Our Adventure Begins

We have been called to serve in the Spain Madrid Mission, serving on the Canary Islands.  Our assignment is to work with the Church Education System (CES), with the Seminary and Institutes.  We will be working with the young single adults who are ages 18 to 30.  We are very excited for this opportunity.

We entered the Missionary Training Center on April 14th. We were in a district with the Clarks, who are going to Nauvoo, the Bigelows who will be serving at Fort Leonardwood, and the Hirschis who will be serving at the historical site at the Sixth Crossing.  We were inspired by these good people and their love for the Lord.  Our first week we enjoyed training with Preach My Gospel.  How wonderful it was to study the scriptures and be trained in ways to share our religious beliefs and our love for the Lord.  The second week of training was from CES, where they gave us training in preparing lessons and helping us be better teachers.

We also had the opportunity to hear Elder Andersen and Elder Oaks speak at the Tuesday night devotionals.  It was a powerful experience to hear apostles of the Lord as they spoke to all of the missionaries.  I also sang in the choir for the devotionals.  Of course, the choir was mostly made up of young missionaries.  There energy and enthusiasm are inspiring.  I am so impressed with these young people who are willing to give up 18 months or 2 years to serve the Lord.  They have  a love for the Savior and a desire to share the good news of the gospel with people all over the world.

As I look at our recent family picture, I wonder how I can leave these people that I love so much.  We have nine of the most precious little grandchildren that I love with all my heart.  We love our children and our other family members as well.  But we have made the decision to leave them because of our great love for the Lord.  Our Savior gave everything for us, so that we might return again to Him.  He has blessed our lives immensely.  Serving Him for the next two years is only a small sacrifice by comparison and we hope to bring others unto Christ.  We will pray for His blessings on our family and friends while we are in His service.