We Have Our Mission Assignment!! We are going to . . .

We finally received our mission assignment!! After being called to serve as a mission president (Wes) and companion (me) four and a half months ago, we have been very eagerly waiting to hear where we would be going the end of June.

We were sent a list by the church with 30 possibilities and so we spent the past several months studying each place, (love google earth!) and making guesses as to where we will live the next three years of our lives. In fact we even put up a map and had family and friends submit their guesses, the winner getting dinner at a restaurant that serves the cuisine of that country.

And we have a winner . . . . our friends Jenny and Cory, who, along with Wes, chose . . . (drum roll . . . )

Guadalajara Mexico!!!

Okay, truth be told, I was a little disappointed initially. I have lived in Mexico and was hoping for a new adventure (as you might be able to tell by the look on my face.:-)

But after checking out the city and the mission boundaries--which include Puerto Vallarta!, my feelings have changed.

Did you know that Guadalajara boasts the largest market in the western hemisphere?!

It is the birthplace of both Mariachi music and the Mexican Hat Dance :-)

It has perfect weather--no heating or air conditioning is necessary.

It supposedly has some of the country's best food.

And besides beautiful architecture in the downtown area, and wonderful parks all through the city, it is also just a short drive from a huge lake and a canyon that is supposed to be filled with waterfalls and great hiking trails.

It almost makes me wish we were going there on vacation instead of to work as missionaries. :-)

Viva Mexico!!!

It's a boy, and a boy, and a boy . . .

No, we are not having triplets, but we do have three baby boys on the way!! My daughter in-law, Kali is expecting a little boy in early May. And today Kristen found out her twins are both boys!!

So, when you add those three to Camden, (5 months old), and Enoch (1 year), we will have five grandsons born within 18 months!! After only having one son, Wes finally gets his boys basketball team!!

But poor Carly. She is the oldest grandchild--at 3-- and will have to wait a few years before she gets a girl cousin to play with at family reunions. But I am already planning fun days with her, while grandpa watches all the boys. :-)

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In other news . . . I have been busy trying to re-learn Spanish. Vocabulary is coming back rather quickly, but I am pretty sure I never really knew or understood the grammar. That is progressing much more slowly.

But I have good help. Twice a week I meet with a man in our stake and his wife for tutoring. The man, Grandpa C, taught Spanish in college and is a great teacher! I am so thankful for him as he helps me make sense of it all. And learning with his wife is so much fun.

In addition, I have tutoring from the MTC, via skype, three times a week. This is not very much fun! My tutor is nice, but really thinks I am better than I am and it ends up being very frustrating. The tutoring sessions are each an hour and about at the 45 minute mark I have to start holding back tears.

Today was a good day though. I was supposed to converse with a lady from Chile for 12 minutes, then discuss our conversation and get pointers on how to do it better, and then converse again, hopefully making the corrections. But she was very enthusiastic to share with me all about her country and her conversion. I loved it!! She was so sweet and fun to visit with. (Although I didn't understand everything she was telling me:-) And the time passed by quickly, with me actually having to say very little.

That was a relief! But next week I get a break due to my having gum surgery.

Not fun.

My Response to KMS

Dear KMS,

I don't know your name and I can't find a way to reach you other than posting again, so I hope you are able to read this.

In your comment to me you asked if I wanted to go on the mission and if I could just say no. The short answer is yes, I want to go, and yes I could say no, but I never would do that, even if I weren't happy to be going.

Usually married couples choose to go on a mission (or not) and choose the time they want to serve. They then fill out medical and dental forms to show they are capable of serving without serious medical issues, are interviewed by their church leaders and then wait for our prophet (leader of our church) to send a letter back telling them where they will go. In these instances, couples serve anywhere between 1 and 2 years at their own expense.

My husband and I have always planned on going on a mission, but our plan was to leave in a few years. In our case, we did not turn in papers requesting a mission call, but instead were asked by our church leaders to go and serve for three years.

Since we believe that our prophet speaks for God, we also then believe that it is God's will that we go. We could, of course, say no, but then we would be going against God's will for us, and we do not want to do that.

Now that said, I will admit that I didn't readily embrace this assignment. My mother is in poor health, and my children are having babies. The thought of leaving them all for three years was heart wrenching to say the least. But I am also getting very excited. We could go to any of 30 missions in 12 different Spanish speaking countries. And at a time when my baby is graduating from high school and leaving home, I will help my husband care for around 400 young men and women (over the course of the three years) who are away from their homes serving as missionaries as well. We will also get to learn a new culture and make new friends.

I have always loved traveling and new adventures and this is like the ultimate adventure trip. :-) So I know I will cry a lot when we leave Arizona, but I am confident that I will cry just as much or more, when we have to leave our area of service and come back.

Because I am sure the mission will bring great . . . joy to our journey.

So, If Anyone Is Still Out There . . . We Are Mission Bound!

I quit posting nearly three months ago. That was the same time we received a call to serve a mission.

Since then my head has been in a whirl, first trying to celebrate the holidays, put together the ward Christmas party, attend two weddings (one out of state) enjoy all my kids over Christmas break, and worry about my mother who was in the hospital again. While also crying over the thought of leaving my kids and grandchildren behind for three years, (did I mention our daughter Kristen, who got married last summer is expecting twins in July?) going to the dentist and having numerous medical tests, wondering what we will do with our house for that long, and trying to re-learn Spanish.

But rewind . . . . let me go back to the beginning.

Last fall Wes and I thought it would be a great idea to visit our kids in college so we decided to take a trip to Utah at conference time. Then one day, about a week before our trip, we received a telephone call from Elder Oaks' office. He wanted to meet with us while we were in Utah for conference.

Gulp.

Frankly, I was a bit nervous about it all, but also excited to spend some time with an apostle. During our visit with him he told us that Wes was being considered for a calling as a mission president but that they interview many more than they call. However, if we were to be called, it would probably be around December.

A week later we received a phone call from the missionary department asking us to fill out mission papers--which of course included medical and dental. So we began the process, still wondering if it were all for naught. Then about two weeks later, we received a call requesting that we meet with President Uchtdorf. We did and he extended the official call for us to preside over a Spanish speaking mission with service beginning June 23.

We still do not know where we are going but hope to find out in the next month. We were sent a list of possibilities though, and there are 30 missions on the list. About 10 of them I would be thrilled with. Another 6 I would have to pray very hard to be enthusiastic about, and the rest I really don't know enough about to have strong feelings either way. Not knowing is killing Wes, but I am okay waiting to find out. There is one place I really do not want to go, but it is where Wes thinks we will go, so I am happy to live a few more weeks in content oblivion.

For the past seven years Wes has served as the president of our stake. This coming Sunday he will be released from that calling. We have had to keep our new calling a secret until just this past week, when his release was announced. That has been extremely hard for me, as I have felt I was carrying a huge burden all alone.

Now that it is public I feel much better, but I am also sad to see Wes released. When they read the letter in church this past week, I sat and cried. He has served in the stake presidency for 12 years. It will be nice to sit by him in church again, but sad to see this time of our lives come to an end. I have absolutely loved my association with the counselor's wives, the high council, and bishop parties we held each year, and I will especially miss our annual bishop's wife luncheon in the fall. That is always a highlight of my year.

But now we will put it all in the past as we embrace this new adventure. I served a mission in Ecuador so I did know Spanish at one time, I just haven't spoken it since. But I am now working on it--along with studying Preach My Gospel along with a large stack of other books we were sent to study before beginning service this summer.

So that is where I have been. With my head spinning in the clouds all the while trying to get my feet back on the ground. But I have missed everyone and hope to get around to "visit" soon.

When Your Baby Turns 18

Here she is!! My baby girl!

I can't believe she is 18 already!!

Seriously, where did the years go?

She is a senior this year and will be leaving home next year--hopefully for BYU

We are going to miss her terribly!!

She is always so much fun and helpful, and keeps us laughing all the time.

So here are a few of my favorite recent pictures . . .

Co-captain of the varsity basketball team!

Go Michelle!!

Okay, so I am a bit ashamed of this picture. She just handed me her camera and told me to click. So I did. Then I told her she could never post that picture anywhere--so she promptly used it as her FB profile pic. (I never said she was obedient:-)

But since it is already posted on FB . . .

Letting off a little steam . . .

Ha ha! Good try Michelle.

Can you tell these girls are cousins?

Another "proud" moment. She challenged her male cousin to a pizza eating contest.

And won.

Hmmm.

So last Saturday we celebrated her emergence into official adulthood with a Halloween/Birthday Party

Many of the kids came in costumes and they had a fun time playing games, eating, roasting marshmallows and talking around the fire.

Happy Birthday Michelle!!

We love you!

So you really don't have to go away to college next year, do you?:-)

Love,

Mom

When Blessings Come Incognito

I was visiting recently with a friend who asked why she was faced with so many challenges, and if perhaps God had abandoned her. It is true she has a lot of difficulties. She has gone though a nasty divorce, has struggles with her children and deals daily with severe physical limitations.

However, I have seen God's hand so often in the small details of my life, I know God will never abandon us during our biggest trials. And so I wondered how often our blessings might come incognito. They are there, we just aren't seeing them.

In thinking about this, the two following stories came to my mind:

When Lehi and his family (from the Book of Mormon) were told to leave Jerusalem in search of a promised land or be destroyed, they all left behind their riches and their comforts of home and headed off into the desert--where they lived for eight years.

Truthfully, camping one night for me is torture. Living for eight years wandering in the desert, sleeping in tents, being deprived of hot running water and eating raw meat (1 Ne 17:2) would be a HUGE trial! I totally get why Laman and Lemuel murmured!

Yet Nephi writes, "So great were the blessings of the Lord upon us . . . " In the midst of his affliction, he found the blessings. They may have been hidden (after all his brothers never found them) but they were there. They were strengthened, fed and guided by the Lord all through their journey. Their trials were numerous, as Lehi often referred to this time as the "wilderness of my affliction" but still, the Lord was there.

Never at any time were they abandoned, although there were times when some of them abandoned God.

Another story I have always gotten a chuckle from is the story of Elijah. He calls down a famine upon the people and then is told by the Lord to hide himself by a brook where he could obtain water and the Lord would provide the rest of his food.

So, then how did the prophet of the Lord eat? Did he eat off the "fat of the land" or in the style to which he was accustomed? No, he ate bread and meat delivered by the ravens morning and night. So I looked up what ravens would be most likely to bring and this is what I found.

"Most ravens eat the dead bodies of other animals. Ravens generally eat some fruit, berries and grains when they are available. They will eat any small animals, small birds and small reptiles that they can find. Ravens even eat maggots and animal poo. Ravens eat anything that is easy to catch!"

I am not sure if this is the type of food Elijah received or if the birds brought him something a bit more palatable, but the idea of living alone in the desert, eating road kill, once again does not sound like a blessing to me.

Yet, just like Nephi, Elijah was guided, nourished and protected until the Lord saw fit to send him elsewhere.

I wonder if perhaps we have the wrong idea about life. I know there are times when I think living the commandments entitles me immediately to the blessings I desire--a roof over my head, food to eat, health, and a happy family life. Yet, that is so often not the case for many righteous people. And when our worlds seem to fall apart, our health or families fail us, we cry out wondering why this has happened to us, and why God does not bless us with those things we deserve.

Raw meat and raven deliveries might not at first seem like great blessings for Nephi and Elijah as well, but they both were. Elijah would have starved with out the food the ravens brought and Nephi and his family were probably being protected by unsavory travelers who might have seen the smoke from the fire they used to cook their meat.

And so I have come to believe that during our darkest days, God will always nourish, strengthen and guide. We may just have to look a little harder to notice it.

And that thought brings great . . . joy to my journey.

Slithering Serpents! Oh my!

In the past couple weeks we have found four snakes in our house. Make that FOUR snakes!! They are little and harmless, but did I mention they are SNAKES!!

I hate snakes. With. A. Passion.

When I saw the first one, the sister missionaries were standing behind me (they live with us). I looked at them hoping one would step up and volunteer to be the murderer, but they both backed away. So I took a broom and said, "Don't worry sisters! I will protect you!" Then I beat the thing to death, while my ferocious guard dog hid behind the sister's legs.

A few days later, Michelle and I saw another snake in the exact same place!! A resurrection? I think not. We decided it was best not to tell the sisters. But then they came and told me they had killed a snake earlier that day.

So it was time to turn to the man of the house for protection. And he said, "Oh, I found one too. It was upstairs." Upstairs!! That is where I sleep!

Not a good thing to hear. Especially since the other three were all found downstairs by the back door. So if his snake entered the same way, it had to cross the entire house and climb the stairs.

How many more are in here?

I am pretty sure this qualifies as a plague.

I told my husband that he was the man of the house, that he needed to step up and kill these snakes for me. But he was not nearly as concerned as I was. He didn't see why I was upset over a few snakes and didn't think there was anything he could do about it.

So I called my neighbor. He is coming over on Monday to set some sticky traps.

And hopefully we will soon have an end to our slithering serpent plague!