Decision to Serve & Lots of Preparation

We have been asked a few times, "Why?" when we tell people about our choice to serve a mission. We were also asked by our wonderful Stake President to tell him about our desire to serve and why we feel now is the right time to do so. The answers are simple:

We made the decision to serve as a couple even before we were married.  It was never a question of "if" but rather of "when".  We both have unshakable testimonies of Jesus Christ, His restored gospel and His church. We have a deep love of God and desire to serve Him and His children (Matthew 22:36-40, Mosiah 2:17). We have been richly blessed to be able to serve full-time. For this we are truly grateful and humbled that life transpired for us in such a way to allow us this opportunity. So the decision was easy and made long ago - we are simply grateful.

As for "why now", we knew we wanted to serve as soon as possible (while we are still [relatively] young and healthy).  Ever since retirement four years ago, life has intervened in one way or another forcing us to wait. One big factor was our home - we did not want to rent it out and we did not like the idea of leaving it empty. Recently, however, the stars aligned in such a way (call it miracle #1) that our eldest daughter, Cristine, her husband Steve, and their children would benefit from staying in our home until their kids graduated from elementary school next year at which time they plan to purchase their own home. The timing was perfect which allowed us to serve for the next 12 months with no worry about our home.

So we put in our mission application papers and were called to the California Santa Rosa Mission. While we have been preparing for our mission all our lives, the urgent preparation began when we received our call! For the past few weeks our days have been filled thinking, planning and preparing. Think of preparing to leave town on a long vacation and then multiply that by 1,000. As of the date of this blog, we have less than one week left and while we feel good where we are at, we realize we have little time to spare.

Another miracle happened when we were in Santa Rosa a few weeks back. Martin had the impression to have a skin exam (it had been a few years since the last one) and he felt something might be wrong with his ear. A small sore had developed that was not healing. The day after we returned from Santa Rosa an examination and biopsy were performed; a little over a week later the results confirmed the presence of nodule Basal carcinoma. The doctor informed us that they had a cancellation and could perform surgery the next morning. Life is always exciting that is for sure. Martin now has a deep hole in his left ear and a skin graft from is neck. We are thankful that we were inspired to have the examination and that the procedure was able to be performed before we leave.

Lovely picture of Martin's ear

So the Lord is clearing the way for our full-time service for which we are humbled and grateful. Still much to do this crunch week including preparing for our Sacrament Meeting talks this Sunday.