From Mom:
I have always known that Paul and I would serve a mission. We thought that after retirement – after a few
years of traveling – that we would then be ready to go. Not quite………..
Paul was away on a 5th Sunday and we had Bro. Corey giving a lesson on Love, Share, Invite by Gary Stevenson
of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. He had just started the lesson and the Bishop interrupted him. He said
“Someone in here is feeling prompted to go on a mission and I’m here to tell you that you need to go.” I’m
feeling like there is a spotlight on me. I’m looking around at the class and wondering if anyone else is ‘the
person’. NOPE! It’s me. So I went to the temple that week to pray about it. I didn’t share with Paul what I
had experienced. I was in the Celestial Room of the Medford temple and it came very strongly that I was
supposed to serve a mission. I won’t go into detail about what the confirmation was but it was very clear.
Paul came home and I kept those things to myself for a few more days. I wanted to marinate in all of the feels
of it and make sure that I was square in what I knew.
I finally told Paul I needed to talk to him. The blood drained out of his face. Not sure what he thought I was
going to say but it certainly wasn’t a mission. I shared with him my Sunday experience and then my temple
experience. He sat quiet for a minute and then he said, “I’m not going to leave you alone again. You think
too much!” We laughed and then we didn’t really talk about it.
We had decided spur of the moment to take a road trip to the Redwoods and then to a show with Jay Leno at
Seven Feathers Casino. While we were driving we started talking a bit more about it. We pulled up the
opportunities that were available and discussed where we would like to serve, what kind of mission we would
like to serve, and when we would want to go. I told him that I wasn’t really sure about the time frame. I
wasn’t sure that I was being directed to leave immediately. We hiked the afternoon away and drove to Seven
Feathers.
We had dinner reservations and were sitting at our table. I was mid bite and Paul said, “I think we should put
our papers in now.” I about dropped my fork. We spent the next two hours just talking it all through and
knew that the time was right. We are young, healthy, and can afford to go now.
That started the ball rolling and it rolled fast! We came home and had our dental and doctor appointments
scheduled. We got the paperwork filled out. We got our appointments with Bishop Miller (whose fault this
truly is!) and Pres. Phillips. And just like that our papers were in.
It took just shy of 3 weeks for the call to come in. Democratic Republic of the Congo Kinshasa East Mission.
We report to the MTC on Feb. 6th , 2023 and will serve for 23 months.
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