Month: May 2025

Now the agonizing process of waiting for our call and wondering were we would be called to serve began. At this point, we had not yet revealed our plans to anyone, and we decided to spill the beans to our family. We had all the kids and grandkids over for Sunday dinner and a birthday celebration for a couple of granddaughters in mid October. We did not want to detract from the birthday celebration so we waited until after presents, birthday cake and ice cream, etc. and then said, “Oh, we forgot, we wanted to show you guys a couple of recent pictures.” We got everyone gathered around the TV in the family room and cast our mission photo up on the TV. Most of the family were somewhat perplexed, until we then cast a screen shot of the first page of our online missionary application with that same photo on it. At this point, everyone quickly caught on and started asking lots of questions about when we would be leaving, whether we already had our call, where we hoped to serve, etc.

We explained the whole process up to that point in time, that we had just submitted our application, and were intentionally a little vague as to our location preferences, though we admitted that Australia was a possibility. The mood was mostly one of excitement, though with an element of shock, and some expressions of sadness that we would be gone so long, and that we would be greatly missed. We expressed a certainty that we had received an unmistakable witness that this was the will of the Lord, and an assurance that each member of our family would be greatly blessed as a direct result of our missionary service. In fact, we are absolutely convinced that our family will be blessed in ways that could come in no other way because of our mission.

We also let several in our extended family, as well as a few close friends, know of our application submission. We had heard of calls coming in as few as four days and as long as eight weeks, with most arriving on a Tuesday 2-3 weeks after submission. We waited on pins and needles on Tuesday, October 29 for the much anticipated email, but to our mild disappointment, it did not come. Incidentally, we were in the temple that week performing sealings when Tam felt strongly and repeatedly impressed to tell our Sealer of our impending call. To our surprise, we learned that he was also a retired Ophthalmologist. He knew all about medical missions and in fact, informed us of an ongoing monthly continuing medical education Zoom meeting for medical missionaries and those who are interested in becoming medical missionaries. We were unaware of these meetings , and feel certain that this “random” encounter was in fact another manifestation of the Lord’s love and mindfulness.

On the morning of Tuesday, November 5, which was also election day in the United States, we were again headed to the temple in Saratoga Springs. As we walked to the temple from the parking lot, Tam asked me to check my phone one more time to see if there were any important emails. To our surprise and delight, we saw the awaited email announcing that our mission call was available! We had a wonderful though somewhat distracted experience in the temple that day.

Just as soon as we finished up at the temple, we started making calls to our kids, parents, siblings and others who knew of our plans. We set up a Facebook Live event for that evening and anxiously waited for the big reveal. We had quite a few come to our home, and a few others who joined us remotely. We each got separate call letters, so we decided to read Tam’s letter. I tried to play up the suspense by reading slowly, and even made a poor joke that we were assigned to labor in what some might consider a less desirable location. Finally, I read the actual call: we were assigned to labor in the Australia Brisbane Mission as Pacific Area Medical Advisor and Assistant with responsibility for all of the missions of Australia and Papua New Guinea, seven in total. We were to enter the Missionary Training Center in Provo on May 12, 2025, and depart for Brisbane on May 26, 2025, to serve for 23 months. Everyone seemed very excited and happy for us. We were absolutely overjoyed and excited beyond belief, not just to be called to Australia, but to be called to be servants and representatives of the Savior Jesus Christ. Now we could begin our preparations in earnest, knowing when and where we would be serving.