Sunday, October 9th, John and I went to he Sake offices to be set-apart for our mission. President Wilding started the meeting by asking John and I to bear our testimonies. Of course I went first. I was glad I didn’t know about this as I probably would have stressed about it before hand! I told my feelings about being a missionary and doing the Lord’s work and then talked about love and how I desired to love all people the same way the Savior loves us. I told how I do have a testimony of Him and am so glad I know that He lives, He loves us and He is our Redeemer. Without him we could never make it back to our Heavenly Father.
John talked about the first time we went on a mission and how Bishop Cotterell asked us to set a goal for a mission and we agreed to do so. Boy did our life change after that! When the Lord knows you are willing and ready he opens doors for you to serve! John told how not long after that he knew it was time to sell his business and be a missionary. He got a lot of tears as he talked about what serving these missions meant to us, and said how this time both of us were inspired at the same time and that this is the time we are supposed to go serve again. He too gave a testimony of the Savior.
Afterwards, President Wilding set me apart to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. John, Brandon and Doug joined him in the setting-apart. President Wilding gave me a beautiful blessing and I think Emilie was trying to write it down! I shed tears during the blessing and was touched by what the Lord said to me. When he finished, this feeling came over me that now I am truly a missionary again and I was excited to move forward with our mission. I hugged everyone and then sat down to listen to John’s setting apart. Emilie pushed a piece of paper over to me and told me to try and record it along with her doing so. I did my best and then gave it back to her afterwards. He too received a very beautiful blessing!
The Stake Executive Secretary took our photo and then printed out our picture and put a magnet on the back and had us put it on a big map of the world that is in the Stake office. We put it right over New Zealand and are now on the Stake missionary map right along with our grandson Alex! Of course his picture is over Hawaii but it is awesome just to be on that missionary map with him! It is so cool to be serving a mission at the same time as one of our close family members.
Mission to New Zealand 