Ask us how we learned that a missionary application only lasts one year.

Right after my husband retired, it took about three months to get our doctor visits in and everything filled out and submitted to the missionary department. Being on the older side, more tests must be run. And some tests you fail, so tests must be redone, or your body must be fixed. And sometimes it can’t be fixed, so explanations must go back and forth. Not to mention even getting in to see the doctors and scheduling the tests. Anyway, taking three months to get all this done meant “dogging” everyone constantly.

Sadly, all of that came to not, because one year later we were having to start all over again because our application period had run out. That’s how we found out they last only one year. Only this time we were in a different state. So, we had to find all new doctors, and have all tests redone. We kind of knew what to watch out for this go around, so we could avoid some repeat testing, but it still took us a few months to finally get our applications sent in.

Mostly, the missionary office simply wants to know what ongoing medical issues they need to be aware of. If you have an acute case of anything, they want to make sure you are close to a good hospital. People using wheelchairs, canes, prosthetics; those who have diabetes, or some ongoing medical issue can still serve away from home. And, of course, there are several “in home” missions, even more available now, because of COVID. A woman in our district, at the MTC, was called to serve as a Family History specialist in the Philippines, but she would be doing it from home.

We were warned that it could take several months before getting our call, but one month later we received our emails. We got our call to the Maryland Baltimore Mission. It immediately sounded right to both of us.

As a Senior Missionary couple, we can request what type of mission we want to serve, and sometimes even places we would like to serve. Ultimately, the Lord picks for us and we are always prepared for that. The first time we submitted our applications we requested to serve a temple mission. We happened to run into members of the temple presidency, in Boston, who needed a couple and wanted to select us.

After COVID, we decided not to wait for temples to reopen, and hope Boston still needed us, so we decided to request an MLS mission (I’ll explain what that is in a future post) and didn’t specify any locations we wanted to serve.

When we sent in our applications, two grand-babies were just about to be born, so we gave our availability date later in the year, so we could enjoy them for a little bit.

By the time it was finally time to become full-time missionaries, we were ready and even chomping at the bit. We’d been waiting what seemed like forever and we just wanted to get out in the field and get going. We had our family’s full support and our son (who is living in our house) was very ready for us to just leave already.

We weren’t sure until a week before if we were going to go to the MTC or have home MTC. It was just opening back up. When we finally got the word, we were packed and ready. But training had already begun well before we left for Provo. I’ll explain about that in my next post.

You can catch up with us on our journey here.

You can continue along with us on our journey here.