The very day Reid was released from the Stake Presidency in February, we opened up the Missionary Portal and began the application process to be Senior Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We wasted no time, and had everything completed in a week, minus our medical part. Our doctor couldn't see us until end of March, but no matter. All is well and we submitted our papers on April 19. Our call arrived via email on May 7. We were getting ready to leave for the Temple and not sure if we should open it or wait until that evening. But who are we kidding? We couldn't resist and of course we opened it! What a shock mixed with a sweet spirit of peace as we read the words, "You are hereby assigned to serve in the Adriatic North Mission - Bosnia Welfare." We were rushing to pick up our sweet sisters we drive on Tuesday's, so we left with a million questions and no chance to start googling all the answers! It was a beautiful day in the Temple as our minds raced with excitement. What a great place to be while contemplating our missionary service.
That night we got all our kids gathered on Facetime and let them know! We let our Siblings, our Bishop, Co-workers, and friends know. It was so fun to talk about and to start making plans for our August 5th MTC start.
The next few weeks were a blur of zoom calls and emails, filling us with information about our service. When we zoomed with our Mission President and wife, President and Sister Cordray, it was explained to us that through quite a wonderful story, we would be serving as Humanitarian missionaries in Croatia and Slovenia! We have moved forward learning all we can about the fabulous work the church does all over the world with Humanitarian efforts. It feels like a gift to be able to help others and represent the church, all while serving in a beautiful corner of the world.
A few weeks later we attended the Temple and left feeling that we should sell our home. The flood gates really opened then! We had so much to do to prepare! We went through every room, drawer, and closet and divided things up between garage sale, storage, giving to the kids and others, trips to the dump, and keeping some things for house staging. I don't think we've ever worked so hard or long! Amazingly as we lifted, shifted, pulled, and carried all sorts of things morning to evening, our muscle aches weren't too bad!
We put the house on the market June 27 and it sold quickly! No surprise to us, as this is such a beautiful and special home and property. We have loved living here and we have endless happy memories with family and friends. For 17 years we have loved walking the trails, fires in the fire pit and the wood-burning stove, sitting on the front porch, our lovely driveway, enjoying the back deck, wonderful neighbors, and so many games, good laughs, Christmas mornings, movie nights, parties, grandkids, and special spiritual experiences we treasure.
As we are on the countdown to leaving, we are busy taking Croatian lessons from our wonderful MTC teacher, Kayla Fuller. We are deciding what to pack. We are memorizing mission scriptures. We are preparing talks for our last Sunday. We have been released from church callings (Reid as Seminary Teacher, Kathy as Primary 1st Counselor) and we have one more week as Seattle Temple Ordinance Workers. It feels as if every single part of our life has already changed. Yes it's hard to let go of places and people that we love and have beautiful memories with, but we do so with a smile knowing that our life here has been a good and full one. We have adventures ahead to look forward to. And we're not leaving for good. We will be back. Olympia is so special to us and will always have our heart.
As we move forward with some fear, and mostly excitement, we realize that faith is our best friend right now. We don't know what's coming. We don't know what will be asked of us. We don't even know if we can do this! But we have our faith. Our motto in the hard moments has been, "Think Celestial" and so we've moved forward for another hour, another day, knowing that we will each have a companion that we love and work well with, by our side! And as Reid noted in his journal 43 years ago, while we were dating, "I can picture the future with Kathy, serving as missionaries together" and so we begin to fulfill a goal we've had ever since we were dating.
You are welcome to follow along if you are as curious as I am about what is ahead!