Elder T. Jones- On the way to San Jose

We spent Sunday evening, Monday, and Monday night in Fort Wayne with Brother Harry.  Harry and Linda's grandson Tyler was set apart Monday evening and left for the Mexico City Missionary Training Center Tuesday morning at 5:30.  He will be serving in the California San Jose Mission. We were blessed to be with the family for this special time.

Setting Apart and Departure

Stake President Maurice Jones set us apart on June 25th with a very spiritual blessing.  Present for the blessing were Beth and Stuart with Rebecca and James, Angela and Ethan with Anna, Ben, and Caleb, Tim and Virginia Compton and Bishop Winn.

Sunday morning we spoke in Sacrament Meeting,  Charlotte joined us on the stand and Hudson was very well behaved throughout the meeting at least from a distance.  Then we drove to Fort Wayne, Indiana to spend a day with brother Harry and Linda.

Farewell to the Marquette Ward.

Receiving our Call

We expected to receive the call in April, but on May 7th, the packet came to us.  We had somewhat expected a military support mission, but the call came to serve in the New York Rochester Mission reporting to the Missionary Training Center on July 4th.  After checking the mission district boundaries we were thrilled to learn of the many church history sites within it including the Hill Cumorah, Palmyra, the Joseph Smith Farm,  the Peter Whitmer Farm, The Grandin Press plus the Palmyra Temple!  The Mission calls itself the "Cradle of the Restoration."

We looked into the travel options and received approval to drive to Rochester, NY and arrive there on June 28 for two days of orientation and training before flying to Utah for about 2 weeks at the Provo Missionary Training Center.  We'll return to Rochester on July 15th and go to work.

Our assignments are to be office specialists.  The Mission President will assign us specific areas, but there are three senior missionary couples who support the mission in the area of vehicle management, apartment management, finance management, referral and baptism records, and other office duties.

Daughter Angela discovered a blogsite for the couple that we will be replacing.  From reading it, we discovered that a major other duty is cooking meals for arriving and departing missionaries.

Here is a link to information about the mission district.  It is not an official church site.
 http://missionhome.com/?missions=new-york-rochester-mission

 Including Christie in the reading of the call.

Applying for the Mission

In January, we began the process of applying to be senior missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Susan's recuperation from knee replacement surgery in November had progressed very well, so the medical concerns were eliminated.  Also, Ethan and Angela were committed to buy our house, so the financial issues were resolved.  The main issue remaining was getting doctor and dentist exams along with updating immunizations.  After the interview with Bishop Winn, we met with President Maurice Jones in his home in Manitowoc on the way home from a visit to the Chicago Temple.  The application process is done on line  Here is President Jones after entering the final comments.