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.

Walking Intervals Day 6

I have been walking intervals now for a week. Very wonderful! I think I'm getting something like 25% more exercise in the same amount of time, based on distance. Cool!

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.

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!

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.