Where did it all begin ... Strangely enough it began on a tiny island - the Cayman Islands. We were fortunate enough to go there when we were younger (late 20's). On the beach one night we looked up at the stars and started talking about our future dreams. I don't know why it was such a surreal moment for us but there we felt impressed to make significant commitments to each other and to the Lord. We wanted to serve the Lord. We wanted Him to know we would do are best to be ready, willing, and worthy to serve in any way He asked of us. That included a far off dream of going on a mission someday together.
As that someday approached we found ourselves on another island - Oahu. This time we were much older and Robert had just retired. We sat on a beach one night, looked up at the stars and reflected on all that had happened to us since we had made those commitments on the Cayman Islands. That night we recommitted and determined the time for that mission had come. We wrote this to our children.

Dear family,

Actually, though Hawaii is wonderfully fun, dad and I took this time not just to play but to think and ponder on our future. It is a funny feeling when retirement hits and you suddenly realize your remaining years are yours to spend as you want. No more work. Vacation when and where and for how long you want. Living wherever you wish. It can literally be a perpetual holiday. But we decided on a different path. We made some commitments to each other and the Lord as we sat on the beach gazing at the stars. Then we tried to come up with a memento to symbolize what we had decided on that beach. We searched far and long for the perfect thing and then bought two tiny beach chairs. The frames on them lean back to different reclining positions just like real beach chairs and the sling back fabric on the chair is a Hawaiian print. We have them placed on the cedar chest in our room. Two empty beach chairs. Two empty beach chairs that could be filled with two people who can literally spend the rest of their lives doing what they want. We choose to leave them empty and go and serve the Lord. We love you and know you will be a great support to us in our decision.

Little did we know that those experiences on those tiny islands would lead us to this ...

Robert and I received our mission call on February10, 2012. I was at the church helping to set up for a Valentine activity when Robert called to tell me we had received a large envelope in the mail. I raced home and we called all of our children using our two cell phones. Mandy called Mark at work using their house phone and Jessica did the same with Rod. We read just the first few sentences and stopped when it said we were called to the Cape Verde Praia Mission. Everyone went silent. No one knew where Cape Verde was! Finally our son-in-law, Dave, spoke up to say he knew. Cape Verde used to be in one of the Portugal missions and since he served in Portugal he had heard of this tiny island republic about three hundred miles off the coast of Africa that was once a Portuguese colony.
The rest of the day was spent sitting in front of the computer trying to find out everything we could about Cape Verde. The more we read the more excited we became. The adventure had begun! The long ago dream was finally happening We will enter the MTC on May 7th and fly out a week later to the tiny islands of Cape Verde. We have no idea what we will be doing at this time, except that we will no doubt be passing a lot of beach chairs. :)