You Are Hereby Called To Serve . .

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Washington Seattle Mission!

(I added the ! mark)




This is not a very good picture of the area his mission covers. I scanned it in from the paperwork because there wasn't anything better to be found online.

The Story of the Mission Call
Austin opened his call in his dormroom at BYU with guys from his hall crowding the doorway and his Grandma Swensen in Michigan and his family in Florida watching via video SKYPE at 11:30pm on Wednesday, March 24, 2010!!!

He had a Computer Programming take home midterm he was working on that was due at 9pm Utah time and it took every last minute. Austin texted earlier in the day, "It's here!" Then proceeded to ask us how late we were willing to stay up for him to open it. The answer - we're up and waiting til whenever! (like we could go to sleep!)

We had the video camera rolling on the computer screen. When he opened the call and began to read and said, "you are hereby called to serve in the Washington Seattle Mission," I thought he was trying to be funny and playing a joke on us.

I haven't watched the video of it all but I'm pretty sure I was waiting for him to reread it for reals and then finally said, "are you serious?" "are you joking?" It took me only a moment to realize it was for real.

Austin is excited. We are excited for him. He is going to be an awesome missionary! He has a testimony of the Savior, Jesus Christ, and his plan for us here on the earth. It has always been a guiding force in his life.

There are some interesting things surrounding Austin's mission call to this mission. As I have related this to different individuals in telling them where he will be going - I have had (4) of them tell me it has given them the 'chills.' A good feeling!

1. John grew up in Washington. His whole family lives in Washington state - his two sisters, his brother and his mom. Along with many other relatives. We go there every year to visit. In a lot of ways it is our second home. When I got to UT to see Austin I got to look at the map more closely. I had to call John right away. His sister & family and niece in Puyallup, WA will be within Austin's mission boundaries!

2. We lived in Issaquah, WA for 4 1/2 years from the time Austin was 18months old until he was 6 years old (almost 14 years ago). Issaquah, WA is also part of his mission.

3. Just this past weekend during General Conference, Phillip Bussey, who was our bishop when we lived in Issaquah, WA and has since been a stake president, was called as a new Area Seventy. (It was a couple of months ago that somehow John had looked something up and saw he was a stake president, still in the area working for the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. All before Austin got his call.)

It will be exciting to see the events of the next two years unfold and the years to follow as Austin serves the Lord. This has been an opportunity for me to put my faith in the Lord and in his wisdom of all things.

Still Waiting!

We are still waiting for Austin's mission call. We thought by all calculations that it should have arrived yesterday. It looks like we will be waiting for another whole week. Wednesdays are the day they are delivered in Provo, UT. Patience is a virtue. It's a virtue I'm still working on!

Where In The World Will Austin Go?

We are on pins and needles - high anticipation mode as we wait for Austin's mission call to arrive sometime this week! Austin is saying it will arrive on Wednesday. The Cannon Center at BYU actually calls you to let you know your mission call has arrived in the mail. Can't get better service than that.

I've been taking an 'unofficial' email poll. I tallied up the results and they look something like this:
Here they are:
((2) Africa
(2) Australia
(2) Greece
(2) Mexico
(4) Japan
(4) Argentina
(6) S. America (not incl. Argentina - Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Uraguay, Peru, S. America in general)

Other guesses:
CA; Ohio
Louisville-KY or C. America
N or NEast US
Albania
Haiti
Europe
Madrid Spain
Italy
Austin, TX; Nova Scotia; Finland;
Canada, Germany or Russia




One of my favorite books is "Oh the Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Seuss. At the end of the book it says:
"So . . . be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea, you're off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So . . . get on your way!"

Austin, we know where ever you go in life - today or tomorrow you will go places! Oh, the places you'll go! You are awesome. We are blessed to be your parents and family.

On My Way Now!

Riley left the Missionary Training Center at 3am on Jan. 6, 2010. He flew from Salt Lake City, UT to Los Angeles, CA. He then flew to Washington, DC where he was able to call home. We were able to talk to him for just about an hour. He then flew from Washington, DC to Vienna, Austria and from there to Tirana, Albania. Arriving in Albania at 12:25p on Jan. 7, 2010 after 36 hours of travel time!!! It is amazing that he has been there for 10 days already.

7 January, 2010

Dear Brother and Sister Smith,

As you can see from the attached photograph, Elder Smith arrived safely here in Tirana. He's shown here with Sister Neil and me in our living room following dinner in the mission home in Tirana. He is a bit tired, wrinkled and overwhelmed by the cultural shock of landing here. Everyone's luggage arrived at the same time they did!! (which is highly uncommon). He seems excited to get to work and to be assigned to his new companion. He has already been out to do his first street contacting (with great success!). We will assign him tomorrow afternoon to his trainer, a special dedicated missionary called to that important position. But rather than wait until then to let you know he arrived safely, we thought you might be anxious to know that he didn’t get lost in transit and that he did arrive and that all is well. Earlier today, I had a wonderful interview with him, we got him registered with the American Embassy. We just had dinner, and he and his companions are off to get some rest. We will send you another short note tomorrow with all of his addresses, the name of his companion and any other information that will hopefully make you comfortable about his status.

Please also know that we already love your son and are concerned for his well being. We will do all in our power to make sure that he is safe and that he has a wonderful experience serving as a missionary. We can say without question that he has come to one of the finest missions in the world. The people are kind, the members are so loving of the missionaries, and the other missionaries are the finest young men and women in the church.

Thank you for sharing your son with the people of this country. We know that your family will be blessed as you share in his experiences.

Sincerely,

President and Sister J. Martin Neil

Albania Tirana Mission

8 January, 2010

Dear Brother and Sister Smith,

We have had the wonderful opportunity of spending more time with your son and getting to know him a little better. Your son is still functioning in another time zone, but jet lag will pass quickly for him. Elder Smith is doing well with the language and is talking to people in the street already. This morning, we took our new missionaries to the Mother Albania Statue and Park, a memorial to the heroes of Albania during the second world war, overlooking the city of Tirana. This is where Albania was dedicated for the preaching of the Gospel in April of 1993 by Elder Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve. The attached photo shows the entire MTC group up at the park, overlooking the city of Tirana, as well as a shot with the Monument in the background.

We had a short service there where we read together the dedicatory prayer, which is beautiful and becoming fulfilled in amazing ways. After prayer and thoughtful consideration, we have assigned him to work with Elder Hixson, in the city of Elbasan. Your son’s companion is a great missionary who has earned the opportunity to be a trainer by his dedicated service here in Albania. I am sure that your son will be able to learn much from him. He will also learn to rely on the Spirit to guide him daily. He will grow in ways that you can’t imagine.

The church requests that we use only the myldsmail.net email service and that your son communicate only with family members via email. He has an account and will be able to write once a week (on P-days, which are on Monday) and to receive e-mail from his immediate family.

All other addresses shown on the letterhead of this email are descriptions rather than an actual address. There is no mail delivery in Albania other than post office boxes, so our Office Secretary goes to the post office twice a week to pick up the mail and packages. We have found that US Priority mail is the least expensive and fairly rapid option (2 weeks), and US Express mail is the quickest (4-5 days) and the packages are actually delivered to our doorstep. The following address covers post office delivery, as well as delivery to the doorstep for US Express mail and other courier services:

Elder Smith

Fondacioni Liahona

PO BOX 2984

Rr Qemal Stafa Vila 1

Përballë Postës 22

Tirana, Albania

We find that many items are sent that can also be purchased here and the costs are very high to ship, so discuss with your missionary what they really need to receive. We have had parents send expensive items and medications that could be bought here. Anything over $300 in value will trigger the payment of customs duties and a complicated procedure for retrieving the package. It might be helpful to check with us if you are considering sending important items.

Once a month your missionary will be given their financial allotment from the church via a debit card. If they should want any additional funds, each town does have a bank that will honor Visa/MasterCard ATM debit cards. They should have a card with minimum available funds of at least $100.00 in the case of emergencies.

If you need to write to us for any reason, just use the same address in care of President and Sister John M. Neil. Our office e-mail address is also shown in the letterhead. Otherwise you will begin hearing from your missionary every Monday (P-day) on a regular basis soon. I am sure that you are looking forward to that.

Again, thank you for raising such a fine son. Sister Neil and I love the Lord, we love His church, and we love His missionaries, and will do everything we can to support and sustain your son so that he can accomplish what he came here to do. We know he will have a wonderful mission, and will accomplish much good in this developing land of generous and kind people.

Sincerely,

President John M. Neil

Sister Elizabeth Neil

Kicked to the Curb? or Kissed at the Curb?

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

I am a novice at this slideshow/video creation. I couldn't figure out how to add music to this slideshow. If anyone can enlighten me I would appreciate it. So for now it is soundless!

Riley on his way! Albania - Almost!

It is hard to believe that it has been six weeks since we dropped our oldest son, Riley, off at the curb and said our goodbyes for two whole years. He will be serving a mission for our church in Tirana Albania.

I am grateful that he has a testimony of his Savior, Jesus Christ. I am grateful that he is willing and eager to spend two years of his life to share that belief with others. I am grateful for the man this firstborn son has become. My heart is so full or gratitude for all the blessings the Lord has given me. It is amazing to look back on life's experiences and see His hand as He has guided us along this path of life with its myriad of decisions we must continually make.


The night before Riley entered the MTC - Missionary Training Center we were able to have dinner with two cousins (our nephews) - Ben and Daniel & his wife, Diana Smith. I had gotten to see Daniel more recently but we decided it had been about (8) years since John had seen him.


The word around town was that IHOP served missionaries a free breakfast on the morning they were headed to the MTC. We thought we'd find out - the rumor was true. How cool is that! It was fun to see all these other families with their sons and daughters doing the same thing we were.


Ready . . .


Set . . .


Go!

Catching Up IS Hard To Do!

There just never seems to be enough hours in the day to do all we want to do and get done. I can't believe it's been 3 months since I have posted on our blog. I was doing so good there for awhile. I still have a lot of catching up to do but I wanted to update a few things so none of you would give up on me. I kept thinking I'd have a day where I could just spend it updating the blog. Hasn't happened. So tonight when I couldn't sleep I decided I'd better just make a stab at it. Maybe I'm slow (or my computer is), but I've already spent a couple hours and hardly made a dent. See what I mean - so much to do (or wanna do) and so little time.

We've had a lot going on just not enough time to tell all about it. Our spur-of-the-moment vacation to Georgia, Parker & Macey starting school (they missed the 1st day), going to Provo, UT to get Austin settled out at BYU and then back home to get Riley ready to leave on his mission to Albania. We got to have Grandma Swensen and Grandma Smith come for a visit and then John & I went with Riley to Washington to see Grandma Lois and all our family there. Then on to Provo, UT again to 'literally' drop Riley off at the MTC (Missionary Training Center). It is like the car line at the elementary school. You pull up, unload and drive away.

It's hard to believe Riley has been a missionary for almost a month now. He is doing great! He's the district leader. He's positive, enthused and teaching us a few words in Albanian each week.

Where in the world is - Albania?

Thought we'd post a map of Albania as a quick reference for anyone who is geographically challenged such as I am.

Interesting Facts
*3.6 million people
*87% literacy rate
*Life expectancy 74 years old
*Currency - Lek

Physical Facts
*28,780 sq. ft (slightly larger than Maryland)
*shares borders w/Yugoslav republics of Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia
*also shares border with Greece
*70% of country is mountanous and often inaccessible

Ethnic Facts
*two major subgroups: Gegs and Tosks
*separated by Shkumbin River
*these two groups account for 90% of Albanian population

Religion
*70% of Albanians are Islam
*the Orthodox church is a distant second
*less than 10% are Roman Cathothic
*www.newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/contact-us/albania
*shows 1838 lds members, 10 congregations, 1 family history center

Agriculture & Industry
*main farming regions located on Adriatic coastal plain
*chief crops: corn, grapes, olives, potatoes, sugar beats and wheat
*chief livestock: cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens
*mining is the leading industry in Albania

Housing
*densely overpopulated
*average living quarters for a family of four is one room

Riley has submitted his mission papers and we are waiting for his call! Two weeks will be this Wednesday! We would like to get your 'vote' on where you think he might go. Post your comment! Joe & Emily say - Uruguay.

Riley's Mission Papers In!

We had to take a photo to upload online with Riley's mission application paperwork. His paperwork has been turned over to the Stake President. Now that we are to this point Riley wishes he knew where he is going - yesterday!