New Zealand: our mission, the more sacred side

Here we are in Feilding, New Zealand. A short time ago we said, 'where?' Now it's home.

Each day we get up at 6:30 (unless the melodious birds wake us earlier) and get ready for the day. Part of that time - usually about an hour to maybe as much as two hours - consists of a prayer together to start the day and the study of scriptures on a given topic.

We use as a guide the marvelous book Preach My Gospel. I particularly like the studies in the chapter called Christ-Like Attributes. I have been transformed in many ways by doing these studies. I can't recommend that book - manual, really - too greatly.

Then we head to the chapel, which is about 5 minutes from our little house.

It's here at the chapel that we can get online, so we check our email and Facebook and so on. Then we open the doors for our Open Chapel program. More on that in another post.

After two hours, it's time to close up and send everyone home. We either stay for a bit to continue online, or walk to lunch a mile or so away, or drive home for lunch.

In the afternoon we visit people, share various gospel-related messages with them, just read the scriptures and pray with them, go for a walk, take a rest or a nap, make supper, or all the above. Or grab some groceries or do the wash.

In the evening we go out and teach, or stay home and write, or take a walk.

Often our work takes us to distant towns. We have four towns under our care: Feilding where we live, Foxton, Levin, and Wanganui. We are getting to know church members in each of them. We share our Open Chapel program with them in hopes that they will find ways to take it up, too. We give talks about the importance of family history, or our journey, or gospel topics.

I'll write separately about what we've discovered in our travels. That will be on Travels with Juan, another blog. (travelswithjuan.blogspot.com).

The real nature of our work depends on an understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'd like to talk about that, since my understanding has changed so much, but I'll save that for a different post.

What is really meaningful, of course, about what we do is the people. That has been a real eye-opener. So I'll save that for another post too.

For me, these six weeks since we have been on our mission have been transformative. Never have I understood the gospel the way I do now. Study of the scriptures and prayer make a huge difference. On our other missions, we were caught up in a workday that was not in itself immersed in the gospel (and a lot of what we do here is not either), but here we have time to study and make ourselves busy in direct missionary work.

I should say that unlike the young missionaries, we set our own schedule and choose our own activities. It's up to us to make of this experience what we will. As you will see if you continue reading, Open Chapel is a result of that confidence the leadership has in senior missionary couples.

Time is going fast. We are almost a quarter of the way through our time here. Sometimes I want to keep going, other times I know it would be good to go home. But we signed up for 6 months, and that is no doubt what we will do.

Angels and miracles, part 1

We are at the airport. Most of the logistics gave been handled, and we have been among angels along the way.

Friends from our last mission housed us and gently counseled us and kept us calm in their sweet atmosphere.

Family met us for lunch today on this last day and shared their good humor with us.

Moriah drove us to the airport and waited at the curb while we ferried loads to the ticketing counter. It's nice to have such a grown-up, responsible granddaughter so willing to lend a hand. I'm sure she'll do 'helpful' things with tour car. :)

And a real miracle, very strange in how it played out, showed us that our angels are everywhere. Here's what happened.

We found out a few days ago that by opting to skip a few days in Hawaii we would no longer be able to take two bags for free. That's because of switching airlines. The cost could have ended up being $360 a bag beyond the first bag.

So we spent hours weighing bags, rearranging suitcases, cutting down our not-terribly-large selection of clothes, and coming up with a plan that would see us with only one extra bag instead of two.

Still it was frustrating to have the extra expense with nothing to show for it.

Then last night, after laying out all the bags, I decided to call Delta Airlines to see what the rules really were. We had seen them listed several different ways, including on the Delta website.

Much to my joy the woman on the phone said there was no charge for the first two bags! That was good news even though we had lost several hours repacking. We closed things up and breathed a sigh of relief.

That was good news but not a real miracle, I don't think. But what follows is.

Today we went to the airport. Moriah waited at the car while John and I went in with a good-sized load each. We were met in the Delta area by a very large, pleasant agent. He took my passport and helped me get checked in, did the same for John when he returned with two more suitcases and a large box of Shaklee goods.

We immediately learned he was from New Zealand, from up north in Hamilton.

He helped us carry things to the counter. But there was a problem. Our ticket info showed we were entitled only to one bag each! The woman on the phone had been wrong.

We told the agent at the counter about the conversation and she sent us to another agent. That agent also said we would have to pay, that she wasn't authorized to remove the charges.

Then she asked our New Zealand helper to go get authorization from an office somewhere else in the airport. He came back a few minutes later with approval.

The miracle? The first agent on the phone, the one who was mistaken, ultimately put us in the position of taking everything we needed. Sam, the New Zealander, advocated for us the whole way and stuck with us. (Yea, John did tip him!) The women at the counters were sympathetic and didn't turn us away. And the unknown person upstairs did his part.

So now we are settled in good season at the gate. We got a pre-authorization to go through security. The airport has stations for refilling water bottles! And we are on our way.

Bottom line: We have with us all the necessities we had planned to take way back. We didn't have to pay any more for luggage. We are well trained and eager to get to work. And it took angels along the way and when we needed them they were there.

Never doubt the smooth ride when you are on the Lord's errand! All the stumbling blocks along the way were not real. Tricky but totally ineffectual. Gone.

Developments part the next

How many developments have there been? Well, I don't know but here's another one:

We put an offer in on a house today. We should have a deal by Monday. Then we start on getting finances to buy it, and we're not sure how that will play out. But we're optimistic. We are scheduled to close on the house by the end of July.

Wow!

We're still full-time missionaries until April 30, and then we drive to New England for my 45th college reunion. On that trip we planned to do significant research and see friends. And then drive back by way of Tucson, pick up the Durango and the load from D's office at UA, and drive to Anacortes to start our life there.

So much for ideas from the past.

There's no point in assuming this new plan will endure any longer, but here it is:

We no longer have to drive to Tucson in late June, the hottest season, and get the stuff. And there's no need to take it to Anacortes: it can come here. To our house here.

Van asked the other day which would be our vacation home and which our primary residence. It's obvious, I think, that Anacortes will end up being our vacation home...

So we will go straight to Anacortes after the trip to New England, and get to work on books and garden and hikes and trips to the Cascades. And then we will come back to Salt Lake for the winter season. And at that time we will drive to Tucson and get the load from D's office.

So what will we do here? Resume our mission. Probably as Church Service (part-time) missionaries, but possibly for the six months after we get back - in fall 2010 - we could be full-timers.

There are details such as the need to reapply (and do the physicals and all that) if we are to be away for more than 3 months, which we would be. So probably we would be CSMs and work in the library 3 days a week.

But it's impossible to say. The books we have set out to write are compelling in themselves. And we have a whole community here to learn about.

Well, we might not get a sales agreement on the house, and we might not be able to arrange financing, but if both these things go through without a hitch, we will be residents of Salt Lake by August.

So what' the house like? About 1650 sf, big living room across the front, big dining room on the right facing the back, and a decent sized bedroom plus bathroom plus closet on the left. Behind the dining room a lavatory. Behind everthing a kitchen, the big closet before mentioned, and a laundry room. Then a small yard covered at the moment in concrete. In the basement, two finished bedrooms partly above ground. No garage, but a shed. No grass. Place for a shady garden in the front facing south. A tenth of a mile to Van's, up the hill and to the right. A total of 1.2 miles to the Family History Library, less to the temple by a bit. Libraries are nearby and Smith's and a haircut place one block up the hill, closer than Van's. It's over 100 yrs old, brick. Pretty cool place!

We'd have room for overnight guests and dinner parties and patio parties and midnight walks. And we hope we'd have nice enough weather, since we would be here winters, to walk to work and home again.

Well, we'll see.

Not enough!

Twelve months here is not going to be enough. So we have extended for another 6.

But 6 more won't do it either: we are fulfilled in what we are doing, with people we know, with being near family and walking distance to the temple and the choir and beautiful gardens.

We really need to stay forever.

But on the other hand, we need to get back to Anacortes and plant our garden and write our books. And see our friends and the ocean and enjoy cold summers.

So we have a plan: 6 months here, 6 months there. And that means buying a house here. And we've started looking.

We can't be full-time missionaries on such a schedule, but we can be Church Service Missionaries, and that can be essentially the same thing but with more freedom.

In fact, there may not turn out to be anything magic about 6 and 6. We'd have to learn by doing.

Which we intend to do. :)

Integration

We have been on our mission for 7 1/2 months. Each month has led us to new understandings and confidence. The pieces have been collecting. And now we are beginning to experience integration.

One of the beauties of turning 50, I recall, is the feeling that things were beginning to make sense. The parts were starting to add up to a whole. This new mindset resulted in peace as well as a certain headiness around the idea that life could be grasped.

Becoming 60 was like turning a shallow corner. The changes were not abrupt, and the realities of the sixties could be seen from well back in the 50s. The biggest augmentation of 50s life was in realizing we could take control of our affairs when retirement finally became our reality. We figured it would happen when JSL was 67 or 68, but times changed and we were fully retired right after his 66th birthday.

Retirement meant being able to make more choices about our life, such as where in the world to visit, where to settle, when to serve a mission.

The mission came upon us sooner because retirement was sooner. We had been thinking about our mission for years, but by January 2008 we knew we wanted to go to Salt Lake for a family-history mission. One reason was because the economy appeared to be tumbling and house prices were falling, which meant, we felt, that we needed to stay close to home so we could take care of our affairs.

So the events of our 60s started coming at high speed, and we embraced them.

Now, after 7 months of full-time mission life, we find ourselves molding the pieces of our lives - the ones we began to discover as part of a whole more than a decade ago - into just the life we want. Here's where we are today with this creating:

We want to continue to serve in the Family History Library indefinitely. We extended our full-time call until April 30, 2010. But that will hardly be enough.

We could stay here forever - till the end - but we have other work to do. We have books to write, and places to visit, and gardens to plant.

So how to bring it all about...?

By living half a year in Anacortes and half a year in Salt Lake. By having a garden in Anacortes. By living in Anacortes from mid-May to mid-November, or June 1 to November 1, or something like that. By writing books in Anacortes. By indulging widely in the outdoors life. And then by coming back to Salt Lake, serving in the library many days a week, visiting children and grandchildren, enjoying conference and the Choir and evening concerts. And in between by traveling.

It's a beautiful vision to me. I see our moving forward in this dynamic setting for at least another decade.

There is such a balance to this plan! I see a small house in each location. The Anacortes one would have room for a garden, a little greenhouse, and visitors. It would have a view of the sea. The Salt Lake one would be a short bus-ride or walk from Temple Square and would be cozy and have good workspace.

We would write the books we have lined up and continue to be physically active as well as deeply engaged in understanding our kindred dead and helping others to do the same.

This is what the 60s is all about: not only understanding the parts but molding them into a meaningful and dynamic whole.

This understanding is causing a great swell of passion, excitement, rightness, and goodness within us. We will create it, and do it. Amen.

OH NO!

I am grateful for the Holy Ghost in my life. I don't think I would have survived otherwise. I have been saved from errors big and small, and I also think my life has been saved. 

But there's the other side: Sometimes the Holy Ghost has a message for me that are unanticipated and maybe even unwelcome.

Such as what happened to me today.

Elder Lewis and I went to Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearsal and broadcast, and instead of sitting in our usual place toward the front, we found it reserved for someone and moved toward the next section back.

I slid in next to a youngish man, smiled, sat down...

And he struck up a conversation.

Turns out he is a professor of Yupik languages at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. And he is in Salt Lake working with the translation group translating Gospel Essentials into one of the Yupik languages. He had started it on his own, but finished here, in connection with getting his PhD.

Now it so happens that in my first year as a linguistics graduate student at the University of Arizona I did a paper on Yupik, specifically on Central Siberian Yupik, which is spoken in Siberia and also on some of the islands in the Aleutians.

So we had much to talk about, and did. He illustrated for me some of the Yupik languages, including their prosody. It so happens that the rest of my linguistics career was spent studying prosody...

Then I asked him if he had been to the Family History Library, which he had not. And unfortunately he is leaving in 3 days and won't have time.

The follow up question was whether he had done any family history research, and essentially neither he nor the Yupik people he knows had done any.

This man was warm and friendly and concerned deeply for the language of his people, and the culture that goes with it. But not with his kindred dead.

And then the Holy Ghost spoke to me. It is a work to be done. And it appears that we may be the people to do it.

Until recently I have been compelled within myself to go to set up a regional family history center in Ulan Bataar, Mongolia. I have had no understanding of why, it was just there. Dear Elder Lewis's comment about this compelling desire was, "I'll miss you". 

But just recently it was spoken in our presence that lawlessness had taken over in Mongolia. That did damp down my enthusiasm.

So maybe I had misinterpreted the location for that effort. Or maybe thinking through what it would be like to do a big family-history project like that in Mongolia prepared me to consider such a thing in Alaska.

In any case, many arrows drawn in the past point to it:

1. Study of Yupik and even prosody! 

2. Serving on the International floor at the FHL.

3. Being courageous (?) about learning and speaking languages.

4. Having prepared to serve in the same capacity in Mongolia.

5. Being filled with the Spirit of Elijah.

6. Knowing from my own experience how easily the knowledge of a family can be lost with the passing of just one person, and how rapidly any culture can be lost without knowing the life and struggles of our kindred dead.

7. Knowing that we can't be saved without them, nor they without us - and a whole culture could perish in unbelief without such a work.

Well, we'll see what happens next. Many many layers of effort must be made to bring about such a project, and if we are not on the right track with these thoughts, those efforts will not bear fruit. 

But I have begun. I have checked the library's holding in Yupik genealogies and they are sparse or non-existent (depending on how narrowly Yupik is defined). Next: where are the centers of membership in Alaska?

Crazy or inspired? I don't know - yet. But my friend from the Tabernacle and I really connected, I have his email address, and now it's a matter of letting the Holy Spirit guide.

Training is over...

We have just completed our two weeks of intensive training in the Family and Church History Mission department. It was amazing!

The 34 or so of us met in 4 labs on the third floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The labs were filled with computers, and we met each day, all day long, with a trainer apiece. Each trainee and trainer shared a computer. A written manual guided the way. The trainer pointed at the screen with a soft-tipped stick. Following instructions, the trainee learned all the tricks of using PAF, Family Search, New Family Search, and Ancestry.com.

Some of us had more experience than others. Because we each had our own trainer, though, we were able to go at our own pace.

I have had a lot of experience with computers, some with the various programs - and absolutely no discipline in sourcing the results of my research. That was my biggest lesson: how to source effectively. I now have census record and World War 1 draft card images attached to the people they refer to. It is very satisfying!

One surprise is that we are using PAF (Personal Ancestral File, a free download at http://familysearch.org/) as the main location for all our records. It's easy to create sources in PAF, and an enormous family can fit all its records, including images and photos, on a memory stick. No internet connection is needed, then, to add a fact or a new photo. PAF is easy to use, and I've enjoyed getting to know it again.

Our days consisted of intense instruction, practice, snack breaks, an hour for lunch, more of the same in the afternoon, and trips at times to the Family History Library. The FHL is about 300 steps from our apartment, so it's easy to drop in there and take a look at christening records made nearly 500 years ago that have been preserved on microfilm.

But now training is over. On Friday we had our 'Go Forth' day, a beautiful event filled with inspiring talks, announcement of our assignments, and a trip to the Temple with everyone in our Training Zone.

The Family and Church History Mission is made up of 28 zones, so after training we are assigned to one where we will spend 6 months to a year, or possibly more. Some zones work on the technical side, such as digitizing or repairing books, or entering data. Others are there to help patrons visiting the FHL to find what they're looking for. John and I were assigned to the International Reference zone.

In International Reference, we help people looking for ancestors from countries other than the US, Canada, or the British Isles, which have their own zones (and their own floors of the FHL). International has its own floor, and covers every other part of the world. Some of the patrons are English-speaking, but a large number are not. We need to be able to communicate the basics in foreign languages on a regular basis. Both John and I have studied several languages, so maybe that's why we received this calling. It sounds really exciting, and of course more than a bit challenging!

We have our first meeting in the zone on Monday, when we begin more training and have a new manual to absorb, specific to that zone. I am really excited to learn more about what we'll be doing.

These are all the details of our life, but the bigger work is about finding and linking to our kindred dead. All our training was focused on our own family histories. Our hearts are fully engaged with these loved ones from the past, most of whom we don't know and haven't even heard of. We have had many touching successes during our training period. I will write about these elsewhere.

I have learned so much these past two weeks! We feel it a true blessing to be able to be here at this time. Living on Temple Square is a wonderful experience: we are able to walk to work, and come home for lunch. We have new friends. One son lives 5 minutes away by car, another less than half an hour away. We have friends in the Provo area and also just north of SLC whom we are able to visit. Senior missionaries have a lot of latitude in their after-hours activities, and can travel a radius of 60 miles. We have a small apartment, sufficient for our needs, at a very reasonable price. We walk over to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearsals and performances each Sunday morning, and to church at the old and lovely Salt Lake City Stake building half a block away. It is a lovely life. No gardens, of course, and no long trips. But it suits us very well.

And since we can't come to you, why don't you come to us? Or better yet, come be part of this mission? (They need you - they are short 125 missionaries and have projects on hold for lack of faithful servants.)

Set Apart

Today we were set apart. We are missionaries. We are very happy.

We were set apart by Pres Rhine, our stake president, in the Anacortes building. We had several guests, our dearest friends from the ward: Nancy Oczkewicz, Kay and Larry Winebrenner, Bishop Rutter, his second counselor Bro Treiber, Fred Stone, Karen and Norm Buker, and my dear 'brother' Norman Landerman-Moore.

I was set apart first. D and Pres Rhine did it, w/ Pres Rhine as voice. I was blessed with health and strength and the ability to inspire and teach the family history patrons effectively. I was also blessed that during our service our own family would be blessed with the things they need. There was much more that is only vague in my memory. It was very nice.

Then D was set apart. Pres Rhine was voice again, and Bsp Rutter assisted. D's blessings emphasized more of the technical side of the work, and mentioned patrons only toward the end. Again he was blessed w/ health and strength, patience, and blessings for his family during his time of service.

So we are missionaries now.

Our report date is still 12 days away. But this was our last Sunday here. Next week we will attend w/ our new branch.

Which reminds me that we were both promised wonderful new friendships. Stay tuned...

We only hope the friends we are leaving behind will find their way to SLC and visit and have some fun with the wonderful family history facilities that will be our bailiwick. They think they will...

Our SLC Apartment

We just received our housing assignment for our mission. Our address will be: 131 W 200 N #5. It is in the Garden Apartments complex, half a block due west of the Conference Center.

Our ward is the Salt Lake City Stake 2nd Branch. It meets directly across 200 N from our apartment. Our church meetings are from 1:30 to 4:30.

Our apartment is available beginning Nov 6. We have an appointment to pick up the keys at 10 am that day.

Our first mission meeting is a luncheon on Friday Nov 7. We start training on Monday Nov 10. Training lasts 2 weeks, at the end of which we will receive our assignment.

I need to find my winter boots.

An Appealing Mission Task

Here is one of the appealing tasks we could be assigned to for our mission. I'm copying it from the mission handbook:

Medieval Zone FHL B2 (Family History Library Basement Level 2)

"The Medieval Zone provides service by researching and organizing medieval records. They develop, maintain, and make available the Medieval Family Files (with temple ordinance date when competed) for selected individuals who lived before 1600. The need is to prepare early records that may have been filmed but not yet reduced to digital form, and are not well resourced, nor merged into family units. The goal is to avoid so much duplication as presently experienced. Although the principal effort is aimed at data from England, there are also substantial efforts in German, French, Polynesian and Scandinavian underway. Another unique feature of this work is in the level of effort being accomplished by workers at home. This zone is uniquely equipped to do this kind of work. The zone has no contact with library patrons and, as the work becomes very complicated quite frequently, everyone is highly trained and uses the best of technology and experience."

Sounds good to us! They all sound good, but some especially so...

The Packet!

We received our missionary packet today, the one that lays out all the details of the mission.

It turns out that the mission is divided into the two main divisions, Church History and Family History, and then each of them is divided into many many subdivisions. We read their descriptions as soon as the packet came, and we already have clear preferences. More on this as time goes by.

In general, there are the outer, public areas that everyone knows about, such as the Family History Center, and the Church History and Art Museum, and work among the patrons there. Within these divisions are areas pertaining to parts of the world, such as Chinese, or Scandinavian, where specialization is possible. There's a Deaf specialty, also.

And then there are areas where archives are handled. For example, there is a facility in Orem that is just opening, which when up and running will work 24/7 to digitize vast amounts of church-related printed material.

In the Church History section, journals are often sent to the church which have to be analyzed for authenticity and relevance (my words, actually); also summarized and passed on to the professional historians.

There are teaching assignments also. And more you will hear more about shortly.

We learned a few things about our apartment and our branch, too. We don't know which apartment we'll find room in, but the map we were sent shows various complexes surrounding Temple Square, all within 1/4 mile. We need to take cooking and eating tools, linens, and of course personal care items, and there were a few comments that suggested the apartments are only incompletely furnished and we might need to buy some furniture - too bad given how much we'll have in storage here! We'll call for more details.

Our branch meets at the Salt Lake Stake Center at 143 West 200 North. It is made up of half of the missionaries working in this mission, and our class of November 2008 entering missionaries all attend together. (The other branch meets in the JSM Bldg.) We meet at 1:30 with RS / P first.

Our cohort of 20 (those entering in November) are to do activities together at least every 3 months. In other words, we are a 'family' or a team, regardless of our assignments. We had something a little less structured but similar when we were in Beijing, and it was quite satisfactory.

We work 8 to 4 every day, with the exception of about 20% of the assignments, which have Saturday hours and shiftwork during the week. We are given 4 hours a week during work time to do our own family history research, and are required to bring our PAF files for 4 generations plus names and dates for the 5th generation, along w/ our Patriarchal Blessings.

That's a quick overview. It's exciting and I've left a lot out. I'll tell you more about our favorite areas soon.

One delightful development: the mission has 3 choirs, general, men's, and women's. We'll be there!

It is possible to be invited to extend. I hope we qualify...

Houses And Other Encumbrances

Today we have our 6 properties, and from the moment we conceived of going on our mission sooner rather than waiting, our goal has been to lessen the load.

That means either selling or renting out all of them.

We have no idea how long this mission will last - 12 months to 4 years, probably at least 18 months. So we have no business owning several domiciles and the huge bills and responsibilities that are part of owning properties.

We put the land on the market some time ago, and now we have this Anacortes house for sale and also the Tucson Sallee Place home for sale. We have been successful in getting renters where we weren't able to sell, or the timing was wrong to sell. So we're making progress.

The Anacortes house is being shown tomorrow and looks great (except for the lawn, which is only partly mowed due to rain).

Our goal hasn't changed. We report to church headquarters for training in 4 1/2 months. There's still time!

If the Anacortes house sells quickly, which it could - this market is not like the supersaturated Tucson one - then we will possibly see if we can start our mission sooner. We'll cross that bridge when the time comes.

We would consider ourselves very blessed to have the land and Sallee Place house sell. What a relief that would be!

Your prayers and positive expectations are welcome!

Pre-Mission Travels

We expect to take a month to travel before we end up in Salt Lake for our mission.

We have people we don't want to postpone seeing, and we want to feel free to extend our mission if we want to without getting Wanderlust.

Here's our pathway, without firm dates so far. If you are on this list, be forewarned. And then later we'll add some dates:

1. Drive (in the Durango) to Great Falls MT to see grandkids and drop off a bed.
2. Drive to Salt Lake City UT to drop off our mission belongings. Quick hello to friends and family.
3. Drive to Boulder UT to meet someone coming from Tucson with our Prius, who will take our Durango back to Tucson.
4. Drive to Denver or Colorado Springs (in the Prius) to see the Samuelsons.
5. Drive to Fairfield IA to see Kay Ferguson.
6. Drive to Paulding OH to see Deb and Sara and Sara's kids.
7. Drive to New England to see: Jim and Lenny, Lucy and Allan, Patrice and Harry, Valerie and Peter, Bill and Joyce, Dorothy, and as many other people as we can find and fit in.
8. Drive to Eden Prairie MN to see Adamses.
9. Drive to Cowley WY to see Toni, Rich, and the boys.
10. Drive to Salt Lake for our mission, arriving approx Nov 5 in the evening.

This is the best guess right now, some 3 mos and several days before we'd have to leave.

What is not on this list, and still a possibility, is a trip to England with Lucy and Allan Katz. They lived there for a year and would be great tour guides. Plus, we've been planning a walking tour w/ them, plus some family history in the same locale where they wanted to tour, for some time, long before Lucy retired. But we may not be able to afford it this year. If we do go, the trip will be shoehorned in just after arriving in New England. That means an early start date for the trip.

As it is now, the trip will need to be close to a month long. With England, add 2-3 weeks.

If you have any input about when you don't want us to be somewhere, let me know quick! And I am looking for volunteers to drive the Prius to Boulder, and the Durango to Tucson, on the date when we would be there, which, best guestimate, would be about Oct 15.

Here are some durations of visit. This would be subject to some flexibility as needed - we may build in 1-2 days for flexing the plan:

Great Falls - 2 nights, one full day
Salt Lake - 2 nights, one full day
Boulder - 1 night
Denver/CO Springs - 2 nights, one full day
Nebraska - 1 night
Fairfield IA - 2 nights, one full day
Paulding OH - 2 nights, one full day
New England - 1 week
midway to MN - 1 night
Eden Prairie MN - 2 nights, 1 full day
midway to Cowley - 1 night
Cowley - 2 nights, 1 full day
Total: 25 nights on the road, 26 days - Approx dates Oct 10 to Nov 5 (no-England version),

It will be nice to be based in SLC after that. We have so very many wonderful family members and friends we can visit on our days off! Because we will have something like 1 to 3 years for those visits, we're waiting to do them when we're living right there on the Wasatch Front.

We're getting excited.

Not This Week, I Guess...

The mail just came. At least the mailtruck just went by. But nothing for us. I suppose there is some small hope it will come tomorrow, but it seems unlikely it would take 4 days from Salt Lake, and we know they're mailed on Tuesdays.

So it looks like we wait for another week...

One Step Of Progress

Just now I received a call from our rental agent in Benson. Our house there is now rented with a year's lease. YAYAYAYAYAY! This house has been vacant since last October, and a real drain on us.

Now we have the opportunity to wait and sell it at a more advantageous time. (This is the least conceivable advantageous time, with prices down a hefty amount and days on market at record highs in the Tucson area.)

One of the mission preparation steps we undertook in January was the resolving of all the real estate challenges: selling or renting our properties that we were not currently using. So this first success in that area is very welcome in a week during which we are expecting our call, and in which we fasted with our mission-preparation steps foremost in our minds.

We pray constantly for additional relief in this area.

Mystery of Missing Mission Call Starts with M

I just talked to the kind Bro Godfrey from the mission department, having called him because we needed to change our address from Chris's to Rye Court, Anacortes.

He said, funny thing you should have called - I have just talked to your stake president....

It turns out that they had processed our papers, and knew that I was probably related to John, an astronomer...

But they couldn't send us our call because of our photo.

!!!!!!

What was wrong with our photo?

The MUSTACHE! One has a choice: mustache or mission.

He said if I would cross my heart and hope to die, he would go ahead and send our call along with the others for processing, and that it would go out in the mail next Tuesday. He laughed and said it could not go out today no matter what.

But I had to promise to provide a new photo with no mustache!

I said I would but that it would take a few days while we were in transit. He was ok w/ that.

So next Thursday or so, we should get our call. We are having it sent to our home address so we don't have to hang out at the post office. It has been cleared by the Apostles already.

The actual mustache-bearer is not overjoyed, but will comply. Right before we do the photo, I think...

An Hour Later...

The mail just came!

The spirit of prophecy is upon me.

Did I mention yesterday at this time that ...

I didn't think it would come today? Actually, I was pretty sure it wouldn't come today.

Of course we're talking here about our MISSION CALL!

Well....

It didn't come today.

The mail comes at 10 am tomorrow....

:)

Actually, I don't think it's going to come then, either. :-

Sealings

After much planning and careful coordination with Chris and the Romneys, today we had our long-planned family sealing session. Much thanks to our special friends!

It was a spirit-filled event, with many happy family members in attendance, too many to count. Humility, hope, and repentance filled some hearts, and also relief.

Babies (Leslie, William Edward, Teresa, Charles H, Chauncey) were made part of their forever-families, and parents were joined to receive them. Couples greeted each other with open arms.

The work is just beginning, and we know we'll have ever so many more helpers for future searches.

We'd like to schedule another sealing in SLC when everyone can make it. We'll know better what dates might work in another day or two, when we learn whether we will be in Mongolia at this time next year, or Salt Lake, or Milwaukee or Atlanta or Yellowknife. Once we know, the planning will begin in earnest.

Already Chris and the girls will do baptisms this Saturday, with 18 scheduled so far. If you'd like to do some of the work for these loved ones, please let me know.

Call On Hold - Need Prayers

We just got a call from church headquarters from a sister who apparently goes over the medical stuff with a fine-toothed comb. She found that JSL's blood pressure was high. And that my hemoglobin was low. Here's the story:

JSL has elevated blood pressure (actually up, then down) when he is getting measured in a doctor's office. (Not an unknown phenomenon - called 'white-coat syndrome'.) So they fitted him w/ a cuff and monitor for 24 hours. It pumps your arm up to about 200 every 15 minutes except at night when it's every 1 hour. He came to hate it. His bp was 141/91. His doc wanted him to go on drugs.

The church needs him to have below 140/90 three days in a row.

I don't think that will be hard at all, once he's not in a aggravating setting. Plus he's been walking or running an hour a day and that's the best way to get it down. He is definitely under stress to get us moved and this is the worst it gets. We have no intention for him to go on drugs for 1 point over the standard, esp since they don't address the root cause.

Now for me. This one is trickier and may make it so that we can't go on a mission at all, though as D says, it's just another thing to push against. (We find a lots of barriers, but we have learned just to push against them...)

Context for me: I have just been declared healthy, above average health: normal heart, everything else great too. I walk vigorously for an hour a day when it's not too hot out.

But I do have irritable bowel, managed except when aggravated by some food. One of the real aggravations for it is iron in large quantity.

And when something irritates me, it makes my intestines inflamed. And they bleed, and stop as soon as the irritating substance is out of my system. So with enough aggravation I get anemic.

Plus I've always been anemic. This walking vigorously an hour a day is done w/ low hemoglobin numbers (9.4).

The lady at the church said 'we want you healthy enough to serve'. I'm trying to tell her I am but I have to get my hemoglobin up to 12. It has never been 12.

I need to take more iron. But it is very aggravating, if I take more than a certain amount. It will make me bleed. The last time I increased my iron to overcome 'anemia' I bled enough to take me to the next lower level!

I can eat iron-rich foods, but that takes a long, long time to build up iron levels to 'normal' (which is not normal for me at all).

The way we left it is, when D has his blood pressure behaving (3 days in a row under 140 / 90) then I go get a hemoglobin, and then they will look at our papers.

It is probable that his bp will be ok 3 days from now and that my hemoglobin will never be ok.

So that's why we need prayers. We need a way to show the church that I am healthy and capable without meeting a certain standard of 'average' hemoglobin levels.

I was scheduled to get my hemoglobin done today anyway. I doubt if I've made headway in the past 6 weeks since it was measured before - it's just too soon, plus taking extra iron made me bleed. We'll see shortly.

So we are in a difficult position right now. I suppose we could just unpack and go back to life as we've known it. It's so strange to have come this far and to have an 11th hour challenge.

We will push against it and see if it's real. But don't count on a call any time soon. We need prayers and insights into what to do. Do we stop by the missionary department when we are in SLC and let them see me run up and down the stairs several times? I'll do it...

Your suggestions are welcome, and certainly prayers. Love to all...

Paper Update 5/4/08

As of this morning, our papers were still at the stake offices, according to Bishop B Anderson, who is kind enough to look at his bishop's screen once in a while for us.