IT CAME!! THE CALL!

Just as Gary predicted it when we submitted our papers on March 3.  It happened like this for us.

I was out walking at Jensen Pond around 9:00 am.  I had gone about 1/4 of the loop when my phone beeped and I looked to see the text-  "Your mission call can now be viewed at the missionary portal (with the actual link included)."  There was that brief second where I thought--it would be so easy to just click on it really quick and see it before calling Gary.  But overwhelmingly the feeling followed that the memory I wanted was being by Gary as we read our call.  I immediately called him and turned back to make it home as quick as possible.  On the way, I reached out to our kids and to my dad to see if they could be available by 10:15.  As I turned into the neighborhood, I was just hoping to see someone to "tell" that our call had arrived, but no luck.

I also sent a group text to my siblings, because I thought they would all want to be anticipating our call as well as they went about their daily lives--for about 45 minutes anyway.

Because Gary's mom is not an expert with Facetime, Gary and I had decided that we would go to her house and open our call with her (with proper social distance) while facetiming our kids and my dad and his wife.  As it worked out, Gary's sister, Vonette and her husband were coming down at 10:00, because the two Gary had plans to do a wood run.  So I quickly sent Charon an invitation for her and her husband to join us.  Charon didn't respond and I was worried that she was out running or something, but right at 10:15, she drove up.  She hadn't seen the texts, because she had been buying flowers for her mom's garden.  I was so glad that she came right at that time to join with us for this sweet experience.

We called our kids and my dad on Facetime and we got to look at the cute faces of everyone, including some of our grandchildren as they watched us open our call.  The wording of the mission calls is different with a couple more paragraphs before the section identifying the place where you are called to serve. I had watched some recent mission call openings on Facebook Live and expected the additional paragraphs, but Gary did not.  And,  there are actually two letters--one for each of us, rather than one letter addressed to both of us.  That surprised us.

I had decided that I wanted Gary to read the letter, because I did not know that I could have done it without crying.  So he began reading my letter out loud.  At about the second paragraph, he commented under his breath about the extra paragraphs and scrolled down to see how long the letter was.  In that second, I saw in his eyes that he had caught a glance at the location.  I don't actually know what he felt at that second, but I knew that it was the right call for us--just in the light that I felt from him in that second.  It was a sweet moment.  He turned somewhat guilty said, "I know where we are going."  I replied, I know you know.  It is okay."

He continued to read the letter--and this is what I posted on Facebook later in the morning:

"After waiting (a lifetime) eight weeks, we were called to serve in the Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission Family History Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We enter the MTC on Oct. 26th. We will serve for 18 months. Jena will serve with us but her assignment has not been made yet. We are so excited. We are grateful to serve our Heavenly Father and to represent Christ and our Church and being involved even more closely in family history which we love."

Then later in the evening, while I was working--Gary pointed out that I didn't communicated it exactly right so I had to add the following 'edit.'

EDIT: Gary clarified that our call actually says we will be serving primarily as Family and Church History missionaries in the Headquarters Mission, so I guess it expands our possibilities a bit. (In my defense, Gary read the call and I was a bit excited about it all.)

SO TO SUM UP:  WE HAVE BEEN CALLED TO SERVE IN THE SALT LAKE CITY HEADQUARTERS MISSION SERVING PRIMARILY AS FAMILY AND CHURCH HISTORY SPECIALISTS.  WE ENTER THE MTC ON OCTOBER 26 AND WILL SERVE FOR 18 MONTHS.

Here are a couple of pictures taken after we read the call.  I wore my mask even though we did practice social distancing because my allergies are crazy at this time of year so I was sneezing all of the time.

One parenting fail was we forgot to call Ben on the phone when we read the call.  He is not currently on Facebook so we couldn't include him Facetime and although we had arranged it with him, we just forgot to call.  So I got to tell him on the phone afterwards.  That was also a sweet moment as I felt a calmness around him as we talked about us being in Salt Lake.  I think it made him happy and I was reminded that Heavenly Father is so mindful of the people we love and what they need as well.

Then I went home with Jena, Gary went off with Gary Kerr to buy wood, and I started texting "the world".  Certain people I wanted to tell individually but I ended up doing some group texts just to reach out to my neighbors.  And then, right before I went to work for the day, I posted it on facebook.  Oh, how sweet all of our friends and family have been.  We feel your love and support and it means so much to us.  When I finished work around 9:30 last night, we took time to read the texts and facebook comments to each other and to Jena.

I wish that we could put them all into the post, but that would take a while. My dad emailed his confidence that this was a right call for us. We learned about a variety of people who have connections with someone who has served in that mission or have served there themselves.  We knew already that our friends, Pat and Joyce Abernathy, are currently serving there and they are ready to give us all of the information that we would need.  We are making plans to go on a social distance walk with them very soon.

Scott said that now he doesn't have to worry about us getting lost on the first day.  (Kids are great for keeping it real.)  Our friend, Kim Savage, who has taught us so much about family history, is SO excited.  I told her that we will try not to waste all of the things she has taught us over the past several years.  People are happy for us and we loved sharing this with all of you.

A dear friend from Hong Kong sent me this sweet text: "Thank you for letting know about your mission call.  You won't be traveling far from home, but people will be traveling far from home that you can help. You'll have adventures that transcend centuries and cultures--I think it's an exciting call!! And you've always had the spirit of adventure whatever you are doing."  I couldn't have said it better myself.  I had not yet thought in terms of "adventures that transcend centuries and cultures (which likely will appear in my mission talk if we are invited to do such a talk)" but I have felt that we will be helping in the work on both sides of the veil and that is an amazing part of the work to be doing.

On a more personal note:  Gary checked in with me by phone while waiting for Gary Kerr to pick wood.  He wanted to make sure that I wasn't disappointed.  We were open to going anywhere and of course, I have loved Asia forever. The Family History Center was his number one pick, but he knew that I might have preferred something else. That is why I love Gary, because he cares so much about me. But, I truly am so excited for this opportunity to serve.  In April Conference 2020, Pres. Eyring stated "He has a plan for your service."  At that moment, I felt a peace and an assurance that a plan was in place for our service.  That feeling was only strengthened as we read the call.

This past few months as we have read the Book of Mormon for Come Follow Me, I have been struck by the repeated references to "How beautiful are the feet of them..."  One example is Mosiah 12:21:

"^aHow beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him ^bthat bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth;"

It is an interesting phrase and appears in a variety of settings, often referring to missionaries.  I made a note to do some more research into it, but haven't done that yet.  But I feel that our calling allows us to take our place on the mountains...on our feet...and bring tidings of good.  Not sure our feet are beautiful, but the work will be as long as we are engaged in the work to which we have been called.

Love you my friends and family, but most of all, I love God and His son, Jesus Christ, and our sacred opportunity to serve as missionaries in the SLC Headquarters Mission.

One final note:  Our stake president stated that the mission department had indicated to him that they would like to wait to start working on Jena's Church Service mission call to see what is actually open at the time we are set to serve.  So it will be a few months until we know what she will be doing.

Pandemic Ponderings

This is the coronavirus (Covid-19) logo??!!  I guess that is what you would call it.  You see it or versions of it on TV, Facebook, and other media talking about the pandemic, so I thought I would put it here on my post about the pandemic.

This was definitely my hardest week since the "stay home, stay safe" orders started in Utah which was around mid-March.  And really it was just Wednesday through Friday.  In part it is due to my allergies which are only bad during the last two weeks of April and maybe into the first of May.  Sneezing and coughing and itchy eyes is never fun and tends to take my energy in the best of times.  During a pandemic, it made me sluggish and grouchy (apparently).  Even doing the small things that I have tried to do like get outside for a walk and make contact with family and friends seemed more that I could manage.  I also think that not getting our mission call this week also played a part in it all--a bit of a let down after Tuesday and Wednesday passed with no call.  One of my clients (who doesn't know that we are waiting for a call) spent part of her session with me talking about how to help her daughter who is also waiting for a call--fun times! 

Another hard thing was Tuesday morning, one of our ward members passed away.  She was in her middle 40s and although she has struggled with a variety of health problems over the past 20 years, her death in her sleep was totally unexpected.  She leaves behind a family of 5 kids and a sweet husband.  It is so hard not to make personal contact with them and her other friends.  We are made to grieve together, not on social media alone.  She is one of about six deaths which have impacted neighbors in the past three weeks--none from the virus.  It makes me sad for them that they also can't grief together.

So what did I do?

I abandon my list for the week and chose to work on cleaning up my computer and organizing some writing that I have been doing.  I sorted photos (I think I mentioned that I have over 65000 on my computer.) and started the time-consuming process of removing items that I no longer need in both my photos and document files.  (I really don't think I need Tosha's report for high school English.)

I watched another Star War movie with Gary on Friday morning.  There is something definitely off when you are watching movies at 10 in the morning.

Prior to our Star Wars movies, we watched the news briefing for Gov. Cuomo-governor of New York.)  He spoke about his awareness of the hardships that the "shelter in place" orders have caused people in New York.  Then he put up a graphic which started with "56 days" and reminded people that is how long the orders have been in place in New York.  Then he put other stats up like:  WW I  4 years; Great Depression  4 years; Vietnam Ward  8 years; and went on to say:  "New Yorkers and Americans can do hard things and they can do them longer than 56 days.  And life can be better than before if we learn the lessons of this pandemic."  

I loved that perspective and it is true.  Human beings have been dealing with hard things for generations of time.  Pandemics have occurred throughout human history.  I decided to hold on to that perspective--we can do this and we can be better than before.

We have been very blessed through this process--we have food and shelter, we have good health, and we have resources (and we don't watch our 401K too closely because we don't need it for a while--thankfully.)  We understand that many are struggling with many of the daily needs of life.  We try to remember them in our prayers as well as those who have lost family members to the virus. So I decided to be more grateful for my blessings.

The last thing I decided to do was to get a book about the Spanish Flu.  So much is being talked about that period of history.  Sometimes it seemed that people are using the same data to argue opposing beliefs.  I decided that it would be useful to me to read about a prior pandemic.  I am reading Pandemic 1918 by Catherine Arnold.  I have just started it yesterday and filled Gary in last night on the "interesting" details I have learned so far.  (He is "very excited??" for the next several nights of updates about the Spanish flu.)

So I am making the picture below my own personal "logo" for the Covid-19 pandemic.  We shifted some flower boxes forward last fall to make cleaning our patio easier. I forgot that we had a roll of tulip bulbs in the ground that would have gotten covered in that process.  This tulip was still determined to bloom where it was planted, going toward the light (probably about six- seven inches) and then producing two pink blooms for the world to see.  I loved it when I saw it and I decided that we can do that, too, during the pandemic.  "We can bloom where we are planted." "We can do hard things." "Go toward the Light"---lots of useful lines can go with it.

And I made it to another Sunday--and I am feeling better and back to normal.  This is the week that Gary predicted that we would get our mission call back in March when our papers were submitted.  Because we can be a bit competitive, I almost don't want our call to come this week, because then he would be "RIGHT."  Stay tuned!

Spring- It Came

.."It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes, or bags!"

Oh, sorry--wrong season.  But that is somewhat what it feels like when I go outside.  Inside we are checking on news about the pandemic, making masks, and doing this and that to continue to "stay home, stay safe." It is easy with the total change in routine to forget that the earth is still orbiting the sun and the days and weeks are moving ahead along with the seasons.

This past week we actually got into the car and drove--out of Syracuse--to Provo to pick up the rest of Jena's stuff and to clean the townhouse.  It was amazing how green the mountainsides are but with a new dusting of snow from some cold weather a week ago.  I realized that I am not pausing enough to look to the sky, to the mountains, etc., even with my daily walks.  Of course, there is something special to me about the mountains that surround BYU and being in Provo almost always reminds me of some special memory from my time as a student.  Young adulthood is such a critical time of life that it is not surprising how close I hold those memories--good and hard--in my heart.

I took a walk around my backyard this afternoon to notice the new flowers that have started to bloom.

Tulips with the greenery from other plants waiting to bloom in the next wave---

 The lilac bush outside our bedroom window

I don't remember what these are called, but they remind me of Dr. Seuss's plants as they make a big purple ball when they bloom.  This one is just getting ready to bloom.

Spring--I am glad you came despite the virus, the earthquakes, the tornados and other severe storms (in the southern US), and the downward spiraling economic situations.  We needed that reminder!

Sunday Moments

My nephew Duncan Giberson (my brother Rick's son) was one of the thousands of missionaries who had to come home early due to the pandemic.  He was fortunate in that he only had one more month to serve, but it is still hard to leave without the usual ending traditions that missions often have and on very short notice as well.

Because he couldn't report in Church, he "facebook lived"  (I know that isn't a verb, but you know what I mean.) his talk and last Sunday we watched it as part of our Sunday activities.

I wonder if I will be better with selfies by the time I am old. :)

Then Jena's YSA bishop had invited the ward to swing by for a social distancing treat and visit, so she (and we) got some yummy cookies for a treat.  His back yard backs up to a park with a large parking lot so they spaced out their chairs and visited for a bit.

Mask on and ready to go!

Jena saying hi and getting some cookies.

No News Is NOT Good News....

...when you are waiting for your mission call.  Another Tuesday/Wednesday without a call, although two of our neighbors' young missionaries got their calls--one to Washington, DC and one to Ft. Worth, Texas.  They are both leaving near the end of July.

Gary is excited because he predicted the end of April for our call to arrive. He might be right.  Our bishop checked this week and the portal reported that we are "waiting to be assigned" and that has been the status for about 3 weeks.

The good news is that life is interesting enough and there is enough to do to keep my mind off of the waiting--"most of the time."

Jena's Week

Life is still a bit boring around here for Jena.  She has been great, taking over some daily tasks including cleaning up after dinner each night, but we are not as much fun as her friends from BYU.  This week she was able to enjoy both a Relief Society lesson through zoom as well as take part in a talent show on Monday night, through zoom as well.

Relief Society from Provo

Jena did a yoyo demonstration to the music from Zootopia "Try Again."  She did awesome (but the photographer-me-messed up on a photo.)

the talent show

She then worked on cards to mail to her roommates and friends from BYU.  Each one with a cute cover and a sweet note inside.

"Stay Safe, Stay Home" Week Four Or Is It Five???

The Pandemic continues in many parts of the United States and the world.  Not unexpectedly--since deaths have not been as high as the predictions had been, people are beginning to protest the orders to stay at home except for essential things.  It is a very complicated issue and I am glad that I don't have to make these decisions for anyone except for myself and Gary and Jena.  It is hard to know what is true and what is false--I can understand the concept of "flatten the curve" but also the reality that we can't do this forever or even frequently when there are new viruses about.  While we do watch the news daily (we are fans of the clear reports given by the New York governor who uses good graphics and clear messages when he speaks.  New York has been hard hit by the virus.), we mostly just try to take care of ourselves, makes progress on house projects, and watch more old movies than ever before.

Prior to the pandemic, I made a list of things inside and outside the house of things that we needed to repair or do before we leave on a mission.  It is a very huge list (and I doubt it will all be completed before we leave.  According to Gary, I have over 65000 photos on my computer to sort through the organize.  Crazy!  That might be a task for my next life time. :)   However, we are slowly cross items off the list which is great.  I am not sure how we would ever get anything done without the pandemic to free up our time.

Two of our "Home Prep for Mission" List

After my frustrating experiences with making masks--but having figured it out and having a few extra supplies. I spent some time last Monday making masks for Jessica's workplace and some for us as well.  They are a little bit more colorful that the ones that I made for Hill Air Force Base and went together without difficulty.  Now the General Relief Society has invited us to be part of making 5 million masks for health care workers...they provide all supplies, but these are medical grade masks, so I will need to check the pattern before I sign up.

And since I had my sewing machine out and some "extra" time, I FINALLY completed that last grandchild's quilt by sewing the edging on Ava's quilt.  I don't know why that seems like such a huge task because I do know how to do it better than when I first started doing quilts several years ago.  I love how it turned out.

Tiny Mission Update

On Thursday we got a message from our Stake President asking us to complete a health history for Jena-- a request from the mission department in behalf of the Brethren.  He told us that it wouldn't hold up our call, but they felt it would be useful.  So, of course, I completed it immediately, had Jena sign it, and sent it back that evening.  Luckily, she has a very uneventful health history.

And now, we are back to waiting!

Easter Photos-- Hall Grandchildren!

From Jessica:   Liam Zander, Alex and Carter

From Chantel: Scarlett and James

From Tosha:   (Tosha said Easter was too "high octane" for photos but here are a few from later in the week.)

a boy with hishiking stick.

Sweet dreams, beautiful girls!

Water fun in Seattle when it is 39 degrees in Utah???

Highlight of the week!

This week has had some sweet moments with the super pink moon, tulip bloomings, and the two surprise Easter egg hunts.

But one of the highlights was a Friday morning call from Scarlett.  My phone rang with the distinct sound of Facetime.  When I answered it, I first saw Scarlett's smiling face--grinning big as I said hello--then I saw Elessia's face and then Tosha's--I realized that Scarlett had pushed one of our group messages and called all of us at once.  Elessia found Liam and Tosha got Niki and I got to have a phone call with my three oldest grandchildren.  Liam was busy with a game so just did a short hello, but Niki and Scarlett and I had a great time. After we talked about no kindergarten and the "virus," Scarlett put on a game on the phone call and we all started playing away.  One of the games we played was "Ladybug Love" or something like that.  A lady bug flies into your part of the call and you are suppose to move your head around so that she doesn't kiss you.  Scarlett was going crazy and Niki was laughing so hard at her that I couldn't help myself from laughing hard as well.  Gary who was working downstairs came up to see what was happening--that is how loud we were!

Say what you want about technology, but on Friday, there was nothing sweeter than a phone call.

(I still don't know how to take pictures while on Facetime, so no cute photo of all of us on there together.  I will have to have one of my kids teach me how to do that.

Easter Weekend Fun

Saturday afternoon, Jena noticed this taped on our front window and when we went outside, there were Easter eggs on our front yard.  Jena loved having an unexpected Easter egg hunt.  Thanks to our sweet neighbors, the Savages!

 It was just started to rain as Jena collected the last egg.

Then this morning as I was getting out of the shower, the dogs were barking like crazy.  I didn't think much about it until I noticed the white signs outside when I headed out to make a delivery to one of the sisters that I was ministering to.  At first, I assumed it was another neighborhood family until I looked closer.....and saw my sweet grandchildren's faces on their own little bunny pictures.

Then I got a call from Liam.  He was so excited to tell me that he and Jessica had come up and gave us an Easter egg hunt "with surprises inside the eggs."  I guess he was the only one that they trusted to understand that it was a surprise and they couldn't go into our house.  It has been very weird to not to see them with the whole "stay at home" order.

 The main poster

"Some bunnies love you and Miss you lots!"

And Jena loved doing another unexpected Easter egg hunt. 

Liam

Carter

Zander

Alex

Thanks for that great surprise, Liam, Zander, Alex and Carter.  We LOVED IT!

The Adult Easter Bunny made a stop for Ben and Jena, but we are waiting until Ben comes after work tonight to join us for dinner.

Hope your quiet Easter Day has included some nice surprises, too!

Service and Sacrifice (and a bit of Easter at the end)

When Jena was younger, maybe in 6th or 7th grade, she decided that she wanted to donate her hair to "Locks of Love."  Some of her cousins had done it and she thought it sounded like a good thing to do.  Her hair had been long for a long time and I thought it was a great idea.  Before we went to the hairdresser, I showed Jena where I thought her hair would be after it was cut, and she was all on board.  However, once we got there, our hairdresser indicated that the measurements we had done were incorrect and her hair was actually going to be about 4 inches shorter than we had thought.  (I thought the length had to be 12 " but it was actually a 12" braid which takes more hair.)  Jena hesitated.  It meant that her hair was going to be shorter than she expected.  You could watch the dilemma going on in her head--should she?  shouldn't she?  We waited for a minute or two and then Jena said that she wanted to do it still.

On the way home, I told Jena how proud I was that she followed through with her donation--especially proud of the last 4" inches which she hadn't intended to give.  That was the true sacrifice--giving past the easy or planned for service.

I had one of my own sacrifice moments this week.  It went like this:

I (along with the other sisters in our stake) got an email on Wednesday night asking if we would be willing to make masks for the airman at Hill Air Force Base by Friday.  They included a pattern and directions to use a twin size sheet to make the masks with vague directions about using a variety of things "around your house" to do the ties since elastic was no longer available in the stores since so many people were making face masks due to the pandemic.  I hesitated at first as I was working, had other plans for the next few days, and most of my sewing stuff except for my sewing machine was all boxed up since we are repainting the rooms downstairs.  But after work, I looked at the pattern and realized that I did have sewing skills for that (thanks to the required Home Economics class we all had to take in high school in Richland and to my mom.) so I volunteered.  The email had said that "after you get things organized, it should take you just two hours to do 40 masks from a sheet.)  I realized that just cutting them out would take 2 hours, but I thought I could do them in a day and set aside Thursday for that project.  I found a sheet, dug up some thread, and my rotor cutter and went to work on Thursday afternoon.

The storage bedroom with all of the boxes of stuff
from the other bedrooms and closet.

 Luckily the box was on the second row in and was labeled- sewing!

I set it up in the TV room and went to work---- photos by Jena

The ties became the difficulty of this whole project and the subject of repeated phone calls, texts, and even a marco polo from an friend as we tried to figure out how to make the masks useable. Women were out looking for appropriate  materials at a variety of stores to use for the ties as the directions were not helpful in that regard.  It was SO frustrating and the person who organized our part of this drive, hadn't made one so she couldn't answer our questions.

I have to admit--I was grumbling to myself on Thursday night when it was apparent that this project was going to go over into all of Friday as well.  After all, I had only planned on Thursday.

The Friday came--Good Friday actually--and the day of the Worldwide Fast that the prophet had asked us to participate in to help moderate the effects of the pandemic.  I had read about fasting in the scriptures the night before in preparation and had read many scriptures on the subject.  Fasting is suppose to be about rejoicing, praying, thanksgiving--- (But I was 'stuck' making masks!)

I started early and sewed and sewed and sewed.........

I  used left over chenille yarn that one of the other sisters in the ward had used for the ties.  Unfortunately, it was one short so then I got one more set made with a small rope from another neighbor for my final one. 

.....And 12 hours (not 2) later, I delivered 40 masks to add to the 5000 masks that our area sewed.  The sister collecting the masks (in a social distance sort of way) had the biggest smile and thank you that I couldn't help leave without a sense of gratitude for being a part of this project.

And in that attitude of gratitude (not grumbling), I heard the lesson once again--service and sacrifice are often traveling companions.  I realized that I was hoping to do a service without sacrifice--just some hours on a Thursdays afternoon.  But sacrifice is often required--as it was this time for me and many of my friends.  I was glad that I did it.

But on that Good Friday ride home, I was also reminded that our sacrifice was minor--as we pondered that Ultimate Sacrifice that we remember on Good Friday and all of the Easter Weekend.  How grateful I am that He went the "whole distance" further than He might have even understood He had to go.  Until those words "It is finished."

It was just a little lesson--a reminder of past lessons--that service and sacrifice are often required as we try to serve as Heavenly Father has asked us to serve.  It was worth 12 hours and so much more!

The Super Pink Moon

About 5:30 am, I woke up and couldn't believe how bright it was in our bedroom, then I remembered that April 7 was the night of the "Super Pink Moon."  This was the time that the moon would be the closest to us in Utah for the whole year.

According to the internet, the full moon in April is called the Pink moon because it is often occurs near the same time as an early pink wildflowers starts to bloom.

to the west

to the east as the sun begins to appear

A friend posted on Facebook her gorgeous photo of the moon.  Fun to be sharing the moon with my friend from junior high even though we are miles apart.

Photo by my friend, Karen Fulkerson Gower from Spokane.

And then this amazing photo taken in Salt Lake country by a professional photography (and camera).

Salt Lake Newspaper

All week the moon has been exceptional bright and caused "moon shadows" on the earth as it moved through the skies.  It made me so grateful for the moon.  Our night skies would be boring and barren without its ever changing appearance.  Plus it makes waves, counts down the months, etc!

We live in an amazing world.