Mission Preparation

Thoughts from Teril

We received our call the last of February, 2015.  We had prayed and pondered the thought of going on a mission since we were married in 2001.  Stan kept saying, “Oh in three years, we will go.”  I spoke my goals of going as soon as Jarom came home from his mission.  We could see no way we could go financially but kept praying and hoping.  A miracle happened in stages.  Stan’s job dissolved in Springfield and we were forced to change something.  What we did do was sell our 5 bedroom house to take a job in St. Louis, away from our kids and grandkids and start a new life.  We didn’t realize the blessing. The Lord was shaping our present lives to accept a call.  We didn’t have a lot of “Stuff” we had to worry about.  We could see our children and grandchildren would do just fine without us. Stan disliked the retail scene immensely.  Finally, we could see the Lord had taken away all our excuses for holding back on our decision to go on a mission so we interviewed with our Bishop in St. Louis area and received our call.

The call came after more than 4 weeks of not so patiently waiting.  It was to Angola, Africa.  We were so excited to have things to do to prepare.  We worked diligently to get things ready for our visa application.  We got shots, lots of them.  We got an international driver's license and many, many other things.  It was quite an ordeal.  Just, the day we were sending off all the requirements for the Angola visa, we recieved a call from Salt Lake Mission department that our call had changed. We would recieve our call in the mail.  Whew!! Wait again.  This time, it came in 2 days.  Our mission had been changed.  Everything was the same except where we were going.  We are now going to Mozambiqe, Africa to the city of Maputo to begin with.  There are actually to countries in the Mozambique mission, Mozambique and Swaziland.  This is the East Coast of Africa just above the country South Africa.  We started studying all the info on that area of the world and found many interesting things.  We have been working thru the Portuguese language thru the online MTC training and the pre-mission assignments.  We report to the MTC in Provo July 13.  We leave Springfield, MO Saturday the 11 of July.  We will spend two weeks at the MTC, one week on Preach My Gospel and one week on Welfare.  We have been in contact with a set of senior missionaries that are assigned there in Maputo and two returned senior missionary couples that are already home.  We are looking forward to this great opportunity to serve.

[Stan]
Teril has outlined our prep pretty well.  Just a few thoughts of my own.  I am so excited about being able to get back my Portuguese language.  I am also nervous; it will take a while for it to come back and the accents are much different in Mozambique than in Brazil.  I am grateful for Teril's faith that helped to bring about this call to serve.
We have had a very busy time since my last day of work on May 15th.  We moved to Springfield the next day and my son, Ben and his wife, Ashley let us stay with them.  We had an open house for Jarom and Randi in Springfield; then their wedding and reception in Denver.  It was a wonderful time being with all my children and grandchildren.  Then a trip to Idaho to see two of Teril's children, Bron and Coy and their families.  It gave me, also, a chance to see a very good friend, Robert Brusman with whom I served as a counselor in the stake presidency in Springfield.  Then a trip to Arizona to be with all my brothers and sisters for a very special time with April and Sam at their sealing in the temple.  Too much to tell here, but it was a time never to be forgotten.
Now we are finishing the last of our preparation as we gather and pack.  We still have a grandson's baptism to attend the very day we leave for Utah.