Ready or not, here we come!

Stuart and I in Scotland, May 2025

In May, Stuart and I had the opportunity to visit Ireland and Scotland. We loved it there. It never rained once for the two weeks we were there except the last day. The people were so warm and friendly. We both said that someday we'd love to be able to serve a mission there. Well, our dream came true!

One of the most exciting days for Stuart and I came on July 17th when we received our mission call to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Senior couples can request where they want to serve, but there are no guarantees. We have to be willing to serve wherever the Lord wants us to go. We had put in a request to serve in the Scotland/Ireland Mission, but we knew that there was a chance we would get sent to another place in the world. We were more than trilled when we got our mission call! 

https://youtu.be/YLVN7XdcoAE

Here is the official mission call that we received.  

After the mission call comes the preparation! So many things to do such as getting all those house projects we've put off completed, getting vaccines, doctors' appointments, getting our Visas, and attending mentoring training meetings to learning about what we will do once we are in Scotland. 

In the Scotland/Ireland mission, we will be MLS, Member and Leader Support, missionaries. We will be working with the local members of our church, supporting young missionaries, and providing service in the community while we are there. We love the Lord and want to help others learn about the great joy and peace we can receive as we come unto Him. 

We had an amazing Thanksgiving with all our kids and their families. We celebrated Christmas early with them while they were all together, since we will be in Scotland this year for Christmas. Our big outing was going to Hale Theater's Frozen. It was so amazing! Super fun to have all our kids, their spouses and our grandkids come. 

Stuart and I gave our farewell talks this past Sunday. A big thank you to all our family and friends who came to support us. It was so fun to gather afterwards for a brunch at our house. Stuart and I are feeling quite relieved to have our talks behind us now. 

It was so hard to say good-bye to our son Jason and his family, last Sunday, as they drove back to Idaho.

And another hard good-bye to our daughter Jessica and her family on Monday when they flew back to Mesa. 

Saying good-bye is hard, but we are super excited and slightly nervous to being going to the MTC in Provo on Monday. Hard to believe after all the preparation and waiting, our mission is about to begin!!