This was a very Tender Mercy!
Because our paperwork and medical problems took so long to complete we have been blessed in other ways. One thing that Byron suggested that we do is to start walking. (One of the requirements of the mission is to be able to walk three miles a day.) In the last 3 1/2 years I have had a knee replacement and a broken femur. This extra time has been very helpful to me in strengthening my limbs so that I could do the work on our mission. We were also able to go to John's graduation from dental school and have been able to spend more time with our grandchildren and children. We also were able to welcome our newest grandchild, #13. We have been able to have regular time to study Preach My Gospel and we have been able to continue to serve in our Friday night shift at the temple--which we LOVE! These have ALL been Tender Mercies!
Bottom line is we're down to just over 2 weeks!
