Family Letter

Dear Family,

            The cherries on our cherry trees have turned red!  Summer is almost upon us!  The walk today was a bit uncomfortable due to the heat.  We will have to start earlier.  Yet last week it was pretty chilly and rainy. 

            The Hungary mission is combining with the Romanian mission to form the Hungary/Romania Budapest Mission.  The mission president from the Romanian mission will become the new mission president for both countries.  He has been a mission president for one year.  Our mission president mission is over at the end of June.  Romania and Hungary combined is just smaller than Germany, with two major differences: very bad roads in Romania and two distinctly different languages!

            Last week, in anticipation of combining the missions, the structure of the mission changed.  Previously, each city with two or more missionaries was a “district”.  Then four cities in our area made up the “zone”.  There were five zones in the mission.  Now, three towns make up a district. 

Our new district.  Unfortunately the last meeting where Elder and Sister Jenkins (in front) will be with us.  They leave for home this week.  We will sure miss them. 

This means that each week missionaries from two cities get on trains and travel about 1 ½ hours to Miskolc for district meeting.  District meeting last about 1 ½ hours.  Then the missionaries stop off and buy lunch then catch a train back to their cities.  Our zone now takes in part of Budapest and our zone disappears.  This is to allow the new mission president to do less traveling to zone meetings or interviews.  Glad we will only be around for 6 weeks before going home.  The new mission president is from Phoenix, an attorney by the name of Hittinger.

We got one more project approved and working on submitting two more this week.  We are trying to use up all of our budget this month then spend the last two and a half months getting things going for our replacements, the Okeys.  They are from Calgary and from Tampa Bay!  They have been on an MLS mission (member-leader-service) to the Bahamas before.  We talked to them last night about not submitting one or two projects but have the projects all set up for them to submit.  This will give them experience in submitting the projects and allowing them to spend most of their time finding new projects for the 2019 budget year.

We are starting to do MLS work because we are not spending our time looking for new projects.  That means we spend time visiting less active members and members with health problems.  We have to take missionaries with us to communicate with the members.  We are seeing some benefits in our visit.  We hope that our efforts will assist the members in finding help and friendship within the church.  The stronger the church becomes, the more support that there is for people in need.  That basically is one of the main purposes of the church, to help people in time of need.  It is a change from what we are doing, helping non-LDS people in time of need.  But the same needs and if successful the same results, better the lives of God’s children, no matter who they are.

We said good-bye to the Baggozi’s - the office couple and the Jenkins - the area auditors this past two weeks.  We were supposed to be the next to go, but with the extension, the Hicks - MLS couple will go home before us.  Ending this almost two years of being in the Lord’s service, saying good-bye to new friends that we have made is not a happy feeling.  When I was in Japan on my mission, with absolutely no contact with my family, other than letters, as the time neared, I wanted to stay, but really wanted to go home to see my family.  This time with Skype, Facebook, etc. and actual visits by Steven and Becca and Anne and Dee, soon to be Scott, Shaliece, Riley and Garrett, about three weeks later Marnee, Mike, Parker, Ryan and Kate.  The feeling of wanting to go home to see family is not there.

I loved my mission to Japan.  It shaped my life and made me to whom I am today.  But the friendship was only there for some missionaries only.  The memory of this 20 month mission will not have the overall effect on our lives as my first mission did - already too set in our ways.  But the memories of the friendship with the Hungarians that we dealt with will last, a true blessing.

The friendship with the senior missionaries will carry forward with visit to them as we travel to and from Utah, as they come to Arizona for car shows and golf and warm winters.  Friendships that have been forged while we were engage in the work of the Lord has solidified a long-term friendship is a short space of time.  We have cried with them, we have laughed with them, we have offered support in time of death to family members, we have offered support when things have not gone well for them in their mission.  But we have one major thing in common, we were part of the Army of Helaman and because of that, the friendships will last forever. 

The one truly sad thing about senior missions, too many people our age do not go on a mission.  They lose out on 18 months or 2 years of the most trying, tiring, exhausting, disappointing, confounding, exasperating wonderful time of our life!  We somehow stumbled into this very rich experience.  I have, since my father’s death had a desire to go on a mission with your mom.  That was the prime motivating fact why I wanted to go.  You mom did not want to go, but went to do the love that she has for me.  Do we have any regrets?  Absolutely, regrets that we didn’t do things differently in hopes that we would have had even more success than we have had.  But absolutely no regrets in coming to Hungary on a mission.  We thank God each night for allowing us to come; for his answers to come to Hungary when we were choosing the location and type of mission. 

Our advice to any couple considering on going on a mission, “GO! You and your family cannot afford you not to go.  The blessing that will come to you and your family are eternal in nature.  And isn’t that why we are here on earth, to gain an eternal family?  GO!”

Dad