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!
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