Missionary Announcement

The Bishop announced in Church today our mission call to the Calif. Venture Mission Home, working as Office Specialist. One of the speakers in our Church meeting was an Elder who had just returned from the Ventura Mission. It was interesting to hear that the Church just split the Mission, taking out Bakersfield making it a new Mission. So now the Ventura Mission is the Coastal areas. We are not sure what  "Mission Office specialist" duties may be or where we will be staying.  That is the fun of this type of experience. Debbie and I have plans to take our bread making equipment, so we can make fresh whole wheat bread and cookies for the Elders and Sisters. It will be easy to make fresh strawberry jam since Oxnard is one the biggest berry growing areas. The Mission Home is not too far from the Oxnard shore.  We are hoping to get a chance to view a few ocean sunsets on our prep-day and hope there isn't a Mission Rule about fishing. I would love to fish the ocean.  I personally do not think there should be a rule about fishing. In fact, Peter and his brothers were fishermen, right? Today we started the process of looking at our funding and figuring out what to charge for rent of the house. That is our next big issue to deal with. We have the faith that all will work out. We will keep you posted. Soon to be Elder Ruse.

Mission Call

Ventura, California Mission - Office Specialists

We have our call and we report to the MTC on September 9th.  It didn't mention language, but we are going to assume it is English, since we are still working on that!  We are excited as we have family and friends in Southern California and close to the Los Angeles Temple where we were married 42 years ago!  The mission home is in Oxnard, California.

Pre-Mission Part 2

March 22, 2013

          Yesterday morning, Kelsey called me at work and said that the Missionary Department called the Stake President, who called the Bishop, who called Kelsey and then he called me to ask – can we afford to pay $500 more per month? I said, “I think that will be fine” and so Kelsey called the Bishop, who called the Stake President who called the Missionary Department back and told them. Apparently, they had to get the answer before noon!

So, last night about 10:30 (after we got home from the Temple), Kelsey got a message on his phone from the Bishop which said, “your mission application is now ready for assignment”. I guess that means that it is moving forward! We are soo excited – and a little bit nervous.

April 17, 2013

            We received word last weekend from Bishop Hamilton that our mission letter is in the mail and we should receive it this week.  Today is Wednesday, and that is the date that Lindon receives their mission calls – unless Monday is a holiday.  Kelsey talked to the mailman on Monday and he said he would call Kelsey if it comes and he can go to the Post Office in Pleasant Grove and pick it up in the morning.  Well, it is 11:43 a.m. and no call from the mailman.  So, we told all the kids (who wanted to be at the opening) to be to Leslie’s house by 4:30 and we would open it.  However, because we didn’t get a call from the mailman, we don’t know if (1) he forgot; (2) there is a substitute, or (3) there isn’t a letter in the mail today.  So, we will just have to wait until the mail is delivered this afternoon to see if there is a letter.  If there isn’t a letter today, then we will have to wait to open it until Friday night because we work in the Temple tomorrow and we wouldn’t have time to open it before our shift starts.  Patience isn’t my virtue – and I’m working on it…. 

            Last weekend we went to SLC to watch Riley play a lacrosse game – he did really good and his team won the game that we were watching.  Then we went up to SLC to have dinner with Launa and Reece before they leave.  We went to Little America because that has been a fun place for us to stay in the past.  We had a great time talking about their mission and how Aunt LaRue is doing.  We took them to the Marriott Residence Inn where they are staying and said goodbye.  They will do 3 days of training in the SLC Temple and then they will get on the plane tomorrow, Thursday, April 18^th and fly to London for 18 months.  That is exciting! 

Thursday, April 18, 2013 

At 7:30 this morning we were getting a little nervous about the mailman not calling us and so I checked LDS.org to make sure that we put in the right address – mine was correct, so I checked Kelsey’s and his was correct.  At 7:50 a.m. Kelsey’s phone rang and it was the mailman and he said come and get your letter!  We grabbed the camera and went to the Pleasant Grove Post office and rang the doorbell.  He brought the envelope and we took a picture of our mailman and Kelsey with the letter – see below!  It is here – but we can’t open it until Friday night because the kids and grandkids are so excited!  We will have self control…  I looked at the date that it was post marked in SLC and it was just yesterday – on Wednesday. 

I called Launa and Reece because they were getting on the plane at 11:00 a.m. to go to Las Vegas and then on to London England for their mission.  They were really hoping that we would have our call before they got on the plane – but we didn’t.  They will have to watch their email because we will send them an email on Friday night after we open it and celebrate with the family.  We will go and serve wherever we are called and if it is in the US, we will enjoy that and if outside of the US, we will enjoy that.  If it is a Temple mission, we already know the dialog and if it is proselyting we will serve there and if it is welfare, we are ready for that assignment.

The next posting will be MISSION ASSIGNMENT