MTC & Beyond - Up, Up and Away

The MTC experience is behind us. What a wonderful place all those young missionaries, with such high levels of energy. A highlight was Wednesday when the new young missionaries arrive - about 400 plus each and every Wednesday. Their suitcases are lined up all throughout the corridors outside the buildings. What a sight! They sure have a system for getting the new missionaries in and getting their parents out. After the welcome meeting, the parents exit the assembly hall by doors on one side and the new missionaries exit by doors on the other side to not see each other again for two years when they meet again at their arrival airport.

Besides the serious meetings there was time for some fun. One day at lunch (can you imagine that they feed over 2000 missionaries at each meal time in a two hour period) we sat across from some missionaries going to Taiwan. I started talking Chinese to the young man in front of me in Chinese (gibberish for sure on my part!) but I said a few thing s that sounded real and I was serious in my delivery and he was trying really hard to figure out what I was saying. Finally he looked at me quizzically and asked if I knew Chinese. He had only been studying for 5 weeks so I had him really confused!! We had a good laugh and we ran into each other another time in the cafeteria and he came up to me speaking in Chinese and I answered in gibberish and we had another good laugh.

Another touching moment was when two young missionaries approached us at a meal and asked if they could bear their testimonies in Italian. One spoke and the other translated for us into English then they switched places. We could tell that they were putting themselves out and really trying to master their new language.

Tuesday evening Elder Neuenschwander was the guest speaker for the devotional. He was wonderful but it was also an inspirational moment to be be in one hall with so many dedicated and well mannered young men and women. The senior missionaries had reserved seats front and center which made us feel a little special. And of course, we sng the signature missionary hymn - Called To Serve. Not a dry eye in the house!!

Final Travel Plans

Today, Sunday the 19th, we have been set apart as official representatives/missionaries of the Church by President Miles, the Stake President of our Mount Mahogany Stake. (This is our local diocese leader.) He gave both Jan and me wonderful blessings and based on experience we know we'll need every one of them.

Monday (Aug. 20th) just before noon, we will check into the Missionary Training Center and we will be there Tuesday and Wednesday. We will stay at home and travel back and forth morning and evening. During this time Sophie "the wonder dog" will be staying with our daughter Danielle and her family. We are grateful for their help.

We'll pick up Sophie on Wednesday evening. We will spend Thursday doing our final packing and shutting down the house. Friday we leave to take Sophie back to "Camp Blue Springs", to stay with our daughter and her family in Blue Springs, Missouri (a Kansas City suburb). Not only are we grateful for the Messersmith family taking care of Sophie for 18 months but all of our children are glad that they aren't the ones to have to watch her for that long period of time!!

On our way back to Kansas City we'll spend Friday night in Denver. We used to make the trip in one day but now we're older (and wiser)! We'll also be taking the truck back to Olathe Ford. I have known the owner of Olathe Ford from the time that our daughters played basketball together in high school. As a friend he has agreed to take the truck in on a trade for a new truck to be delivered in February of 2009 when we return. As my mother used to say, " sometimes it's not what you know but who you know".

We'll visit with family back there until Wednesday, August 29th. We'll then get on a plane to Chicago and then from there to London England. Layover one day in London (again because we're older and wiser) and continue on to Johannesburg South Africa. We will arrive there Saturday morning September 1st. Rest for the weekend and start work on Monday morning the 3rd. The couple we are replacing leave September 11th from that point forward we're on our own - sink or swim - do or die!!

Between now and then entries to the blog may get spotty so bear with us until we can get into a routine.

Close to "There's No Backing Out Now!!"

This past Thursday we spent the day at Church headquarters being introduced to our new assignment and being trained by Dan Dahlgren of the Auditing Department. We have now a little better idea of what we are supposed to be doing when we get to Africa. In my experience what you are supposed to do and what you actually do are sometimes different. We enter the "real world" when we start training with Elder and Sister Stringham, who are couple that we are replacing. They will be able to fill us in on what they've been doing, what they wish they had time to do and what "opportunities" are before us.

The day with Dan Dahlgren was quite informative and certainly gave us a much better idea of the how the sacred funds of the Church are safeguarded and more importantly the procedures in place to protect those who handle Church funds. Our key role will be to train Stake Presidents and Stake Auditing Committees in Church procedures. Unless it is a rare circumstance we will not actually be performing any audits ourselves. We do receive the completed audits which are done in every unit twice per year and enter the results into a Church data base. We then review the audits and check them against procedures and compare them to previous audits in order to determine where procedures are not being followed and more training is required. This forensic and defalcation work hopefully rarely detects dishonesty. More on this later.

Sri Lanka - Our Heroes Return

This picture of Pam and Gaylin Thomas was taken in front of their mission headquarter offices in Singapore. Their assignment however, was not so "jet-set" desirable. They have just completed 18 months as the Humanitarian missionaries in Sri Lanka. This assignment had many facets some of which included the distribution of wheelchairs to the handicapped, support of a non-profit factory that built artificial limbs for amputees, the distribution of hygiene kits to orphanages, the digging of fresh water wells in remote villages, sandbagging around the humblest of homes (read "dirt floor huts" as we privileged Americans would refer to them), assistance to Tsunami victims, re-building destroyed homes and the list goes on and on. Not to be overlooked was their spiritual leadership among local members of the Church in that area. They have also been working hard as goodwill ambassadors to see that the Church achieves "recognized" status. That is a status required by the government so that members of the Church there can participate in government programs such as schooling.


For those of you nor sure where to find Sri Lanka on a world map, It is the large island formerly referred to as Ceylon, that is just south of India and is in the Indian Ocean. (Note, to those of you from Utah: The Indian Ocean is NOT that big body of water near Salt Lake City that Indians used to camp around!)
It is a country that is currently divided by civil war. Pam and Gaylin have many stories of danger and intrigue as they went about doing good in the Lord's service. In fact the area near where they lived was bombed from the air, (by Cessna & Piper Cub fixed wing aircraft, no less, much to the chagrin of the Sri Lanka Air Force that is equipped with supersonic jet fighters). One of the bombs fell just a couple of blocks from where they lived! The international airport of Columbo was often under attack which required frequent closing of the airport to international commercial flights. Follow this link to learn more statistical information concerning this country. http://www.mapquest.com/atlas/main.adp?region=srilanka

Pam and Gaylin have been our friends for nearly 25 years. We became acquainted with them when we first moved to the Kansas City area in 1983. Gaylin at one point in this period was the Bishop of our Church ward. We have children who are of similar ages and they were friends during their school years. Also for a little time, Jan and Gaylin worked together in a small meat processing company.

We're glad to welcome the Thomas' safely home. We were at their Church homecoming addresses today in Manti, Utah. Pam wore a beautiful Sri Lanka customary dress and Gaylin brought along his treasured "Sri Lankan water carrying pot".

I'll leave this post of the Thomas' with some their parting thoughts. They think they'd like to go on at least another couple of missions! Bless them!! 18 months on this mission was long enough! They are glad to be back to their children, grand children and friends. Pam is hoping that going on missions is like giving birth. After about a year and one-half they hope they'll forget the really difficult and painful parts and be ready to do it again! (smile)

Google Earth View of New Home & Office

This is kind of cool and obviously works whereas the video clip of Lulu will be for later on.

On the right of the picture you can see the large roof top of the Killarney Mall. Across from there I have marked Dukes Court, our home away from home.

Just as we were leaving South Africa the last time, work was being done on the parking area between the mall and the apartment building. The picture shows the construction in progress. I hope this is an older picture and the work is now completed. We're thinking that the mall will be a safe place to walk as an exercise venue.

To the right of the mall you see a major freeway that cuts through the heart of the city. You can also see a piece of a golf course in the top right corner of the picture. Across the small side street from the golf course is the American Embassy. This will be very handy in case we need to be evacuated by helicopter. Oh wait! That was Saigon! I'm getting my stories confused!

This picture shows the route that we will take from the flat to the office. According to Google Earth the distance is about 1.8 miles.

A little too far to walk/run, especially wearing bullet proof vests and full combat gear! Did I mention that this part of the city is a little dangerous! We'll be leaving a full security parking area underneath our apartment building - driving to the Temple and passing down a gated lane with security that passes beside the temple, then driving down the hill to the the office complex where we will be parking our car under the offices in a fully gated security garage. We will then be using our secure passes to enter the building. Note: Sometimes I think we take for granted our relatively safe life and freedom from fear that we have in the United States. As someone once said - you can measure the desirability of a country by how many people want to get in and its undesirability by how many people are trying to leave.

The large building in the center of this third picture is the LDS Temple. The meandering building through the wooded land and down the hill from the temple is where our office will be.

This complex also houses the distribution center, Temple patron housing (for those visiting from other countries), the genealogy library, cafeteria and other offices which I don't remember.

The large playing fields across the street from the Temple are part of the Sports Complex of the University of Johannesburg. Up the street from the Temple (not shown in this picture), is one of the major teaching hospitals of South Africa. Very good health care is available in South Africa to those who can afford it.
We will be arriving in South Africa on September 1st. We leave the U.S. on August 29th and have garnered ourselves a one day lay-over in London (at our own expense, I might add) to minimize jet lag and travel fatigue. We are getting older you know!!