Our Mission Call

The Manila Philippines Temple

Karen, Ben, Zach, Angie and Us

 Our trip to Hawaii closed out six mini vacations and leaves only the Scroggs as potential co-travelers remaining.  It has been a valuable experience for us to spend such quality time with all our family members.  We feel closer to our young grandchildren.  Norma is busy assembling photos, and notes to arrange in a small book for each of our grandchildren.  We feel the books will be a reminder of the wonderful times we have spent together during this short period between our missions.  Oh yes, we received our mission call this past week.

While Norma was attending a meeting at the Stake Center she mentioned to the Stake Clerk that we have waited four weeks but have not yet received the call.  He opened the computer and checked for the progress of our submission.  He reported to us that it was mailed on the 28^th of September.  We felt safe in planning a family gathering for the opening of the envelope.

Gary, Bo, Teresa, Quentin & Norma

In our minds, we have generally felt that we might be assigned to serve again in Denmark or England where there are many birthplaces of our ancestors on both sides.  I was awakened Tuesday morning with the thought that we would be serving in the Philippines.  That idea had never occurred to us.  We have no connections to that country.  I didn’t say anything about this new thought but looked with anticipation to the arrival of the letter from President Monson.

We gathered desserts together for our family gathering on Thursday.  We were certain the letter would arrive by then.  The mail delivery is between two and six pm but the letter did not arrive on Thursday.  We repeated the same exercise on Friday.  At six pm the mailman dropped off the long-awaited letter. At eight-thirty everyone gathered at our little apartment.  Lis could not be present so we opened Skype so she could be part of the excitement.   Just as thirty months earlier, Bo stood behind us and began reading the letter, “You are called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, assigned to the Manila Philippines Temple as temple missionaries. . . . . You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Monday, February 4, 2013,”  We have clear feelings that the call is from the Lord.  We look forward to discovering our reason for serving there.

Lis, Nathan, Toby, Ali & US

As an interesting sideline - we failed to close Skype on Friday and on Saturday morning following the morning session of conference we received a Skype call from Jørgen and Irma Warnsdorf.  Our good friends from Denmark had also watched conference on the internet and noticed our Skype program was open.  It was a pleasant surprise and we had a wonderful conversation with them.  Such technology is a great blessing.

The gallery this week is a recap of our mini vacations during the past three months.  It will give you a glimpse of all the members of the family.  You will also notice that many of the photos show us eating.  Oh well, that’s what keeps us alive.

Kerry, Kae, Dakota, Emerson, Dash

Jeff, Us, Kyton, Simon and Tova

Case, Peter, Norma and Kitta

Case and Grandpa

Karen, Kirsten and Us

Bo, Norma, Quentin, Gary & Teresa

Zach, Karen, Angie Ben & Norma

Norma, Emerson, Gary, Kae & Dakota

Norma, Emerson, Dash, Kae, Dakota & Kerry

In The Pantheon

Bye for now,

Norma and Gary