And The Saga Continues

Well it is Monday - the day the sister in Salt Lake said to call back to get our new mission asssignment. Wayne called this morning and SURPRISE! It is Matin Luther King Day and the Church Headquarters are closed. Maybe tomorrow.

Anticipation

We received an email from the Mission President in India several days ago. Basically he was telling us that we would not be coming to India and said we had two options. We could wait until we get to the MTC and see what happens then or we could call Salt Lake and ask for a reassignment. We opted for the second option and Wayne called Salt Lake on Wednesday. The sister that he spoke to confirmed that we would not be going to India and said they were working on our assignment. She told Wayne that we could go to Russia but we would have to wait another 5 months because of the Visa requirements. Wayne told her that we have to report to the MTC on Feb. 1st no matter what because we have to be out of our house and we sold our car so we can't go anywhere in the US. She told him that a mission president had called, desperate for a couple to come to his mission but she had to check on the Visa requirements. She would call back that afternoon. Well, we did not hear from her that day but she called the next and said she had worked something out but it had to be approved by one of the apostles first so Wayne was to call her this afternoon. When Wayne called today, she said the paper work had not come back to her office yet and she was leaving early today. We are back to waiting for the mission call! Hopefully, we will find out on Monday. Another long weekend coming up!

Granny's funeral was yesterday and it was wonderful. We have to thank Brian for being a good sport and giving the eulogy. We know it wasn't easy but he did a good job. A big thank you also goes to Larry Ashcraft for giving the gospel message. He did a beautiful job as did Bishop Kirk. We also had a musical number by all of the grandchildren who were there. Not only did it sound good but they looked good too. I know Granny would be proud of them. It was so nice to have about 90% of the family here and we enjoyed being able to visit and reconnect. We had not expected Jonathan and Margo to come but they found a fantastic deal on airfare and decided to bring the whole family. They get to stay a whole week and so the cousins are having a blast playing together and getting to know each other again. It is too bad they only get to see each other about once a year.

We have received a little more info on the Visa situation and we are sure that we are not going to India. We will be reassigned but we do not know when or where. The waiting and anticipation starts all over again. We will keep posting as we get more information.

Farewell Granny

Wayne's mother, Jacqueline Clarke, passed away yesterday. She has been in a very sad condition for quite some time and it was a major worry of ours that she would pass away after we had left for our mission. We feel it was a blessing that she has been released from this life and can definitely see the Lord's hand in the timing of everything. We will miss her but know that she is definitely better off now.

More News

Wayne has a cousin who just returned from a mission in Southern India. He reports that they have had 7 couples return home and their replacements were unable to get Visa's and went elsewhere. Two of those couples were Humanitarian Missionaries so that blows Wayne's theory that they might issue the Visa for humanitarian purposes. We are still holding onto a tiny thread of hope that we will be able to go to India but it is not looking real good.

The Count Down Begins

This is to be the start of a Mission Journal. To do that, I must go back several months.

Wayne and I started planning for a mission several years ago. Our thoughts were that we would submit our application as soon as he retired and figured that would mean we would be gone by March of 2009. Because of his desire to hike the John Muir Trail before the mission, we had to put things on hold until the end of summer.

We finally submitted our application towards the end of June. We were told that the call would come about 3 weeks after Salt Lake received the application. We figured that we should hear something by the middle of July. To our disappointment we had not heard by the time Libby left for Maryland on July 21 and Wayne left for his hike the next day. There was a hold placed on our mail since both of us were to be gone for 3 1/2 weeks so we tried not to think of it too much for a few weeks.

Due to bad weather, Wayne's hike was cut short after only 2 1/2 weeks and he returned home about Aug. 9th. That began the daily calls from Maryland to Clovis just after the mail delivery to see if the call had come. The answer was always the same, "Nothing today".

Libby left for BYU Education Week on August 15 and so began the daily phone calls from Provo to Clovis. Again, "Nothing today".

Libby came home on Aug. 22 and started the daily trek to the mailbox herself. Again, nothing.

On August 27 Libby went into the hospital for surgery and that afternoon received a phone call from Wayne. The letter had finally come, did she want him to bring it to the hospital or open it and read it to her over the phone. What would you do? We had been waiting for over two months. Of course she said to read it over the phone. Wayne began to read. "You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the India New Delhi Mission". Talk about blowing your mind. Words would not come. We will be serving a Humanitarian Mission for 18 months.


We were not to report to the Missionary Training Center until February 1, 2010. With the long delay that we had already had that came as a disappointment. Wayne immediately started reading everything he could on India. He ordered the Hindi Rosetta Stone course and practiced daily. Libby took the "Don't get too excited yet" approach. Wait until January before really getting into it.

It is now the end of December. Time to start getting excited. Wayne's Hindi is coming along slowly and we have pretty much gathered all that we need to take with us. We have had some news that makes us a little concerned that we may not make it to India though. Visas have not been issued to new missionaries since April. Aunti Caye, who works in the Senior Missionary Training Center, tells us that a couple who were scheduled to go to India reported to the MTC and found out that they have been reassigned to Croatia. That sounds like a pretty good trade off to me but we are wondering what will happen to us. Maybe we will be lucky and they will start issuing Visas in the next month. If not, I hope that we will not be sent to Tucson Arizona to an Indian Reservation. Not such a good trade off!

Whatever happens, we are still excited and ready to serve wherever that might be. As the time gets closer, I am finding that it is getting harder to think about leaving the family. We have had such fun with Ashlyn and Preston here in our home. I will miss them and my quarterly trips to Maryland to see Thomas, Lucas and Caroline. We know that the Lord will be with us and will help us make the change and we put our trust in him that things will work out in the way that is best for all.

As our departure date gets closer, I will post more.

Happy times in Hawaii

We spent a great week in Hawaii with Jonathan and his family. He had a work commitment and Margo decided to join him with the kids. Margo researched on the internet and found a wonderful beach house on the east coast of Oahu. It was absolutely beautiful. The boys had a great yard to play in and then we just had to walk down a few steps and we were on the beach. Thank you so much Margo. We loved the whole experience.





This is the beach house we rented.

Wayne walking up from the beach to the house.


View from our yard.


Thomas loved kayaking.

The family out for a ride.



Both boys loved playing with the oars.




Lucas loved playing in the sand.

We went to a military museum at Waikiki.




Beautiful sunrises every morning. It was good that the boys got us up so early every day.

Lucas got Grandpa into the sand mode.