Waiting
There are quite a few steps in the process of preparing to serve a mission, both for young people and for old people like us (commonly referred to as senior missionaries or senior couples--though those names make us feel even older!). I thought it would be helpful to outline our experience as we went through each step:
Our first step, maybe even before making a firm decision, was to explore the Church's website for senior missionaries that listed all the opportunities available. It was so helpful to be able to see where we might be interested in serving, what we could do, how much it would cost (all missionaries pay their own way), how long we'd be there, etc. It was easy to filter for all of the variables of location, type of service, language, etc.
As we scrolled through the list of options, I found one that stood out to me as a perfect fit--serving as records preservation specialists in the Alpine German-speaking Mission! Right up my alley! It would involve digitizing archived records to make them available for family history purposes. Jon was happy to be the one to move and carry boxes. :)
The next step was to schedule an appointment with our Bishop and let him know that we were ready and willing to serve a mission. We found out that he had served in this exact mission! So of course he was excited at the possibility of us serving there as well.
The difference between younger missionaries and senior missionaries is that we have a little more choice in where we might serve. Younger missionaries can indicate some preferences about whether they'd want to learn a language or not, or leave their home country or not, but they are sent wherever they are assigned by an Apostle. Senior missionaries are similarly assigned through inspiration by an Apostle, but we have the opportunity to make a list of 5 preferences. There's a possibility we could get assigned somewhere else, but we've heard they do their best to focus on those preferences. When we filled out our application, we placed the Germany mission at the top, followed by two other records preservation missions in either Stockholm, Sweden or Boston, Massachusetts. Our other two preferences were in Warsaw, Poland, or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
It was time to fill out our application and as part of that we also needed to have physical and dental exams and take a picture to submit with our application.
It took us about 6 weeks from start to finish from when we met with the Bishop and the Stake President to be able to have our application officially submitted. From that point, the waiting begins.
This is the message that popped up when submitted our application:
While the message said it could possibly take 5-6 weeks to receive a call, we were really hoping it would go faster than that.
Two weeks went by with nothing, so we figured we were in for the full waiting time. But right before Thanksgiving we got an unexpected phone call from the Church's Office of General Counsel (OGC). They asked if we'd consider doing a "legal support" mission--with Jon serving as an attorney/advisor (not an actual attorney because he wouldn't be licensed to practice in another country, but would serve with a few other attorneys to liaison with local attorneys in Church legal matters) and me serving in some other capacity that I'd be able to choose based on local needs.
The Church is divided up into 23 areas around the world, and each area office has a legal office attached that covers that area (usually a number of countries lumped together). There were a few openings available and we considered each one: the Pacific Area in Auckland, New Zealand (available immediately, sounds so amazing!, but also incredibly far away from family), Europe Central Area based in Frankfurt, Germany (available in April/May, definitely an area we wanted to be in), and another one in the Europe North Area based in London (not available until late summer, but includes Denmark where our son and his family, which is a big plus!). Based on all the options, we chose Europe Central/Frankfurt as the best choice for our needs.
Then just a few days after that, we got another call from the OGC with a new development--the London office was now available immediately because a missionary couple there needed to come home for medical reasons. They asked if we'd be interested in going there instead and it didn't take us long to say YES!
We were told we'd need an interview with the General Authority responsible for the OGC as well as two of the attorneys responsible for that office. We scheduled that for December 14th in Salt Lake. We were naturally a little nervous about that, but also excited to learn more about what this opportunity would mean for us.
There were still some unknowns, but it felt as if everything had been falling into place, even though it was not at all in a way we had expected. That's not surprising because that's how the Lord seems to work, and how our life seems to have been unfolding for the last couple of years.
I saw this message on an Instagram account by a pastor in Tennessee (Ian Simkins):
Moses waited 40 years.
Joseph waited 13 years.
Noah waited 120 years.
Abraham waited 25 years.
David waited 12 years.
Mary the mother of Jesus waited.
The woman at the well waited.
The woman who touched Jesus' cloack waited.
The woman caught in adultery waited.
Mary and Martha waited.
Waiting has always been a part of the story.
If you find yourself in a season of waiting, you're in good company.
Don't give up.
God is at work in the waiting.
This season of waiting for us (not just for a mission call, but for many other things) has a purpose. God has been at work in the waiting and we're grateful for the ways we're seeing His work unfold in the details of our lives. Stay tuned for more divine details!