Trip to the Seashore Sept 17,2011

Saturday was a lovely day. We went touring around with the Jensens, Westons, and Youngs in the mission van. We went to the eastern coast and the weather was Beautiful. The scenery was fantastic and we really enjoyed getting to know each other. I think we have some great pictures.

Here is a photo of Whitby Abbey from our trip to the eastern seashore. England is so beautiful!

MTC Friends

We have also really enjoyed the other couples in our group of 27 missionaries. Our favorites are Elder and Sister Howes, Elder & Sister Hall and Elder and Sister Jensen. People from our group are going all over the US and the world. Two couples are going to Africa.

Lorraine -The MTC

September 4, 2011

We have completed a week here at the Missionary Training Center and it has been wonderful. It is really great to see all the young elders and sisters with their bright and earnest faces. They are so good! They usually will race ahead to open doors for us and sometimes clear away our trays after dinner, just to be nice. Gary says that we feel like rocks in a stream and he is right. The young folks all move so fast!

We had classes Monday –Friday with wonderful young returned missionary teachers. We really grew to love them. We taught lessons to “investigators” and listened to some great guest speakers. Some of the speakers are quite old and have served missions all over the world.

Counting Down

We are now counting down the days until we depart. We do not, however, know when that will be. Our call letter said that we would report to the MTC 0n September 5th. President Lindley, our mission president called and reassigned us to work in the mission office. He also asked that we come 2 weeks earlier, if possible. So our target date is August 22nd. We are not sure the visa issues can be resolved in the time available, so we will see. We have been in contact with the couple we will be replacing and are getting alot more information.

Shifting Paradigms

We have been quite comfortable with our retired life. Lorraine retired in December of '08 and I in June of '09. We have been able to travel a little and spend time with our family. We were called to a church service mission to work in the LDS Employment Resource Services office and began working there in October of '09. We worked there three days a week; on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:30am until noon and on Tuesdays from 4pm to 7pm. Then on Thursday we worked in the temple. We left home at 2:30pm and got home about 11:30pm. The time commitments were not like full-time work but gave us a place to be each day and a worthwhile purpose. We have enjoyed this time greatly.
We report the the Mission Training Center in Provo UT on September 5th, 2011. We will begin our mission and begin a new phase of our lives. We have a hard time picturing what life will be like for us in Leeds, England. We generally know the program in which we will be working but cannot picture the setting in which we will live and organize our lives. It is exhilarating to put these details in the hands of the Lord and step forward with faith. We trust that this is where we should be and what we should do.

The Call!

Our mission call came on Thursday, June 16, 2011. We spend Thursdays quietly getting ready to serve at the temple. We had gone out to lunch and on the way home Lorraine said, "I hope it comes early so we can have it before we go to the temple." We both knew that was ridiculous because we had had that hope every day for the past two months and because the mail hardly ever comes until 5pm. But, lo and behold, I walked to the mailbox and there it was!

I walked in with the prize in my hand. We momentarily thought about calling the kids and opening it with them and then ripped it open.... We will be serving in England Leeds Mission assigned to the Center for Young Adults! We are honored and anxious to serve!

Waiting for the call

We had our interview with the stake president on May 1, 2011. We began to anticipate our call coming about 2 weeks later. We had heard from several places that was about how long it might take. Young missionaries get their call in about that time span. We sat on the curb waiting for the mail. Same week 3 and week 4. Here we are in week 6. Our bishop was able to go online and see that our letter has been sent and we should get it this week. The anticipation is fun and we get more attention at church and isn't that what this is all about?