Reaching the Half Way Mark of our Mission

Karen and I have passed our nine-month mark now and are beginning the last half of our mission so we thought it would be good to list some of the things we have experienced thus far.

Patience –
When we arrived as new Missionaries we thought that we could hit the ground running and immediately make many significant personal contributions to the mission. We soon found out how naïve we were. We had no idea of how unprepared we were to deal with the complexities that come with working in multiple countries each having different time zones, languages, and cultures. We also were unaware that the Mission itself, with its own way of doing things had a culture completely different than what we had ever previously experienced. Although I had spent much of my professional career in management the processes and procedures adopted by management here were as foreign to me as were the customs of Mongolia.

Humility –
Learning the role of being a volunteer Public Affairs Missionary, working for an employed Public Affairs Director and following their leadership was no small task for myself, yet being told to be anywhere, at any time, from anyone, was a completely new and difficult notion for a previous Domestic Chief Executive Officer like Karen with her innate ability to simply ask, “how high” when someone with authority demand she jump.

 It would be proper for us to admit that it took several weeks for us to realize this new concept of not being in charge, and to fall in line. We have since learned that not being in charge and following others direction is not a high price to pay when you consider the price associated with being in charge.

We have learned as Missionaries that Heavenly Father does not need us at all, whether it’s leading or following to accomplish the building of His Kingdom. He just lets us come along for the ride. His real interest is us, His sons and daughters  is hoping that in the year and a half that we are here that we will come to know Him.

Faith –
It was like an out of body experience for us to arrive and be placed in a role we felt inefficient, based on our personal view of the experience we brought to the Mission. To feel like we are not really making any preconceived contributions yet we immediately begin receiving bounteous blessings. We soon realize that maybe it is not a matter of doing what we think we ought to be doing here that is bringing all these blessings to our lives and the lives of those we love but that we are receiving blessings simply we are here.   That because we accepted a Mission Call and came with a righteous intention to fulfill our Call is a fulfillment of the Law of Sacrifice and the abundance of blessings associated with this law. We believe we have learned that this Mission with the support of all our children is a true witness to all of us that blessings are in store for those that trust in the Lord and are willing to step into the dark before seeing the light.

Left to right:  Elder Doplan,  Sister Amemita,  Sister LaBongo, and Elder Belnap.  We are enjoying burgers, fries, and shakes at Triple O's.   Elder Doplan, Sister Amemita, and Elder Bellnap  are all leaving this week.   They are amazing,  we are really going to miss them.

Sister Brojan and Sister Arago (2 sisters on the right),  brought 2 investigators to our Saturday Branch this week.    Sister Brojan leaves this week to go home.  She is wonderful and is really going to be missed.

We,  along with 10 other senior missionaries visited the Hong Kong Maritime Museum located right on the harbor.   This picture was taken from the Museum windows.    We really enjoy sight seeing with the senior couples.  They are all wonderful and we have become very good friends.