Other Things We Will Miss

            I have done artwork since I was a teenager and ceramics for about 30 years. I taught art in high school, with most of my classes being ceramics. Because I love it, I have a studio here at our cabin and have worked in that studio a lot over the years. I will really miss having my hands in clay for such a long time.  

            Frank loves woodwork and has a workshop equipped with about every woodworking tool imaginable. He builds about anything--furniture, decorative boxes, toys, etc. He also turns pens and has created some beautiful pens for most of the family members (still has some promised.)

            We both love to work outside and I love gardening. Soon after moving here, we began to clear our empty lot across the street and we created a sort of nature park ,with our grandkids especially in mind. We planed it with many kinds of trees, bushes and flowers and this past summer, we put in an automatic sprinkler and drip system. The planting is still pretty immature, but already beautiful and we’ve had so much fun in the designing and implementing.

            We will really miss our work and our hobbies along with many other things but look forward to a new kind of work that will know will be exciting, challenging and creative.

The Clearance!!!

Finally, after many weeks of waiting, the letter from the FBI has arrived which affirms that I have NOT been arrested by them. I'm very happy about getting the clearance (and about not being arrested :) because today we were able to send both my clearance and Frank's to LDS travel services so that they can process the visa request. That usually takes about two weeks after they receive it so I think that we are just in the nick of time.

Saying Goodbye

Much more costly than mission expenses, and much more difficult than waiting for a Visa is saying goodbye to our children and grandchildren. We have 8 children with wonderful spouses and 24 grandchildren. Each has a special place in our hearts and we will miss time spent with them. In our last few weeks before we report to the MTC, we have been spending as much time as possible with family—as many visits to Santa Clara and we can fit in, then trips to Phoenix, Medford, Oregon, Salt Lake City and next week to Las Vegas.

Our kids do such a wonderful job with their families and are all hardworking and independent, which allows us to serve a mission without worrying about them unduly. Still, we know that we will miss them and probably won’t REALLY know that until we’re 10,000 miles away. We are so lucky, though, to have so many means of communication available to us—our blogs, “FaceTime,” “Hangouts,” and even old school email. We plan to take advantage of each to stay current with the activities of the children and grandchildren and not miss too much of their growing up. I’m sure they will miss us too, but we appreciate the fact that they all support our adventure.

Waiting for our Visas

Within days of receiving our mission call, we began to complete all of the paperwork that was needed for our particular mission. One that we were advised to expedite was the application for the FBI background check that is required for the Visa to South Africa. Since we had so many months before our reporting date, we thought that we were just being proactive and that we would be sitting on our suitcases, all prepared and waiting for several months. Instead, we are biting our fingernails wondering if we will have our Visas in time to enter the MTC and leave the country when planned. The initial applications with fingerprints were sent in early September. In mid November, I received notice that my fingerprints weren’t readable so I immediately had them re-done and sent them in. It is now January 4 and I still haven’t received a reply. I was finally told when I called today that the results were being mailed this weekend. Not sure whether the results are yes or no, but at least it’s progress.

The Cost of Serving a Mission

When thinking about the cost of serving a mission, people usually just consider the costs while in the mission field and these vary quite a bit. US missions are generally around $2000, while foreign missions can range from only $750 per month to close to $3,000. Johannesburg is estimates to be about $2500 per month, which doesn’t seem too bad since it covers everything including housing, utilities, food, personal items and transportation. There is also an additional cost for insurance, but it is only $180 a month—much less than other policies. 

Even before you start paying the real mission expenses, though, there is a good amount of expense in the preparation. We have spent approximately $2500 so far on such things as mailing  the FBI clearance requests, clothes, suggested medicines, and especially immunizations. We both needed a number of different shots and some were expensive so we’ve spent well over a thousand dollars on those. We’re happy to spend it though and feel blessed that we have the means to prepare and to serve.

Preparation!

Getting all of the things done to complete the missionary application seemed like a lot, but it was nothing compared to the many tasks that need to be done once the call has been received. When we submitted our application, we put as our availability date the first day of November. We would have put even an earlier date, but we wanted to be sure to be here to greet our newest little grandson, Peter.

When our call arrived with the date of January 20, it seemed like forever away, but now after the months of preparation, I can see that we could never have been ready by November 1. The immunizations had to be spread out and we won't finish the last until the first of January. Also the FBI clearance required for the VISA has taken a long, long time. Frank finally got his OK a couple of weeks ago, but my fingerprints came back as "unreadable" and had to be re-submitted. We're still waiting for those results. Hopefully, we'll have everything in order to go on the assigned date!

Here is a list of some of the things that we've done to prepare to go. I'm sure I've forgotten a few, but you can see that the tasks would keep you busy for a number of months :)

Acceptance: Writing our missionary acceptance letters

Profile: Creating a profile on Mormon.org

Family History: Have a four generation sheet complete and printed for both of us.

Temple recommends: Have our temple recommend renewed

Study in preparation: Read the Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel, Jesus the Christ and current conference talks and Ensign articles. Also watch episodes of a series called “The District” that follows the daily lives of missionaries.

Medical preparation: Complete medical tests and treatments—physical, dental exam, eye exam, and any other treatments needed before we go like dermatology appointments, podiatrists, etc.

Prescriptions: Arrange for twelve months of prescriptions

Immunizations: Make sure that we have required and suggested immunizations. These include Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis; Measles-Mumps-Rubella (if born after 1957); Hepatitis A (2 doses) and Hepatitis B (3 doses) These are available in combination shots, but since I had had one of them I had to do the separate ones; Polio; Typhoid; Pneumonia; Shingles; and Meningococcal Meningitis.

Emergency: Making sure that our advance directives are complete and have been recorded where they are accessible in the event of emergency.

Passport: Making sure that our passports are current and won’t expire when we’re in South Africa.

Obtain a VISA: Complete the FBI background check form and be fingerprinted in order to get a VISA to enter South Africa. This takes a number of weeks to be processed and the fingerprints often have to be repeated.

Insurance: Sign up for Aetna International insurance that offers a more complete coverage for missionaries serving abroad.

Finances: Make sure that financial obligations will be taken care of during our mission—putting as many things on automatic pay as possible, arranging for our son to receive our mail and transmit information on how much to pay for the ones that can’t be (like the water bill.)

Notification: Communicate with bank, credit card company or debit card company that you will be out of the states for 18 months so that you will be able to access funds.

Driver’s license, etc.: Making sure that drivers license, credit cards, etc. will also not expire while we’re there.

Clothing, etc.: Getting clothing and other needed items ready to go. Also assemble first aid kit, sewing kit, personal items. Two kinds of insecticide are required. One to spray on as needed, the other to spray on clothing, even before we arrive at the MTC.

Decisions on home, car: Decide who will watch over our house (Dan will be in charge) and what to do with our truck (Rachel and Rick will purchase and we will get a newer one when we return.)

Learn about destination and responsibilities: Read and talk to people about South Africa and/or about senior missions, CES missions, etc. trying to get a picture of what we will be doing. In truth, we really won’t know until we’re there, but we excited to find out!

Family Time: Spending as much time with family as possible. This includes a “holiday tour” where we will travel to see all eight of our children during December or early January.