JUST BEGINNING

Last October during the general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints of which we are members, our prophet, President Thomas S Monson, put forth a call for more senior missionaries.  When we moved back to Idaho from Alaska we had fully intended to go on a mission but life just seemed to take over and our mission plans got put on a back burner.  Larry and I were remodeling the house we had purchased from the Young family. Larry went to work on a local farm and once he got back in a tractor I thought he would never leave again.  I had gotten involved in working in the Family History Center; quilting on Tuesdays with a group of women; going to our new book club once a month and spending time reading the monthly choices; and other wonderful activities.  However, once President Monson put out the call for more senior missionaries we knew it was time to start planning to go.  We decided we would work hard to get enough money into our bank account to cover our expenses for 18 months to 2 years and made a goal to have our papers turned in by October of 2011.  We were talking to our daughter, Robyn, soon after our decision.  She was excited for us but wondered why not start immediately.  We explained our plan and our need for money to pay our way.
     Soon after we had made our decision and come up with the plan we told our Bishop who quickly led us into his office, got us a password to access our online mission forms and had us filling them out that evening!  That wasn't in the plan!  Before we knew it we were going through our medical, dental, and vision exams; writing out our physical life history as well as our church and service history; checking boxes about what we did well and what we didn't know at all; and meeting with the bishop and stake president in our area for interviews.  The speed with which all of the above happened probably seemed slow to our friends and family but to us, as we watched our bank account fluctuate as usual, the time went by way too fast.  
    The miracle of our entering the mission field so much sooner than planned nearly took our breath away.  Our children began to offer to make donations to our mission.  Our paychecks seemed to grow; our expenses seemed to shrink and the difference began to show in our check ledger.  Even when it was time to go, there wasn't enough but when I went to balance the checkbook after we got here it seemed that there was enough and more.  
     It is in the high 90's at almost 10pm.  Larry is out on the deck and has turned off the air conditioning so I am going to have to go join him.  I will explain our title:  GO FORTH with FAITH in my next post....
     Since this whole blogging thing is new to me, I guess I can only hope that I can push the right button and get this onto the internet.
     Here goes....