On December 23, 2013 we received our mission call to serve
in the Nauvoo Illinois Temple Mission for six months reporting directly to the
mission on April 18, 2014.
Let’s start at the beginning of this journey.
We had been called to serve a Church Service Mission
beginning in July 2012 in the Julian Branch of our Poway Stake. I was called to be Relief Society President
and Chuck was called to be executive secretary.
Every Sunday and sometimes during the week we would drive to Julian
California (about a 45 minute drive) where we met in the Julian Branch building
near the Smith Ranch. The branch
president, Greg Smith, and his family own the Smith Ranch and Julian Train
Rides (www.pioneerways.com) where they have a tourist business and where the
branch building is located. The Smith
and Anderson families have been a part of the Poway Stake for about as long as
we have. We have rubbed shoulders with
many of them throughout the years. They
are wonderful, good, and faithful Saints but their numbers are few and so
church service missionaries have been called over the years to go up to Julian
to help support the saints and branch there.
We were honored to be called to be part of that sweet branch. Our dear friends from the Lake Poway Ward,
Zan and Larry Eyre and Marianne and Richard Quiggle paved the way for us as
they served there also. This was our
church assignment as well as working at the Poway Stake Family History Center
and San Diego Temple in the summer of 2013.
(Julian Branch memories and lessons learned in another document)
Chuck was serving as the brothers coordinator for the
Tuesday PM shift when President Finnigan, President of the San Diego Temple,
approached him and told him that he was submitting only one name of a couple to
serve in the Nauvoo Temple and wanted to know if he could submit our
names. We discussed it and told him
yes. He made us aware that although our
names would be put on the list there was no guarantee. Both the Temple Department and the Mission Department
of the church would receive our names and we were to wait to hear from our
Bishop and Stake President for further instruction. In about the middle of September Bishop
Jorgensen, our Lake Poway Ward Bishop, informed us that we should begin the
process of submitting our paper work to serve a mission. We did as directed and filled out the forms,
did the medical and dental and had our interviews and the papers were submitted
around the first of November. Both
Bishop Jorgensen and President Clyde informing us that even though our papers
were submitted for the Nauvoo Temple Mission anything could happen, meaning
that any call could come to serve anywhere in the United States. We waited with natural anticipation and as
mentioned the call came on December 23, 2014.
Jared set up a google chat room with the family and we were able to open
the call with the family which was so very special and memorable having the entire
family involved with our call. It was
also special that we received the call on the Prophet Joseph Smith’s birthday!
We celebrated Christmas with Jeff and Marilyn. Jared and his family came late Christmas
night and John’s family arrived December 26.
We had visited Josh’s family earlier in the month and Justin’s family
came to visit us in October so we had the great blessing to have been with each
of our children at the close of 2013. As
always, we had a wonderful visits at each of those times which we cherish
dearly.
We had been told that we were going to be receiving a letter
from our Mission/Temple President as soon as he was informed of our call. While we waited for that we cleaned out the
garage and other closets upstairs etc. to reduce and simplify and to see if we
could park our van in it. We had
determined while waiting for our mission call that we were going to just leave
our home without renting and ask our neighbors across the street, John and Barb
Makinster, if they would act as our property managers so to speak and take care
of watering and checking on the house while we would be gone. They accepted our offer noting that their
daughter Hayley would appreciate the income for college expenses.
At the end of January we got a phone call from President
McArthur, the Nauvoo Temple President, welcoming us to the mission. He said that we would be receiving a packet
with information about the mission in a few weeks. It actually arrived about the middle of February. It gave us the information we needed to
complete our shopping and preparations.
We continued to serve our Church Service Mission until March
9. We had informed Debbie Capelo, the
Family History Center Director of our mission call at the end of December. We told her we would need to be released or
put on hold until our return beginning the second week of January. We also continued to visit with our friend
Portia Allen each week to discuss the gospel as we had been doing for the past
2 years until the end of March. We also
continued to serve on our Tuesday PM shift through March 11.
John turned 40 this year and so we went over to Arizona on
his birthday weekend in February to celebrate with him and his family and
Jeff. We had also decided to go on a
Lucas Loop Trip to visit Marilyn, Jared’s family, Josh’s family and Justin’s
and come through Salt Lake on the way home to do last minute mission shopping
before leaving for our mission. We did
that trip leaving March 13 and returning March 24 stopping briefly with each
family and cherishing hugs and kisses from our sweet families. We knew we would go through Arizona on the
way to Nauvoo so that became our first stop on the way to Nauvoo. We had also decided that we would add a
mini-church history trip to Independence, Liberty Jail, Far West and Adam-Ondi-Ahman
as well as visit Holly and our Indiana family before heading to Nauvoo. With the time allotted we also were able to
add Springfield Illinois to the trip before entering Nauvoo to take in the
Lincoln sites and relax and rejuvenate before beginning the mission.
The trek to Nauvoo actually began on March 30. We were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting
that day as well as be set apart.
Marilyn, Jeff and Jared’s family came to visit us that weekend and be
with us as were we were set apart which was a joyous occasion. (Marilyn documented that so well for us which
has been already been posted on our blog that Beth made for us—which also
includes our talks.) The spirit that was
in abundance as President Clyde, President Monroe and President Koster set us
apart. Jared’s testimony was precious
and sacred! As we learned later in our mission
training and orientation, those sacred occasions are often best kept in a
cherished corner of the heart—words cannot do justice to the feelings and the
spirit present at such times. Testimonies
were born, hearts were touched and God’s hand was seen and felt.
We finished up the last of the home preparations, talked
with the Makinster’s, had our last haircuts at our normal spots, had our last
Taco Shop food J,
finished deciding on the last items we would try and take in our Toyotal
Highlander, packed it all up and pulled
the van in the garage on April 4, 2014 and headed East—first stop Arizona.
We came into Arizona later than we usually arrive, but that
was good because everyone was still working or at school. On the 8 (or Ocho as John calls it) I had one
of those “oh no” moments when I realized I had forgotten the jackets I wanted
to bring. So we had a bit of time before
we were going to meet up with John’s family and Jeff for dinner which we used
to go to Kohl’s where I was lucky enough to find a couple of jackets that would
do the trick for the journey. We went to
John’s and then we all went to Casa de Mina for fabulous Mexican food [Taco
Shop—Poway, CA, Corona Village—Meridian, ID, and Casa de Mina—Queen Creek, AZ (boy
I am glad that after a 6 year search AZ finally came through)—now rate with
Pancho Gorto’s (La Habra, CA) and Pepe’s (La Habra, CA) as my all-time favorite
Mexican food places to eat!!! I also
have to add Miguel’s—4 S Ranch San Diego, CA and let’s not forget Rudy’s!] This
was also General Conference weekend so we were able to enjoy conference with
our family. We also went bowling and
Katie and I even did a fun shopping trip while the men were at Priesthood and
Jen and Megan took a nap. We had a
wonderful roast beef dinner on Sunday with the addition of Bill and Janeen
Conley. A good time had by all—even
Rosie!
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