It's a Small World (After All)

It seems to us and to our friends and family that we are going very far away.  Far from them, far from everything familiar.  The language(s) is a bear for us to learn, Slovenia is very European - but  Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro less so, and everything from communication, to what we'll need, to how we'll be received is a puzzle.  Sometimes a bit of a scary puzzle!  We are so happy and excited about going but reality does occasionally settle in and we know there will be lots of adjustments for these senior-ish missionaries.  On Jayne's first mission she learned about the gospel, herself, the church, other cultures and people - but there were nights when a view from the cold dark street in Belgium of families at dinner in a warm lighted home made her feel very homesick.

An obvious plus for us is that we each have a fabulous companion! We have some things to miss, 17 very dear children and 10 little ones, but decades after the France and Belgium experience we have technology that will let us see and talk to them all.  And as our mission process has unfolded we've made some sweet connections with the Adriatic North Mission that make us feel we are going someplace we belong.  It began when we got a call from the missionary medical department.  A nice RN in the office called about Jayne's blood pressure.  White coat syndrome often means her pressure is high at the start of a visit, then calms.  The doctor had inadvertently written the higher one.

In the conversation it came up that the missionary/nurse was a former Relief Society president of Jayne's and a friend.  Joan Turner was so helpful and kind and the kicker was - she noticed that we had asked for the Slovenia assignment and she had been in the same mission just 2
years before!  As the mission nurse she was based in Croatia, but travelled thoroughout the mission and was a delightful guide and cheerleader.  Jayne later met her for lunch and learned a great deal about people and the countries.  Her love was contagious.


Our friend Lois told us of new friends from her ward who are natives of Croatia and who hoped to meet us to talk about what we might expect.  We met for lunch and found Ankica and Misho Ostarcevic aren't just from Croatia, they are the first two baptized there (by Kresimir Cosic of BYU basketball fame, in the middle of the Yugoslavian night to avoid arrest).  Misho is also a well known basketball player and the two of them have continued to carry Kresimir's legacy for decades in both the country and the church.  They live in Utah now, but spend months each year in their home in Croatia. They were delightful and interesting and we will certainly see them in this beautiful country they described to us. 

Months after our call we attended the big Family History event called RootsCon (actually Rootstech, but it's like a big Comicon event for family research nerds like us).  Outside one presentation Jayne struck up a conversation with a young woman and when our impending mission came up and she became incredibly animated. 

She - Tiffany Mix Smith - had been a missionary in Slovenia 20 years ago when it was part of the Austria South mission and she thought that it, well, she thought it was the land of unicorns and rainbows. She was delightful and talked about that very tumultuous time as a missionary after the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1990 as well as her love for the Slovene people and their country.  

Slovenia was already advocating a democratic form of government so when she arrived in the 90s missionaries were allowed.  Her mission ended there and she couldn't have been more enthusiastic.
These are three highlights for us, of the connectedness there can be in the world.  There have been more - Greg is counselor to a man who was a business partner with our mission president, President David Grant. A former co-worker is Sister Grant's cousin.

Most of the people we meet don't quite know where Slovenia is (although most know the larger countries), yet we have met several who know and love this little place we will call home for a time.  For us it also feels like little messages from God, letting us know that we will be ok and there will be wonderful blessings - and maybe a few trials - for us there.

Of Unicorns and Rainbows

As we researched all things Slovenian one thing came through loud and clear – Slovenia is a beautiful place, almost unreal in its lush vegetation, clear blue lakes, gorgeous mountain vistas, castles everywhere and a beautiful coastline. To people born and raised in the American West such imagery is almost magical.

Jayne and I had a lot of questions about the weather, the food, and a host of other topics, including what do people do about cell phones, clothes, what to bring along. We like to research topics as we review what is going on in the world, so it was no surprise that we looked into what other missionaries, both senior couples and young missionaries, have said about Slovenia. We found individual blogs and a clearing house for missionary blogs run by private third parties. So naturally we checked out what senior couples were saying about their missions in the Adriatic North Mission. We heard about missionary apartments near ice cream stores and outdoor seating by the river flowing thorough the downtown with cobblestone streets.  

We read one couple’s blog from start to finish when the couple came home last year. They served in another part of the mission and talked about the general conditions in that country and how they enjoyed working with the people there. They visited Slovenia for a special occasion and noted its particular beauty. They mentioned that the young missionaries called it the land of unicorns and rainbows because it was such an idyllic place. We were struck with that imagery and so a title for our mission blog was born.

As we have talked about our mission in all sorts of settings, it is amazing the people we have found who have been to Slovenia and they all agree that the Unicorn and Rainbow imagery really applies. It, and all the countries in our mission seem to be a special part of God’s creation. We know that missions are not vacations and that work, even hard work will be necessary. We've learned a lot from Skyping with couples who are there now and from talking to our mission president.We are sure that we will be stretched spiritually, physically and mentally. We welcome the challenge and look forward to serving the Lord. It will just be in the Land of Unicorns and Rainbows.

There might even be fireflies.

The Adventure Begins

January 2015

Just about a year ago we were taking about about what 2014 would bring.  Greg would reach his magic number for retirement years in the public administration world, as well as a pretty high number of years on earth,  Jayne would have replaced enough body parts to make up one pretty healthy woman ten years older than her actual age, and we had been talking about a mission in the distant future for several years.  A European river cruise was looking really great for a retirement splash, or maybe a big circle drive around the country or even a romantic trip back to Machu Picchu where we met.

One day, prompted by something we heard at church, we began to keep watch on the LDS church list of opportunities for senior missionaries,
https://www.lds.org/bc/content/ldsorg/callings/missionary/senior-missionary/senior-missionary-opportunities.pdf?lang=eng

Then we watched some of these,  https://www.lds.org/callings/missionary/senior?lang=eng#elder-and-sister-fugal---europe-area.  These people were having fun together and doing good things!  Pretty soon we had concluded - after thinking, praying, considering, wondering how we could leave our family, wondering about energy and age - that we really wanted to serve our faith and our world in some significant way as early as we could, then see what else might await us in the next 30 years. We especially liked the idea of a humanitarian mission, there are so many things from installing water systems, to providing wheelchairs, to teaching.  We read the list almost daily for a while, and then one day at the same time we each mentioned noticing a request for a couple to work with young single adults, in Slovenia! The list didn't even mention the mission name - Adriatic North Mission - just Slovenia.  But we love young adults, (we have 12 after all) and Greg's second generation grandfather emigrated from Slovenia in the 19th century.  We knew (because of the www) that it was in the Alps between Italy and Austria and also bordered by Hungary and Croatia, we learned that it is an EU country and very safe and stable.  But that's it!  Still, over the summer of 2014 we became very attached to the idea of this call and began to plan to make ourselves ready and available for the spring of 2015.

The process is long!  We told our bishop we wanted to do go on a mission and he opened a portal for us on the church website (lots of privacy issues with medical and financial info) and we began to apply.  We gathered documents, got new passports, made doctor appointments, did lots of financial planning, and especially important, started buying make-up and goodies that we could never live without.  It was about 2 months from our talk with the bishop to hitting the submit key.  One little hitch along the way was when a very dear friend and cousin was called to be a mission president in South Carolina, and we REALLY thought it would be the coolest thing ever to work with them.  We mentioned it in our application as well as our Slovenia choice and let the heavenly chips fall where they may. A question here, a concern there and 6 weeks later we received the big white envelope so well known in the LDS community.

At this point our children pretty much knew we were planning on a mission.  We do have 3 sets of offspring from San Fransisco to Southern Utah to New Orleans, and they have 5 of our 10 grandchildren.  But the other 9 children and 5 babies are all nearby and we see them often.  And since we have politely requested that they provide us with one grandchild a year among the 12, we knew we could miss the birth of 1 or 2.  Everyone has grandchildren they love.  But we have really the most brilliant, adorable and sweet 10 grands in existence.  Don't worry, you'll see photos.  And we enjoy our adult children as companions and friends so much that leaving them sometimes feels overwhelming.  But.  They have full, busy, interesting lives and while they love us and even sometimes need us, we are not quite the center of their lives that they are of ours.  As it should be.

So Jayne took the big white envelope to Greg's office in Farmington, we closed the door and opened the letter that would change our lives.   While seniors (a distinction we do not love) can ask for a specific mission and usually they get it - there is an oft repeated warning from everyone - "you might not get what you asked for!"  But behind Greg's office door we opened the envelope to read, "You have been called to the serve a mission in the Adriatic North Mission, Slovenia region, as young single adult leaders."  Slovenia!  We then learned that the mission included Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia, but we will be living for 18 months in Slovenia.  We were so excited! The next thing was to tell all our children at something near the same time.  After some figuring and a few failed ideas we spent an evening in our hotel in Denver while visiting Greg's family and made this.

We texted it to all of them.  As it turns out, there are already changes in these first plans, but one thing is sure - We are going to Slovenia!