The Delay, The Miracle, Back on Track

We were making great progress on preparing for our mission including a plan in place to visit family and friends prior to our departure in October.  But a very unexpected back injury and re-injury to Lynn suddenly placed everything on hold.  He was in a great deal of pain and could not sleep in a bed.  He spent months sleeping in his brother's zero gravity chair.  Nothing the various doctors tried relieved his pain, so they scheduled him for back surgery in November.  However, before the time arrived for the surgery, enough prayers had been said and blessings given that the pain was virtually gone except for some occasional discomfort in the front of his thigh, so the surgery was cancelled and our mission was back on with reporting in January.  The delay gave us time to read several books on South Africa including Nelson Mandela's autobiography, "Long Walk To Freedom", which has helped us understand the dynamics in South Africa a little better.

Lynn sleeping in the Zero Gravity Chair

The opportunity to speak in Sacrament Meeting came on September 25th with our anticipated departure on October 8th. We spoke, however due to the continual challenges, we were never able to make that departure. Memories of that Sunday include wondering if Lynn could stand long enough to present his talk! Some teased us and wondered if we were really leaving or if we would be speaking again!   We appreciated all of our dear friends who hosted a lovely open house at the Bleyl's.
  

 After our Farewell Talks at Church

We cannot help but be appreciative to OGC. They have been supportive and understanding during this difficult time.  As a result, we have come to realize that it is not uncommon for senior couples to occasionally experience such delays! We are thankful that they were able to work with us and provide additional assistance to the other attorneys in South Africa while they waited for our arrival.

Most importantly, amid our final preparations, we have at last been able to spend some very special time with our children and grandchildren, as well as Sherry's sister,  Dawn. How we love them and will miss them as we serve. We are so thankful for technology and the opportunities we will have to "hang out "with them from afar! We know they will be praying for us and we will be praying for them as well!

Mission Preparations

The Call

We have planned to serve a mission since the early years of our marriage, and have tried to prepare ourselves to fulfill this commitment. Over the years, we have prayed for the Lord to place us where He felt we could best serve Him in building up His Kingdom and in helping the work go forward.  For the past three years, we have actively explored many of the senior missionary opportunities before us. We focused primarily on the potential preference of a Humanitarian Mission or for Sherry to serve as a Mission Nurse (recognizing however, that our assignment would ultimately be made by the Quorum of the 12). Surprisingly however, a new option surfaced in the beginning of last year as we learned of a need for retired attorneys to serve as Associate Area Legal Counsels in various locations of the world. For some reason, we felt impressed to explore this option in depth. As a result of numerous communications with Br. Bill Atkin at Church Headquarters and later a wonderful and spiritual meeting with Elder Lance Wickman (the General Counsel for the Church) we knew our direction was changing. 

Upon completion of our interviews and paperwork, we were requested to notify the Office of General Counsel (OGC) as soon as our paperwork was transmitted. We then began what we anticipated would be a 4-6 week wait for our assignment. Exactly one week later, we received a phone call from Elder Wickman stating he had a letter in his hands addressed to us from the First Presidency and wondered if we might like to have him read it to us. He then proceeded to read us our call to the Africa Southeast Area Offices.

Needless to say, we are so excited.  Ironically, Lynn's grandfather (William Whyte) was called on a mission to South Africa in 1914.  When he got off the ship in Capetown, all of the Mormon missionaries were thrown into prison.  Two weeks later, they hired an attorney who got them out of prison and back onto a ship to Liverpool, England where he ended up serving out his mission.  Lynn has also since learned that one of his cousins served his mission in South Africa.  In addition, two other women who we are close to, served their missions in South Africa as well as other friends who have served their missions in the Africa Southeast Area. Hardly a day has gone by that we don't find someone with some connection to South Africa.  It has been amazing.

Lynn retired from Lansing Building Products in April, and we have begun diligently preparing for our assignment, including all of the shots, the fingerprints for the required FBI background investigation, etc.  We were a little worried because the fingerprint scanner they use evaluates the quality of the fingerprint and it either passes the image or it does not.  On the first time, only one of Sherry's fingerprints passed.  The second time, three of her fingerprints were acceptable.  We thought for sure the FBI would reject them and we would have to go thru the State authorities for her background investigation. Amazingly, she passed the FBI investigation despite her fingerprints.  Her prints look more like tic-tac-toe lines or like constellations with lines connecting the dots.  The problem is that angels just don't have normal human fingerprints.