Welcome to our blog. We will use this site to keep family and friends up-to-date on our Family History Mission for The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. We are called to serve in the New Zealand, Wellington Mission and will be doing records preservation in the New Zealand Archives in the beautiful South Island town of Dunedin on the east coast.
Our adventure started last fall when we were asked to serve a Family Search mission in a different area. That eventually fell through, as did one other potential call. We finally received word of another mission in New Zealand becoming available in 2015 and told them we would love to serve there. On October 20th we received a letter from Family Search instructing us how to submit our papers. We started the process of getting our physicals in December, but had to wait until the 2nd week of January to submit our papers because of a follow-up doctor visit that was needed.
On February 19th, the big white envelope finally arrived. Even though we had been asked by Family Search to serve a mission in New Zealand, until we opened the letter that evening, in front of family and friends, we were not sure where we would be going. We were excited to see Wellington New Zealand written on our call.
New Zealand changed their visa physical requirements during our preparations. We were literally one day away from getting our visa physicals from our local doctors when the Church Travel Department informed us that missionaries to New Zealand were now required to get their physicals from an approved New Zealand Board Panel Physician. The only one in the five state region was at BYU Student Clinic. We got our physicals there on April 6th and they submitted our visa applications electronically on April 13th.
On June 4th, we finally received word that our visas had been approved. We were officially going to New Zealand. It has been an exciting time for both of us. We are very excited to serve the people of New Zealand and join other missionaries all over the world who are doing records preservation.
Well the adventure has finally begun. We talked in church this past Sunday, June 28th. We had about seventy people stop by our house after. A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who helped make our little get-together so wonderful. We had the world's best chicken salad on crescent rolls, plenty of salads, and veggie and fruit trays with dips and chips to go along. Did I mention all the cookies and cake you could eat. We have the best friends, and family, and ward!!! Was it really 102 degrees outside? Thanks to all our great ward members who donated canopies. Whew!!
After the food was gone we changed clothes and cleaned everything up. We then took a minute and posed for a family photo. We were missing a few, but we always consider ourselves blessed when we get this many of the clan together at the same time..... and we all smiled at the same time for the photo. An eventful day to remember!!
