Why A Mission - Part 1

This is a hard question to answer. Ultimately it's about faith, and I'm not ready to tackle that subject.

But several factors have played into our decision to go. Some are maybe sublime, others are nearly profane. I hope to be honest in answering it, and this will end up being just Part 1, I'm sure.

When the idea of going to China was presented to us, we were already looking avidly at the 'blue bulletins' that listed missionary opportunities. We knew they'd be years in the future, so it was tantalizing to look, and dream, but it was also always safe.

China was something we could do almost immediately, and we did do that. Many remarkable blessings came our way that made it easy to go.

When we came home, we felt we had worked very hard.

It's important to note that our assignment in China was not a mission, even though it was related to the church. It was one of those things that can be done in China now, when it is closed to missionaries, and in no sense did we break the rules against proselyting. We just taught English.

We also met others who had chosen to teach, about 65 or so of them, mostly senior couples, some single sisters. Even though we were assigned in many different cities, we traveled widely with the whole group and we got to know them and love them.

We all returned around the same time, and most took a breather. But then some started to go out on true missions.

Meanwhile, Juan was offered an 'early' retirement pkg and we realized we could go too.

We kept our ears open, but weren't really sure we were mentally ready, with that hard year so recent.

We had friends who went to the Marshall Islands (which I had to look up) and were assigned to working in an office. We had friends who did temple duty on a full-time assignment. We heard of others getting ready...

Meanwhile we were getting used to retirement. We did gobs of paperwork for related practical issues, we tended the garden, we watched some TV and read some books. We toured and visited distant family and went on business trips. And then after 6 months we were done w/ all that and suddenly we felt it was time for a mission.

So that's Part 1. It's neither the sacred side nor the self-indulgent side - it's just the intro. Fwiw. PL