It’s been just over a year since I posted here, and it’s time I get back to it. A lot has happened in the last year, most specifically, Mr Hot Stuff has retired, and we’ve been working to get our lives organized so that we can serve a senior couples mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s amazing how much there is to take care of to be ready for that kind of adventure. Whew!

Ready or not, we recently submitted the paperwork to request the opportunity, and then we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

It’s nuts when something like that happens, because normally people have their mission call (assignment) given to them within a couple of weeks. When it takes a lot longer than that, it’s easy to begin questioning whether you have done something wrong that you weren’t aware of.

But I kept praying, and getting the sense that sometimes good things require some behind-the-scenes work to set up. So we waited some more.

In the meantime, a dear friend reached out to me and said, “You should come to the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference. There’s a workshop I think you will love.” #WIFYR

My thought was that I obviously wasn’t going anywhere for the next month, so why not attend a class about outlining a novel? And I signed up! I’m so glad I did. I had a story idea, but knowing I’ll need to keep it on the shelf until after our mission service, this class has made it possible to get the outline and ideas on paper, so it will be easier to pick it up and write it when we return.

This year someone brought a cool button-maker machine and supplies to the conference and let everyone make their own buttons. There are a lot of old friends here who knew I was waiting for a mission call to arrive, so I made a button that said, “No call yet.”

On Tuesday, day two of the conference, I received a text notification during class that our call had arrived. What a way to mess up your focus! Mr Hot Stuff was adamant that we needed to be together when we opened it (as he should be), and we knew our children wanted a chance to be part of the moment as well.

Yay, for Zoom! Mr Hot Stuff set up a time, and that evening we got everyone who could be there online and read the email.

We’ve been called to serve as executive secretary and assistant executive secretary to the Carribean Area Presidency. We’ll be based in the Dominican Republic and will enter the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on September 19th and leave for the Dominican Republic a week later. We expect to serve for 23 months.

GUYS! IT’S THE CARRIBEAN! THE WHOLE THING!

And Mr Hot Stuff served part of his first mission in Puerto Rico. 😁 He’s really hoping to be able to experience the dedication of the Puerto Rico temple when the time comes. That would be so wonderful for us.

So that’s our big news. I plan to post updates here on a more regular basis to share our experiences. I know there will be a lot of hard work, and I also hope for the opportunity to experience some beautiful moments and a few miracles, with the realization that miracles generally show up as a result of big challenges.

I love something I heard Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church say recently. “God will make more of your consecrated weaknesses than He ever will of your so-called perfected strengths.” The timing for that wisdom was perfect for me, because I’m not super-sure what strengths I bring to the table here. However, I know I have strengths and that God will use them, too. I know for certain that I have plenty of weaknesses for God to put to good use!

A little down the road I’ll share some of the behind-the-scenes stuff that’s been happening since the last time I posted. There’s been a lot going on!

Ta-ta for now!