We received our assignment to serve as missionaries at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii on April 19. We report to the Missionary Training Center in Provo on Aug. 15. Between those two dates are 118 days to get ready. On the surface that seems like ample time. Already 8 days have slipped past, and I believe time will continue to move quicker the closer we get to departure. Here is what we will be doing in the following weeks and months:

Medical: Prior to submitting our application, we both needed physicals and dental checkups. For the most part, these were routine visits with our physicians. In my bloodwork, an anomaly occurred that is a small concern, and I am seeing a specialist to make sure there is no condition that will interfere with my ability to work. Virginia is getting additional care done on one knee, like oiling a squeaking joint on the Tinman. We thought we had all the necessary immunizations according to the preparation packet. Once we received our call, we learned that a pneumonia vaccination was recommended. Since we are in the 60-year bracket, we’ve always assumed we were both immunized for measles, mumps, and rubella as children. With no ability to produce vaccination dates, we had that shot repeated. Other than a follow-up cleaning with the dentist before we go, and whatever the specialist decides to do with me, we should be done with medical.

Putting our House in Order: Our second son will be staying in our home with his family while we are gone. We planned to move our personal belongings to the basement so they could have the master bedroom and the other upstairs bedrooms for their kids. Our daughter-in-law is 8 months pregnant, and we felt it would be better to get her settled before the delivery, so we decided to make the move this week. Starting Saturday, we emptied two bedrooms for their kids and shoved our stuff into a spare room downstairs. We then moved the kids upstairs. That took all day. On Monday of this week, we moved everything out of the master bedroom and piled it in the living room, kitchen, dining room, and family room. That allowed us to begin moving our son and his wife up from the basement. By Monday evening our home looked like a shipwreck. It was as if someone had turned our home upside down and shook it vigorously, or like a bomb went off, and there were no survivors. We worked through the piles and heaps yesterday and gradually we are finding order.

Wardrobe: It’s not uncommon to see missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints walking two by two through almost any city or town in the world, usually wearing a suit, white shirt and tie for men, and dresses for women. That is not our mission. Our mission is not a conventional proselyting mission. I will be spending a lot of time working backstage in the Pacific Theatre. We will likely have other assignments at the Center doing public relations work, hosting, or teaching the public. Backstage clothing for me is black slacks and black polo. Black is the traditional color for stagehands. Other assignments at the Center will require slacks and an aloha shirt. At home, my normal dress is tee-shirt and shorts if it is summer, and plaid flannel shirts and jeans in the winter. Needless to say, I have nothing in my wardrobe to help me fit into the Polynesian environment. We both have a lot of shopping to do from footwear to shirts, slacks, skirts, and other items. I will need a suit to wear on Sundays and other mission-related meetings. I’m not sure if I can make an existing suit work or if I’ll be shopping for a new one. Other than clothing, our needs will be simple for the next two years. The mission will place us in a modestly furnished apartment with most of what we need by way of cooking equipment. There will be the odd item here and there we’ll purchase after we arrive, but we won’t be living extravagantly by any means.

Training: I retired in January of 2021. That and the theatres being closed for most of 2020 means that I haven’t worked on stage for over two years. I need to brush up my computer programming skills. The PCC is operating technology that didn’t exist when I stopped working in 2020. That means I have a lot of training to complete in the next few months. My former assistant will be taking me into the lab and coaching me on the new technology through most of May.

Other Things to do: Among these activities, I still have a garden to plant and a yard to care for during the summer. In May, we have two grandchildren being born, one to be birthed in our own home. We anticipate being needed here and there as these two grandsons arrive. We would like to make a quick getaway or two in the Scamp, but that is secondary to everything else going on. I’ll have to meet with our accountant to figure out how to manage taxes while we are away, change mail delivery, deal with cars being left behind, a family wedding in July, regular church assignments, the occasional babysitting of grandkids. And then there is always life that gets in the way with a thousand distractions we can’t plan for. We’ll be busy for sure. In many ways, I hope our lives slow down once we leave home. We’ll need the rest.