We have been planning to serve a mission for the LDS Church for the past 34 years & now the time has arrived to open the long awaited call. Although we had requested to serve in the Philippines Cebu mission we were apprehensive about where the Lord would actually need us & whether we would be serving in the bone chilling cold. For those who know me well, know that I cannot stand to be cold & George sits in our home with a down jacket on most of the winter when the furnace is set at 70 degrees.
The family joins us both in person & by phone for the big opening & YES we are called to Cebu. Our good friend of 25 years has a brother who is the mission president of Cebu & that is how this all started.
We are extremely excited for this new adventure in our life & overwhelmed at what has to be done to leave our home & family. A few of the things that I think will be the hardest to leave: missing two grandkids baptisms, missing the birth of our 11th grandchild (& who knows - maybe more), holiday events, hot water in the kitchen, brushing my teeth with water from the faucet, & the list can go on but........I want to focus on the wonderful things we have to look forward to - the Filipino people!! We are anxious to live among them, learn their culture, share our love of our Savior & His gospel with them & more importantly, the joy that living the gospel has brought into our lives!!
August 5 we enter the MTC in Provo for training & then on to Cebu - a 30 hour trip.
Oh yes, one thing I forgot to mention - we thought (and don't ask me why we ever thought this!) this was an English speaking mission. The "call" didn't mention any language so we assumed.......wrong!
About a week after the "call" came, we received a telephone call from the MTC language training center about setting up our language tutoring - WHAT? REALLY? Oh how I wanted to say we are not interested - I have a tongue that only speaks OKIE but I did what all missionaries do - I agreed (maybe somewhat reluctantly but I did agree) & now we have a Skype tutor twice a week & are attempting to learn Cebuano. A challenge? Very definitely but we are learning a little & hope to learn enough to speak like a 2 year old & for them to have some understanding of us. My tutor yesterday wants us to be able to have limited understanding in church so that we can participate in our Sunday meetings! I wonder how long that will take. Oh my!
