Serving in Salt Lake City: The Mission Decision

What a GREAT place to serve!

I was reading my journal from December 2008 when we were thinking about going on a mission. We had lots of questions and lots of what-ifs. Looking back, they seem almost comical. Following are answers and questions.

[No] Are we too old? Do I really have to wear dark ugly dresses? Will health issues keep us from serving? Will we have to follow lots of rules like the young missionaries? Do we have to knock on doors?

[Depends] Will it be expensive? Can we go home for something important? Do I have to wear panty hose/neck ties? Will we have to learn a new language? Will we go to the MTC? Do I have to be good on the computer?

[Yes!!] Do we have any input as to where we will serve? How long we will serve? Will I have to get out of my comfort zone? Will it be fun or is it lots of hard work? Are we really needed? Is the call really from the Lord?

Comments from Dean:

Some missionaries ride to work in electric powered wheelchairs.
I get to dress right sometimes for field trips—jeans and work boots.
Too darn much socializing – you can do the mission, but the social life may do you in!
“The world sends oldsters to nursing homes to die; the LDS Church sends them on missions and works them to death!” (quote from a mission devotional)
Do I have to know anything about what I will be doing? No, they will fit you in somewhere. As Elder Worlton said, “Growing up on a farm makes you qualified for most anything because you know how to make things work with baling wire, duct tape and a shovel.”

Now, meet some of our senior missionary friends: the Souths wear jeans and drive ATVs on their mission to the Heber Valley Camp; Sis. Skinner is 86 and has learned to use a computer for her work in Family History; a couple serving here in Salt Lake City were called back to Africa and they were thrilled; some couples here pay $600/month rent and some pay twice that—their choice; old friends serving in Boston and in Germany are loving their missions, which are very different from each other and from ours. Most of our friends here have served multiple missions!

We are loving it!