IT BEGAN IN DECEMBER

Around the middle of December 2014, Dean and I were both inspired to commit to go on a mission. For the last few years, we had planned on going, but only after we sold the house, bought another house, remodeled the new house, put in our garden railroad in the back yard, etc. etc. etc. We were both brought to the realizations that we needed to re-arrange our priorities and just GO. We decided that we would plan the mission and let everything else fall where it might. It would all work out. We told the Bishop we were ready to go. He told us that day that our entire countenances had changed and that we radiated the Spirit of The Lord. I don't know how we looked, but we felt really good and we knew we were making the right decision.

We requested a Spanish speaking mission outside the U. S.   We waited six and a half weeks for our call. Several week into the wait, we were contacted by the Communications Dept. at Church Headquarters and asked if we would be interested in serving in an area office, either Buenos Aires, Guatamala City, or Santo Domingo. We were excited to say yes, and we picked Buenos Aires. Elder Lassatter said they would ask for us and that it would have to be acceptable to Elders Holland and Bednar because they were over the Communications Dept. It happened to be around conference time, so they were very busy and it took awhile. But finally, we were called to the South America South Area to serve as International Digital Communications Specialists. WHAT? It sounded pretty fancy, but as we started to train, we found out that we would be dealing with social media, (kind of a funny calling for old people).

We learned that The Church has an awesome social media program. They are one of the easiest to search in the world. There are many Facebook and Twitter accounts. Most of the General Authorities have a Facebook page and many are on Twitter. Each country has a web page and the middle 8 pages of the Liahona are specific to each area. Most of the feeds for these sites comes from Salt Lake. The Brethren have realized that there is not a big country presence on these sites for all the countries outside the US. So they have asked to have a couple called to each area outside the US to help facilitate putting a better local look to these social websites. That's us. We will be the 2nd couple to go out, so we are pioneers. They told us that our Area President, President Walter Gonzales, is very on board with this new program.

So now we have our call and we are to report to the MTC in Provo on August 3, 2015 and fly to Buenos Aires on August 13, 2015. Suddenly everything fell into place. We found wonderful buyers for our home, taking possession on July 20th. We sold a lot of furniture, sent a lot of things to Deseret Industries, took many trips to the dump, and it all worked out. We put our car and truck up for sale on KSL.com and after a few weeks, when we started to worry a little, we got a call from Larry H. Miller Dealership in Bountiful. They wanted to see our vehicles. We took them in and they offered us what we had been asking for them. They gave us our license plates and a big check and we were without a ride! I called my brother, Brian, and he came and picked us up and generously gave us the use of his truck until we leave.

We had 2 1/2 weeks between moving and going to the MTC. We were approached by our ward members down the street, the Hafen's about "house sitting" for them. They were taking their entire family of 9 to China for 3 weeks, the very same weeks we were going to be homeless. What a blessing! We have been in their home for a week and a half now and we are so comfortable and rested from our move. We take care of their cat, Maow, 2 rabbits, 1 guinea pig, a goldfish, a beta fish, two large aquariums and various plants. They, in turn, have provided us a beautiful home with a pool we can use and a beautiful setting in which to prepare our farewell talks and study for our big adventure.

We have been blessed in so many ways. It has all worked out so well! All we had to do was make our mission the first priority and The Lord took care of the rest. We have sold everything or stored it in a warehouse. We don't have any debt or any obligations. The hardest part, so far, was saying goodbye to our dear doggie, Humphrey. He has been adopted by a very loving family who have another Shi Tsu the same age and coloring as Humphrey. They loved each other right away, and he seems very happy with his new family. It almost broke our hearts. We still need to say goodbye to our family, our kids and beloved grandchildren. That will be hard. But we have been promised that if we serve a mission, our families will be blessed. We are counting on it.

Tomorrow we are speaking in Church and then only 1 week to go. We are so excited and ready!