We felt that it was time to go again, after being home for 2-1/2 years. In accordance with this feeling, we went to our bishop and told him we wanted to serve a mission. He opened for us the Missionary Recommendation forms on the Internet. We each had our own set of forms and similar questions. Much thought and prayer went into the answers we gave. Some of the questions were about present and former Church callings, jobs we had in the world of work, hobbies and interests and our abilities to teach others those skills, our feelings about whether we were comfortable with people of different cultures or levels of society (whether they were poor, uneducated, or affluent and well-trained).
We also had forms for physical exams by the doctor, dental exams, immunizations, etc. It took us about 2 months to complete all the medical and dental items and to finish the personal pages. When we were finished, we told the bishop and gave him our medical and dental forms, and he gave them to the stake president, whose secretary entered our medical and dental information onto the computer. The president interviewed us and then sent our computerized applications and info to the Missionary Committee in Salt Lake City on July 3, 2013, and we began the fun waiting process.
It normally takes about three weeks to a month for a mission call to be made and sent to the missionary. After 3 weeks had passed, we began in earnest to hope that each day it would arrive in our mailbox. Finally on Friday, August 2, it came, a large white envelope from the Office of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We were SO EXCITED! We had just arrived home from working in the temple all day and were very tired, but soon forgot about anything else but the call!
Immediately we texted our sons and arranged to meet at our house or join us in phone call at 6:45 p.m. that night. We had a little guessing game of where we would be going, with every family member, including us, making a guess. No one guessed correctly, but at least everyone knew where Ohio is, and it was not like our first mission call to Cape Verde where no one knew its location! Matt, Dan, and Joe and Shaylee came to our house; Sherrie and the other children were in Idaho at their cabin; and Davy and family were in Mississippi (Air Force base). They joined us in the 3-way phone call.
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