In Training

We have just finished a fun and enjoyable week getting trained for our new assignment, here in Nauvoo.  After spending a day or two settling into our apartment, we were set apart by the temple president, President Spencer Condie.  We have spent time getting to know a few of the other missionaries that we will be serving with, both those that were here through the winter as well as those that just arrived along with us.  We’ve been on tours of the temple as well as the community.  We’ve been on sessions at the temple where we were taught how to be ordinance workers “a la mode’ of the Nauvoo temple.  We have attended inspirational seminars in the assembly room at the temple – opened for us, only by permission from the First Presidency, for this week only.  Today we were allowed to climb to the very top of the temple’s bell tower for the spectacular view seen from its top.  Now, at our leisure, we can visit the historical sites outside the temple and in neighboring vicinities.  Then on Monday, we go to work.

The “flat” which is below the temple – is where we all live, in apartments, built to resemble homes in the 1840’s on the outside, but modern in their functionality on the inside.  Most of each block is green with new spring grass.  The trees are just starting to form leaf buds (so we can still see the temple from our window through the bare branches) but the Magnolia trees are all in bloom.  There are about 20 or so historical sites that have been restored - scattered from place to place.   We live across the street from the ‘Pendleton House and Log School’ and a block down from the ‘Brickyard’ in one direction and the ‘Print Shop’ in the other.  We’ve seen a lot of squirrels and birds everywhere.  In the mornings, I can hear the geese that are nesting down along the river’s bank – along with the pelicans, turtles and frogs.  We’ve been told that there are also lots of deer, raccoons, etc. around the flat, but we haven’t seen any of those yet.  I guess there are still lots of things about to look forward to.

We don’t have internet or phone yet.  When we want to use the internet, or our phones, we need to drive to one of various places where we can borrow someone else’s Wi-Fi.  We are having a hard time arranging for the local internet company to come and install the services needed.  They always seem to want to come when we are busy at the temple.  So we keep having to re-schedule.

Our tripp to the mission field

21 April 2013 –

Summary:  Last Sunday we were set apart by our Stake President to be missionaries.  We then left the next day to head to Nauvoo.  A major storm caused several delays along the way, but with the Lord’s help we were able to make it there by Friday afternoon as requested.  We were able to visit with April, MaeLyn and Kristy along the way.  We are now settled in our new apartment and look forward to being set apart as temple ordinance workers this afternoon.  We are currently without phone or internet.  I am posting this while sitting outside the public library in Nauvoo - using their Wi-Fi to gain access to the internet.

Blow by blow:   Last Sunday we were set apart as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Pres. Richard Wilson came to our home to do the honors.  Present at the time were several family members and invited guests, including the Kerby’s, the Bett’s, the Bryson’s, Daniel & Jennifer, and the Lairds.  Jessica Kerby also invited her friend, Sam.  The ‘setting-apart’s were followed by a lot of noise and enthusiasm as cousins played together, etc.  all while dinner was being prepared.  Eventually, after dinner, each family departed, saying their good-bye’s to us – as they would not be seeing us again for the next several months.

We didn’t have a farewell.  We didn’t go to the MTC.  We were to report directly to the Nauvoo Temple.  We did bare our testimonies that Sunday (which was our fast and testimony meeting for the month, since the previous week was General Conference).

On Monday, we finished piling what we were planning on taking with us into the car and left pretty much on schedule.  We stopped to drop a few things off on our way out, and worked our way to Karma’s home where we had lunch with her and her daughter, Debbie.  A storm had hit the Wasatch Front the night before, leaving a little snow on the ground, but nothing to really deter us in our travels.

We reached Green River, Wyoming and with April’s help via cell phone, we arrived at to her house, where we spent the night.  Being a Monday night, we joined in with them in their Family Home Evening activities with their two young boys.  The storm was growing worse, and we prayed as to what to do.  Should we try to move through quickly before the storm, or hope that it could pass over us and allow us to follow in its wake – hopefully the next day?  Neither alternative set well in my craw, but we decided to stick to our original itinerary and continue on the next morning.

Tuesday, we headed out amid lots of snow and wind.  At least the roads were open.  We hoped to get to MaeLyn’s home that night – all the way to Thornton, Colorado.  We passed Rock Springs and headed on to Rawlins.  But that was the end of our road – the highways were closed due to the storm, so we abandoned our hope of staying on schedule and, although we had only travelled two hours that day, we sought a motel before there were “no vacancy” signs posted all over town.  We really had no choice in being able to stick to our planned agenda.

While there, the “service engine soon” light lit up on our dashboard.  Since we didn’t have anywhere else to go or things to do, we tried to find out what was wrong and get it fixed.  Of the six repair shops posted in the guide at the motel, all of them explained over the phone that they were unable to read the computer codes in our car and thus were unable to help us.  Again we said a prayer and then followed the inspiration that came.  I felt to call our mechanic back home and ask him for advice.  It was suggested that we find an auto parts store and have them read the codes for us.  We did.  It was determined that one of our cylinders was misfiring.  We then went to one of the six mechanics bearing with us the codes that had been read.  The response was that they still couldn’t work on our car since they were so far in arrears that we were in a line two to three weeks long.  If we chose to stay in town that long, he would then consider us.  But he did recommend another site, not on our list.  We went there and they took us right in and fixed the problem while we waited.  Now we were ready for the roads to open – so back to the motel where we watched the “weather channel” and kept track of road closures. 

(On Wednesday) the road was opened that night at about 1 am.  We waited – I didn’t want to travel at that hour.  We got an early breakfast and tried to leave – only to find that, in the cold, our battery would not start.  Again, a quick prayer was said, and immediately the answer was provided.  Others, staying at the motel, came out to leave as well.  One was willing to help us, and the other was able to move his car so that the first could get up next to ours so that the jumper cabled could reach.  Again we were on our way.  As we progressed, first to Laramie and then to Cheyenne, we noticed many cars and semis that had slid off the road and were stranded.  Many of them were pretty banged up as if a collision had put them there.  We learned later that we had caught the tail end of a small window as the road behind us was again closed off and had we waited any longer, we would not have gotten through at all that day.

The road from Cheyenne to Fort Collins was also closed.  Checking the map, we discovered another road, not an interstate, but a highway, none the less, heading in the same direction not too far to the east of the road we would have travelled.  It wasn’t closed, so we took the “detour” and were again on our way.  We made it to MaeLyn’s house only one day behind schedule.  We had scheduled an extra day at Kristy’s home, which we had already used and now had no hope of enjoying.  But Nauvoo was still obtainable at the time we were asked to arrive.

Thursday, we drove to Kristy’s house in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.  Wanting to avoid the toll road from Topeka to Kansas City, we got semi-lost in Topeka, but eventually got on the alternate route and we arrived only an hour later than we had expected.

Friday, we drove to Nauvoo.  Again we did not have clear sailing.  The last few miles of route in Missouri leading into Keokuk, Iowa were flooded and we were required to alter our route once again and we entered Nauvoo by way of Fort Madison.  But we made it – and we knew that the Lord had been with us the whole way, answering our prayers at every turn.  As it turned out, we were only one of several missionary couples all facing the similar problems and all surmounting them in the same miraculous ways.  What a blessing it has been to pray and then sit back and watch the Lord as He works his magic quietly and majestically.

Friday evening and Saturday were spent settling into our assigned apartment.  Everything was pretty much as desired and needed except for the fact that no phone or internet were available.  Hopefully that too will be provided to us as time goes by.  Right now, it is scheduled to be installed around the 1^st of May.

Today is Sunday once again.  This morning we went to Church along with the other 500 or so missionaries that are currently here in Nauvoo.  No children.  No Youth.   After Sacrament Meeting, the site missionaries left to finish their services in the visitor’s center, while the temple missionaries stayed in the stake center.  We are now left to enjoy the Sabbath as we choose except for an appointment we will have with the Temple President this afternoon where we will be set apart a second time, this time to be ordinance workers in the temple.

The Call

Well, here it is the 14th of April.  The day we will be set apart for our mission.  Tomorrow we plan on heading out, en route to Nauvoo, Illinois where we will be spending the next several months of our lives - serving a mission for the Lord.  As we look back at the events that transpired to get us to this point, it has become obvious to us that the Lord's hand has been in this from the beginning.

Mid-summer, last year, the president of the Mt. Timpanogos temple, Noel Reynolds, requested that any of the ordinance workers that were working there and that had a desire to serve as temple missionaries in either the Nauvoo or Palmyra temples submit their names to be considered for such a calling.  I mentioned it to Becky and, feeling very good about the idea, we added our names to the list of about 30 or so to be considered. 

A month or so later, Pres. Reynolds let me know that there was a very good chance that we would be selected - and let us know how the call would be received.  Sure enough, shortly after that, in the October time frame, our Stake president got a letter from the temple department, asking that we be called to serve in the Nauvoo temple.  He gave the letter to our bishop who invited us in, determined our worthiness to serve such a mission and to extend the call to us.  He then informed us that we then needed to fill out the papers to be submitted to the missionary department for processing.

Not having the needed medical insurance, we applied for it.  We waited for the acquired insurance to kick in and then tried to make appointments for our medical exams.  I discovered that the doctors who accepted the insurance that I had obtained would not take new Medicare patients, so I had to start over with a different insurance company.  By the time I had finally got my physical and the appropriate immunizations, it was mid January.  Everything was now submitted and only required the approval of ward and stake leaders.

On the last day of January, while driving to the Mt. Timpanogos temple to work my shift that day, I received a call from a member of the Temple Department in SLC.  He wanted to know if we had received a call and why we had not yet submitted our papers to the missionary department.  He explained that on the letter that had been given to our stake president that there was a deadline specified, December 15th.  We were already 45 days late!  But he went on to explain that if we could get the papers to SLC by the end of that day, he might be able to expedite the call, otherwise the call may have to be changed to some other location than Nauvoo.

I called the bishop.  I called Becky, asking her to call the Stake Executive Secretary and set up an appointment with our Stake President.  A lot of action occurred that day, and mostly through the efforts of the executive secretary, it resulted in our papers making it to Salt Lake and ready for processing by the Missionary Department.

Two weeks later, Becky got a call from a sister in the Missionary department asking for some clarification on the papers that had been submitted.  She also indicated that our Stake President had annotated on the bottom of his form, that we had expressed to him our desire to follow this mission call up with a second mission, perhaps to a Spanish-speaking country.  She then expressed the Church's immediate need for senior couples to serve in that capacity and hoped that we could make ourselves available for such a call as soon as possible.

The official call to serve the Lord came in the mail on the last day of March.  In it we were told that President Spencer Condie, president of the Nauvoo temple, would receive notification of our call to serve under his direction within the next week.  Accordingly we got a phone call from him at that time to welcome us to his mission and to get some kind of a feel as to our experience and capabilities.

In addition to the materials sent to us from the Missionary department, we also got material from the Nauvoo temple giving us lists of things provided by them and lists of things that we would need to provide for ourselves.  They would provide us with an apartment to live in, pretty much fully furnished - and with utilities included would cost us $500 per month.  That left us with about one month to obtain all we needed and prepare to head out on this opportunity of a life-time.

We are to serve as temple missionaries in the Nauvoo temple.  We are not called to serve as site missionaries - thus we have no responsibility to help on the site; either as tour guides or entertainers.  We will be wearing missionary tags wherever we go, and as missionaries, we will need to portray the appropriate image to all.  We will be serving in the temple, administering temple ordinances for both the living and the dead, helping to bring eternal life to all of God's children that are willing to accept the proffered blessings.