Why Wait?

Vickie and I had always planned to retire at age seventy and go on a church mission. However, last December 27, as I reviewed the Social Security website in preparation for a Medicare appointment later that day, I noticed that my projected monthly retirement benefit would jump on the first of January to within a few hundred dollars of what it would be if I waited an additional two years. I then checked The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website for missionary opportunities and saw a new opening for a senior couple in Bacolod, Philippines, becoming available on March 14, 2024. Bacolod was one of my favorite areas when I served as a missionary in the Philippines forty-nine years ago. I felt a distinct impression that we should retire from work and serve a mission now. Why wait?

I told Vickie what I was feeling, and she didn't panic or push back or tell me I was crazy. In fact, she said that maybe we should pull things forward and go now. We decided to think about it that day, pray about it that night, and see how we felt the next day. When we woke up on December 28, we still felt good about the timing, so we submitted a missionary application request to our bishop. Fifteen days later we submitted our completed application packet to church headquarters (which is a small miracle in and of itself due to the number of steps aspiring senior missionaries must complete before submitting their applications, including the not so insignificant number of medical, dental, and other health-related appointments). Three weeks later we received a call to the Philippines Cebu Mission as office specialists. We were told to report to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah, on Monday, May 20. That gave us about four months to prepare to leave for the eighteen-month assignment.

The first big decision was what to do with our house. We decided to sell it, and before it was even listed, we received a phone call from a church member who lived in a different ward (congregation) who heard that we were planning to go on a mission. She and her husband hoped to buy their first home in about a year and wondered if we'd be willing to rent our home with a lease purchase option. She said their landlord just informed them he was not going to renew their lease in May (as originally planned), which put extra pressure on them to quickly find a home since she was due with her third child on May 5! This young couple had been looking for a home in our neighborhood, but there was nothing available, so finding our home was a small miracle to them. We agreed on terms and moved out earlier than planned so they could settle in before the baby was born.

At this point we had no place to live and a month to go before reporting to the MTC, so we packed our bags, loaded the car, truck, and travel trailer, and moved to Spokane to live with our daughter, Rachel. We had a great time in Spokane, visiting Rachel, Dustin, and Zoe. I continued to work remotely since my retirement date was May 17, the Friday before our mission would begin. Vickie helped Rachel and Zoe plant a garden, we watched the Northern lights in a rare display this far south, we went to the local farmer's market and nursery, and purchased most of the clothes and other items we'd need on our mission.

During this time, Vickie took a quick trip to Colorado and visited with Dave and Nada Watt, our long-time friends from Sedalia. We also managed to meet with our three other children and their families at my brother's cabin in Fairview, Utah. While in Utah, we attended the Manti Temple Open House, shown here with two of our grandchildren, Jameo and Juliet.

On May 13 we drove to Cherry Hill Campground in Utah to visit David and Shauna Handy, our good friends from Arizona who were visiting her family. It was great to see them and to visit a few relatives in the area, including my cousins Denise (Cutler) Richardson and Ilona (Jensen) Nielsen.

The last week of work was pretty surreal. My wonderful coworkers threw a lovely (virtual) going away party for me. I really enjoyed working for OpenText and all the companies before that, including Oracle, Mercury, HP, and Micro Focus. (Mercury, HP, Micro Focus, and OpenText were really just one employment opportunity since they were connected through mergers and acquisitions.) I returned my company laptop on Friday afternoon and bid farewell to the world of full-time employment!

Finally, we had a lovely Cutler and Nattress family reunion at my sister Diane's house in West Jordan, Utah. We are so blessed to have such an amazing family! We love you all!

Vickie and I want to thank everyone who supported us in preparing to serve the Lord. We will miss you, but we hope to stay close through email, texts, FaceTime, Zoom, and other resources. God be with you till we meet again!