"I Had A Plan"

I guess that should be follow by the other cliche'  "famous last words."

The end of the story is that Gary and I (plus Jena) are extending our current mission until February 22, 2023.  And changing our availability date for our second mission to April of 2023.  That allows us a few weeks to spend with family and grandkids before we leave (or stay) again.

The story goes like this:  (This is more a journal type post so feel free to skip over.)

We had a plan to be released on September 22, 2022.  It seemed like such a fun number for a release date and was the day before the beginning of our birthday week with Gary, Jena, Elessia, and the twins-Carter and Alex--all having birthdays in the next week.  It sounded like a fun time to be partying after a mission.  Then we had planned trips to Israel, Tucson, and Tacoma and the reunion the days before Thanksgiving before heading out on our second mission some time in January/February.  We had a place to live during that time (since Jessica and Elessia were kind enough to stay in our house during our second mission and keep caring for our dogs).  It was set.  It was THE plan.

Then, on Wednesday, July 6th, as we were sitting in our meeting with our new mission president and his wife, President Parker mentioned that we were leaving in September and President Holmes made a laughing comment of "unless they decide to stay longer" or something like that. Immediately, I felt like we were staying and in my mind--I said "We have a plan." That begun one of those battles that I (and hopefully everyone has) when your will is different than what it seems God wants.  In the scriptures it is sometimes referred to as "a wrestle with the Lord."  The rest of the day--in my mind and in my prayers, I kept saying, "I have a plan." and the answer was you are staying.  When I woke up on Thursday, I was somewhat dismayed to find that the same feeling was with me.  I had a plan for those three months and I felt it was a good plan and we would still be serving another mission in just a few more months. So the inner battle continued.

Friday arrived.  I still hadn't said anything to Gary because I was still in the battle/denial phase so why would I want to bring it up?  I had to take Ben to a doctor's appointment so I wasn't involved in a phone call that Gary had with President Parker.  It covered a number of topics so Gary was catching me up to date in the evening.  In part of his story, he said, "I almost told President Parker that we would do our second mission here but I thought Judy would kill me if I did that without talking to her first." Then I knew that he was feeling some of the same things I was feeling--that we needed to stay.  So I shared my experience and wonderings as well. We spent the weekend talking about options of what that would look like and what we should do.  Gary was thinking our second mission and I was thinking maybe an extension to December or January. (Sidenote:  You can extend a full-time senior mission to 30 months and at that time, you would be released and need to reapply to serve another full-time mission. April would be 30 months for us.)  But in the back of my mind, I was stamping my foot and saying I have a plan.  

Sunday we decided that it might be helpful to talk to President and Sister Parker so we made arrangements with them to meet on Monday at 11:00.  They have been serving as senior service missionaries for almost four years from their home in Bountiful.  They are also due to be released in December of 2022 and are planning to apply for a full-time mission at the beginning of 2023 like us.  So we have had conversations about our next missions with them already. We met and had a sweet conversation with them in which they said, It would be so helpful to have you stay during this time of change and turnover.  It wasn't until hearing that that I realized that I was hoping they would say something like, "I know it is hard to leave, but you have served well and it is time to go."  They didn't and my wrestle continued.

To be clear, the "wrestle" had nothing to do with this mission--I have loved serving here--or the new mission president--I was feeling sad that I wouldn't be able to serve with them.  They are awesome.  It was totally because I had a plan for those three months of family and friend time and I didn't want to change it.  We left the Parkers' office with a promise that we would get back with them about our decision.  By then, I knew we were staying--the only detail left was how long.  By later that day, it seemed to settle on February--a middle ground between January and April.  We let President Parker know on Monday evening, although leaving an opening for the mission president to say no if he felt he should.  Friday morning, Gary saw on the mission records that our extension had been approved by the mission president and our Stake President (who we hadn't told yet) and was only waiting for final approval from the mission department.  At this point, we had only mentioned the extension to a few people because it wasn't official yet and we hadn't even told all of our kids yet.

At the Go Forth Meeting on Friday (the 15th), when the mission president had us stand so that our new misisonary could see who we were, he announced to the whole meeting that we had extended our mission to continue our service here---and the news was out and official!!

I had a plan BUT this time--and I hope always--I choose to follow God's plan for us!

Final notes:

We will still do our Israel trip and our reunion in November with our kids and grandkids.  We will just take a leave for those times.

Our paperwork for our second mission is complete and with our Stake President.  We would like to proceed with submitting that application with the change in availability date to April.  We think we can submit the papers 9 months in advance but are waiting for our Stake President to decide when to meet with us.

We still may serve our second mission in this same mission.  Like senior missionaries and young elders and sisters, our call comes from an Apostle and we mean it when we say that we will go wherever you want us to serve and that includes the Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission.  We are HOPING to maybe do a member/leadership support mission somewhere in the western United States but who knows....or maybe Hawaii or Hong Kong.  The sky is the limit!

And there you have it!  Perhaps you don't wrestle so long as I do.  Maybe you are quick to change plans and to follow.  Good for you--but just in case you are like me, know that God is patient and allows you the time and the support you need to make that change.  That is why we are here to grow and change.