First Week in the Missionary Training Center

At our first meeting everyone introduced themselves and told where they were from and where they were going. It was amazing. There must have been 35-40 couples and 5-8 senior sisters and they were going everywhere. Some were going to China, Iceland, several countries in Africa, several countries in Central America, Independence MO, St. Louis, and about 6-8 were going to the Philippines. We were the only ones going to Manila.

 

Friday (26th) was our last day of "Preach My Gospel" Training.

 

This is what Dale wrote in his journal:

 

"I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting. It was a lot of role playing and I have done that a lot in my life in the many programs that I have attended. I have been in role plays and have even written role plays. I once led a team that developed a 2 week sales training course that was full of role plays. It is hard to get people to take role plays seriously and hard to put together role plays that actually seem real. The role plays this week actually seemed real and they made a difference for the people participating in them. I have thought some about the difference in the training programs and I have decided that the role plays in Preach My Gospel are divinely inspired and that the people take them seriously and that the Lord takes them seriously. What a difference this makes, You actually feel the spirit when you do role plays here and they seem real to you. It was a blessing to participate in this training and I can honestly say that I have never felt this way about any other training that I have ever received."

 

We will be training for five more days before we leave for Manila on August 1st.  This training will have to do with the Perpetual Education Fund program that we will be helping with in the Philippines.   

Here is Anna in front of the Missionary Training Center.

 

Last Day in Kansas

Today is our last day in Kansas. It has finally come. Tomorrow morning at 6:00 am we leave for Provo and then to the Philippines. We had dinner with Heather and the girls and Derek.  Bruce was traveling on business out of town.  We then went to President Ross' home to be set apart. Derek, Heather, Sarah, Megan, Laura and Katie were there.   The girls were very reverent. I had been concerned about them for no reason. They behaved like 4 little angels. It was a great experience. Pres Ross blessed me to have the love, patience, and understanding that I would need in this calling. I thought it was very helpful for me. He blessed Anna to see the purpose in her calling right away and not to be fearful. 

Farewell Talks and Manila Apartment

Yesterday we gave our "non-farewell" talks at church.  Anna talked about service and Dale talked about being a successful missionary.  We didn't have as much time for speaking as expected, so we had to shorten our talks while we were giving them.  This is not unusual in the Olathe First Ward.  There were two young women youth speakers who both did a good job on their talks, then Anna spoke.  She was followed by a violin duet presented by two young women who played "I Am a Child of God."  It was great!  Dale was the concluding speaker.

 

 

We received some information about where we will be staying in Manila.  We will be living in a 38 story high-rise building about three blocks from the waterfront and only two blocks from the American Embassy.  We feel good about this location and we are especially pleased to see the air-conditioning units in the apartment.

 

 

 

We leave next Monday, July 22nd, to start our mission.





 



Family Vacation/Reunion in St. George

We had a great trip to St. George, Utah for our family vacation/reunion. It was especially nice because we knew that we would not be seeing everyone again until after we get back from our mission in 18 months. We enjoyed spending time with our four children, their three spouses, and our nine grandchildren. It was the first time that Mabel, Else, and Juniper, the triplets, were with us. They were born on December 24, 2012 and our whole family feels very blessed to have them. We also got to see most of Dale's family, including his mother,his brother and his wife, and his sister and her family. We rented a house with a swimming pool that turned out to be a great idea with temperatures reaching 112 degrees or more. We hiked in Zion National Park, Snow Canyon State Park, visited church historical sights, and had fun just being together.

On the way to St. George we were able to go through Salt Lake City, visit BYU in Provo, and Manti. While in Manti we attended the Mormon Miracle Pageant. We also visited Cove Fort, a former Way Station for pioneers traveling in Southern Utah. On our way home we, along with Derek and Megan, (our second oldest granddaughter from Bruce's family) hiked through Bryce Canyon, visited Arches National Park, and stopped at Casa Bonita in Denver as strongly requested by Megan.

We expect this will be our last vacation for quite a while.

 

Manti Utah Temple

David, Arianne, Juniper, Else, Mabel

Colin, Melissa, Adele, Chris

 

Bruce, Sarah, Heather, Megan, Katie,  Laura

 

Derek at Angels Landing, Zion National Park

Ron & Lois with the Triplets

(Dale's Brother)

Dale, Mom, Ron, & Cindy

(Dale's siblings)

Megan at Bryce Canyon

Derek, Dale, Anna, & Megan at Bryce Canyon

 

 

Our Trip to Australia

We started planning a trip to Australia about a year ago, well before we received our mission call. We wanted to use up the last of our frequent flyer miles and go somewhere interesting. Australia was great! Derek was able to join us for almost two weeks of the trip. We spent just over three weeks there traveling to Sydney, Melbourne, and the Great Barrier Reef. We got to see lots of kangaroos, koalas, crocodiles, and beautiful countryside as we drove over 4500 kilometers. We got to go diving and snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. We attended church in three different cities where they spoke some type of Australian English that was mostly recognizable. In Sydney, we attended the Harbour Ward where there are 14 young missionaries and 3 senior couple missionaries. Sunday School was held in at least five different languages. Last year they baptized over 66 new converts that were mostly students from other Asian countries including China, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Church was held in a high rise building in downtown Sydney and one of the missionaries took us to the top of the building to see the sights. It was great!

At Sydney Harbor



Koala at Cape Ottway National Park

 

 


Kangaroos in a field  near Cairns, Aus

 



At Coogee Beach near Sydney





Crocodile on the Daintree River



 

Scuba Diving at the Great Barrier Reef



The Call

We met with President Ross on Tuesday, March 5, 2013 and submitted our mission papers. At that time he told us we should expect a response in about 3 weeks. The missionary section of the church website said it could take up to 6 weeks. President Ross told us to call him in about 4 weeks if we didn't get our call. We waited somewhat patiently (checking the mailbox every day) for 4 weeks and still did not receive our call. The next day we called President Ross and told him it hadn't come yet. He did some checking for us and said it hadn't been processed yet and it turns out that it takes longer for Senior missionaries to get their call, maybe as long as 6 weeks. We were getting pretty anxious when after 6 weeks we still hadn't received it. Our Bishop told us on Sunday, April14th that it had been assigned and we should receive it very soon. Then another week went by without a call. We had moved out of our house and all of our mail was being forwarded starting April 20th. Finally, on Monday, April 22nd I called the post office to ask them what happens when you get your mail forwarded. The customer service lady told me that it would get sent back to Colorado Springs, CO to get a forwarding stamp on it. I then explained how we were anxiously waiting for our mission call and I told her that it would be in a large white envelope. She, Jacquie, said she would check with our mail carrier later that day to see if anything like that had shown up for delivery. To my elated surprise Jacquie called me back at 4:00 that afternoon and said our carrier had it and she would hold it for me to pick up. We rushed to the post office in Olathe and got our special package. We then went to Dairy Queen and bought an ice cream cake for the celebration. We called all of the family and let them know that we got the call. We arranged to skype with Melissa's and David's families from Bruce's house where the rest of the family gathered to open our call. At 6:30 PM we had everyone together and opened the package. I read that our call was to the Philippines Manila mission to serve as Perpetual Education Fund/Self-Reliance missionaries and we were to report to the MTC on Monday, July 22nd. Everyone was excited for us and surprised that we would be going to the Philippines.