For many years, Frank and I have talked about serving a mission when we retired. Although he has held many positions of responsibility in the church, he is a convert who never had a chance to serve a mission. I have also looked forward to the day we could go as an opportunity to serve and as a chance to get to know another part of the world and another culture. We were both hoping for a foreign mission. Frank was born in Germany and thought that would be a nice place to serve. In our application, I mentioned that country and of several other places. I also included the idea that ever since I have thought of a mission, I have pictured myself in Africa. That was the assignment I was hoping for. Finally, on about July 15 of 2013, we finished our mission application, pushed "submit." Then we had an interview with the branch president and the stake president. These were complete on July 22 and then we started waiting.