May 22 2015
We have been pondering about going on a mission for over a year now.  We had some things we needed to take care of first, so we started to prepare. Last Sept is when we really got the impression that we needed to step it up and prepare faster. We both felt that we should sell our house and downsize. We loved our house, but the house was way bigger than we needed for just the 2 of us. It was great when all the family was there, but usually it was just us. So we listed our house for sale. We had lots of showings and a couple of offers. We decided we didn't HAVE to sell, so we waited. We looked for another house to buy and felt that we wanted to stay within our Stake boundary so we could finish our Service Mission. We had been serving for 9 1/2 years. We just couldn't find a house that fit our needs.
In January a couple who had made an offer in Oct came back and made another offer. We accepted it and soon decided to not buy another house at this time, but to submit our mission papers and go. They were not in a hurry to move in, so we were able to stay until the end of April before it closed. We worked night and day getting things packed and sold, and we gave a lot of things away, too.
We are now living at Jason's house while we wait for our mission call. Our boys are storing and/or using some of our things until we get back.
Our Stake Pres called the Missionary Dept in Salt Lake last week to check on the progress of our call. They were reviewing it this week and our call will arrive next week. We have been invited to go and serve at the MTC in the Philippines where our friend, Richard Trask is the MTC President. He and his wife have been there for 6 months now. We requested to go there, so that is where we are hoping we will be sent. We know that we may be asked to go somewhere else, and we will do that. We just want to serve. But how awesome would it be to serve those new missionaries and help them prepare to go out and preach the gospel? It would be amazing.
 The Lord has showed such tender mercies to us since we began this journey, and I know He is helping us. We have seen little and big miracles every day as we prepare to serve. We had gone in for our physicals last November and were very pleased with the results of our tests. As much as Don hates going to doctors and dentists, he went. That shows how committed he is to serving the Lord!
I know that the Lord is aware of us and our situation and He is in control of the timing of all this. Things have happened to slow down our call, but we know it is for a reason. It will all work out in the end.

June 3
We received out mission call on May 29th. We will be serving in the Philippines at the MTC!! We are to report to the Provo MTC on July 27th, but we are working on expediting our Visas.I took our applications to the Church office building yesterday. Looks like we might be able to leave on June 20th, but we will see. We are so excited to go and serve. We had most of our family here when we opened our mission call. Jason was in Indiana on business, and Eric was in a business meeting, so we skyped them. The younger kids had no clue as to what was going on, but the older grandkids seemed excited, but not about us being away for so long. I am happy we will be able to skype, email and Facebook.
We are finishing up the last few things we need to get done before we leave.