Visas.......at last!

It is kind of a weird feeling.  We have waited so long that we almost decided that maybe we really weren't going to New Zealand.  Then in a few short moments on the phone, all the waiting is over and someone is telling us that our visas are in Salt Lake and we will be leaving soon.   It took a little longer to contact our Mission President and the Missionary Dept. and work out all the details for the travel.  We are leaving on Wednesday, June 6 at 4:55 pm.  It is a week away now after almost 6 months of waiting and for me it almost doesn't seem real.  Ken, on the other hand, having been on one mission says it seems much too real.

Interesting what our perspective shows about us.  He has had this experience once before.  I have only dreamed about it.  We are at once excited yet apprehensive.  We have few qualms about going but many about leaving.  We are nervous about leaving our beautiful family not because we don't think they can take care of themselves, for years they have shown us they can, but for ourselves and the things we will miss.

If we didn't know absolutely that we were doing the right thing, we would never leave them.  We have a strong desire for them to understand that grandpa and grandma, dad and mom, can and will do hard things because they know it is right.  We want them to see the example of parents and grandparents choosing to do hard stuff even if it means missing some of the good stuff.  There are things we will miss but at this time in the world, we can still be part of so much. 

When Ken's grandfather went in 1890, he committed for an indefinite period of time to leave a wife and 8 children.  He did not know when or if he would hear from them.  He only knew that he had been called and he answered.  He didn't even ask for the call and only had two weeks to prepare.  He sailed on a steamer and when he arrived, he depended on others for everything because he had nothing.  Nothing but his faith and his love of the Lord and the gospel.  We are so fortunate to have so much more at our disposal. 

Now it is our turn to depend on our faith and our love of the Lord and the gospel.  I hope we will make you all proud!

Our "FAREWELL"?

We kind of dreaded the "farewell".  We didn't want to make a "big deal" of our leaving for a mission, especially since this has become a prolonged situation.   It seemed like an awful lot of trouble to get talks and have food ready etc.  After the whole thing was over, we were really glad that we did it.  We had well over a hundred people show up that weren't ward members or immediate family.  It was so fun to see our family, immediate and extended, our ward family, our Welfare Services family, our deaf family, my martial arts family, some of Ken's business friends, some of his converts and my old roomies from college. 

We had such a good time renewing friendships and spending time talking with people that have been a very important part of our lives.  It is still hard to go to church and have everyone wondering why we are still here but we will get our visas eventually and then we will be off with no time for further farewells of most kinds. 

We are so grateful to all of you who chose to take some of your special and important time to come say good bye to us.   We enjoyed the eating and the talking long after sacrament meeting was finished.  We didn't eat everything 'cause somehow, the cream puffs and the pineapple and a few other things didn't make it to the table but in spite of the little errors, it was great!  We will certainly miss all of you but more importantly, we are glad you took time to help us understand how glad we are that you are in our lives.

The Call!

It seems like an awfully long time since we got our call.  We started paper work in Oct. and received our call in December, Dec. 21 to be exact.  Like all antsy missionaries, we went to the post office and picked it up early in the morning.  We then went to the Transient Services Office to do our current mission assignment and to make the calls to those we wanted to be with us when we opened it.  It was a pretty private affair that we wanted to share with mostly our immediate family.  There were a couple of others there as well.  Some of Jason's family couldn't make it and Micah's family were with us by video-phone.  What a blessing that little invention has become in our lives.

We all gathered together in the office because that is where the video-phone is so it was a little bit tight in there.  Thank goodness we love each other.  I had the envelope and was pulling papers out when Ken saw the right one.  He immediately grabbed it and upon seeing our assignment, fell back in his chair with his hand to his mouth and said, "Oh my!"  I'm sitting there for what seemed like forever, thinking, "Oh my what?"  He was in no hurry to tell the rest of us.  When he said, "You are called to the New Zealand Wellington Mission," a big cheer went up.  There was lots of hugging and crying and laughing and more hugging.

Neither one of us could believe it.  For the inevitable question, "Is that where you asked to go?"  NO.  THERE IS NOT A QUESTION ANYWHERE ON THE PAPERS ASKING YOU TO PUT DOWN WHERE YOU WANT TO GO!  End of that myth.  You can put down skills and talents and interests but they do not ask you where you would like to go and we wanted to let the Lord be the decision maker for this big one.  We expect our young people to accept whatever they are called to and then we older folks want to have our preferences met.  Ken's great grandfather went to New Zealand in the 1890's with 2 weeks notice, leaving his wife pregnant with their 8th child for an open-ended time.  We have the blessing of knowing how long and all the comforts that we could want while there.  We will go and do or I couldn't ever look him in the eye.

The Test

Here we are waiting still for our visas and it is trying our patience.  Everyone says there is a reason and we know that too but sometimes it seems the only reason is a seeming war between two sets of lawyers, one on "our" side (the church) and one on the side of the New Zealand government.  As always, those who are most affected have little to say in the matter.  It is a helpless feeling.  If I get frustrated so easily with something as small as this, I can't imagine what others who are in much more dire circumstances are feeling.  It seems like the wait from the first of Oct. when we first put in papers and today, May 9, 2012 has been terribly long.  The pluses are that I get to spend more time with my family and lots of time to think about what this means to me.  Do I really want to do this?  Is it worth it?  Should we ask to be reassigned (the idea did come up and what were we thinking)? 

We've had lots of discussions about various things but the most prominent one has been about what our motivation really is.  Unlike many couples who go on missions to "fill time" or avoid things or to take a vacation, we are among those that want to go to "work", to do something that really makes a difference in the kingdom wherever we are.  We have found that can be in New Zealand or in Provo, UT.  It can be across the globe or the country or the street.  We have tried hard to align our thinking with that of the Lord and it has not been an easy task.  Believe me when I say that if we didn't really believe in what we are doing, we would never be leaving our beautiful family to go across the country let alone half-way round the world.  Every night we pray for our visas and every night, I pray for the courage to do this wonderfully terrible thing called a mission.