JUNE 23, 2013 “Hail to the Sabbath Day” ( in Pollock Pines)

We cleaned up and went to church just down the road a couple of miles  at Pleasant Valley Ward.  Such a wonderfully friendly ward!  Actually all of the wards we have visited on this trip have been very friendly.

We had planned to take a trip to Lake Tahoe and hour away to visit with Donna and Roger Ramseier.  I had ridden X country with her 11 years ago and we have stayed in touch.  Roger has cancer and is having a tough time of it.  Donna had invited us to lunch but then called after church to cancel because Roger had had a bad night.  They are in our prayers. 

The cancellation turned out to be a positive thing because we were able to attend the World Wide Training live broadcast from Salt Lake City.  The focus was on  “Member & Missionary Unity”.  It was the perfect thing for us to attend as we were going to open our mission call letter at 6:00 that day.  The messages were so inspiring but the highlight for me was the missionary choir of probably 1,500 young elders and sisters singing missionary songs like “I’ll Go Where you Want me to Go”, “I hope they Call Me on a Mission”, “We are as the Army of Helaman” and my favorite “Called to Serve!”  I was so anxious for 6:00 to come. 

It did come and the family had gathered in Salem Oregon either in person or via technology.  We skyped in  and both families were able to be well represented. (Everyone but David and John’s families but they got updated quickly afterward.  Krista had arrange all of the hook ups. She’s a marvel!)  We sang together the first verse of “Called to Serve” and Alan gave a prayer.  Rusty and I watched as Natalie stood in front of the Morgan’s big world map and opened our envelope.  BUT WAIT!  Before she opened it I asked people for predictions.  Most of them were back to South Africa!  Natalie opened the envelope and read “………you have been called to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Philippines Cebu Mission”!!  Oh My GOODNESS!  We were very surprised but thrilled!  And had not even for one instance thought of the Philippines as a possibility.   However Sunday as I waited thru the day for the opening of the envelope I had thought several times that I didn’t want to go back to South Africa after all.  I LOVED IT and had even asked on this mission application for another African mission.  So there you are.  The Lord knows best.