Physically getting ready to leave on our mission is a bit of an ordeal. We had to make sure our shots were up to date... forward all addresses of all accounts and merchants to Mitzi's house... update our Family Trust and wills... and generally put things in order to leave. Our call is for 30 months, but it could be less or more. We found good renters for our home and left some furniture out for them to use. Everything else went onto our shelves in the garage or into the bonus room.
We turned the house over to the tenants on March 4th. Then we travelled around the country for 3 weeks saying goodbyes to loved ones. We started with a golf trip to Saint George, with Ed's brothers and then we went to Salt Lake for our official training with the Special Project Department. Next we flew to California where we spent a fun weekend in Long Beach with Tiffany's family, in conjunction with "Time Out For Women" ...
and then up to Seattle where we visited our dear friends from Hawaii (from 40 years ago) Gary and Sheila Cox. We were then headed for Anchorage to visit Amy's family, but we received a phone call saying they were cold and they wanted to meet us in Hawaii for a couple of days. (Amy works for Alaska Airlines so we could fly to Hawaii for free.) Our granddaughter, Darcy, attends BYU Hawaii, and of course we had to say good-bye to her!
(This is a big house up by Laie, where Ed and I, and our family and some of the workers lived when we were first married and built the Kaneohe stake center.
and then up to Seattle where we visited our dear friends from Hawaii (from 40 years ago) Gary and Sheila Cox. We were then headed for Anchorage to visit Amy's family, but we received a phone call saying they were cold and they wanted to meet us in Hawaii for a couple of days. (Amy works for Alaska Airlines so we could fly to Hawaii for free.) Our granddaughter, Darcy, attends BYU Hawaii, and of course we had to say good-bye to her!
We ended up in Utah where we were able to attend the televised dedication of the gorgeous new Utah City Center Temple. It was a humbling coincidence that we were there to be reminded of what our pioneer forefathers sacrificed to build temples... and be reminded how blessed we are to get to go build a temple.
The week before we left on Monday, April 4th, we had a wonderful week with most of our family members with us, staying at a big lake house on Lake Lure, in the Appalachian Mountains. We had a great time! A favorite activity was the hike up to the famous Chimney Rock.
Probably the best part of the week was watching the grandchildren from California, Alaska, North Carolina and Virginia, enjoy one another.
We returned on Friday, in time to watch General Conference and be set apart for our mission. What a marvelous month with loved ones! We have lots of memories to pack into our hearts and minds as we take off for our adventure.
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