FIRST WEEK in LA

To family and friends,

Max and Mary are here in sunny Los Angeles. The weather has been beautiful. Not too hot. Our apartment is small, but cozy. We live within a few minutes walk of the Family Search Center where we spend our days: helping patrons, attending classes, and learning what is expected of us.  There are 4 full-time couple missionaries (including us) and 3 single sisters, along with some church service missionaries. The temple has been closed for cleaning and will reopen this Tuesday, so we will get a lot more patrons then.  There are also missionaries serving in the Visitor's Center, in Public Affairs, and as Ordinance Workers in the temple.  One of the couples serving in the Visitor's Center is Donna Jensen and her husband who used to live in the 37th Ward.  We learned today while talking to one of the missionaries serving in Public Affairs that part of their job is to work with foreign consulates located in LA to secure visas for missionaries.

Visitors' Center from the back. This building also houses Public Affairs, the Mission Office, and the FHL.

LA Temple from the back

We live in the housing provided for temple patrons and missionaries.  We have a walk-in closet for only one person at a time, so we have to take turns.  It also is the hallway to the bathroom.  There is a kitchen and a small balcony where I'm going to grow herbs and other plants.  We bought a small table for our computer, but we don't have any room for a TV.  Today we are going to have the senior sister missionaries from upstairs come to dinner, so they will have to bring a chair.  Our bed is in the living room.  At night it is very light, even with the curtains closed, because there are security lights.  We love the cool breeze that comes in through the windows and balcony door.

Our new parson's table for a computer desk

Our sleeping area

Mary in the kitchen

Our sofa with an Afghan made for us by one of the missionaries.

One evening we walked two miles round trip to Ralph's which is associated with Smith's and uses their rewards card.  It is a good grocery store, and we like to pick up food for dinner from their deli.  Below Ralph's is Target. Parking is at a premium in this city, so you have to get a validation.  If we're getting a week's groceries, we take the car.  But the day we were on foot, we stopped to see a small cemetery which has graves of many celebrities: Eva Gabor, Merv Griffin, Farrah Fawcett, Ray Bradbury, Truman Capote and Marilyn Monroe, to name a few.  Marilyn had a beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers on her crypt.  Other of the graves had cute epitaphs.  Peter Falk's said "I'm not home. I'm home with Shera".  Billy Wilder's said "I'm a writer, but then nobody's perfect."  Rodney Dangerfield's said "There goes the neighborhood."  Jack Lemmon's said "In".  Merv Griffin's "I will not be right back after this message." and one other, "Finally under par."

Last night we went to an all Tschaikovsky performance of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in the Hollywood Bowl. It seats 18,000 people.  It was great; they played movements from Romeo & Juliet and Swan Lake and at the end they played the 1812 Overture, along with two visiting Drum & Bugle Corps, with fireworks. The way they park the cars is called "stacked," that is jammed next to each other.  So we had to wait a long time for cars near us to get out first. (Max went exploring the area while we waited and said the barn next to us was the site of the first film made in Hollywood, directed by Cecil B. Demille. Then we saw a real live skunk on the porch and we moved away fast.) We didn't get home until 11:30 and the gates all around this compound were closed and locked.  We had to call Security to let us in.

We attended the Westwood First Ward this morning at 10:20. It is part of the temple complex and has a large softball/soccer field next to the building. It is very close to our place. The people are very friendly. We can attend any ward we want and may decide to go to one of the needy branches in the area.

We send our love to all of you.

Mary and Max

THE MTC

We arrived at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT, on Monday at 9:30AM as planned. The first thing we learned, before we parked the car, was that we would be housed in the Marriott Hotel in downtown Provo for our five days here.

After getting our card keys, which double as ID cards and meal tickets, and our black missionary badges, we had several orientation sessions, went to lunch in a very large cafeteria with a few thousand young missionaries; young men and not a few young women. There are a lot of choices, to suit any taste. We had a meeting with the MTC president and learned that the 128 senior missionaries is the largest group ever to come to the MTC at the same time. We were also each assigned to a mission district, in our case, consisting of four couples from Oklahoma, California, and Oregon and going to the Philippines, Delaware, and Australia. We then came to the hotel and unpacked, then got ready for the next day.

We started our training on Tuesday. We have large group instruction, small groups with our district, and practicum sessions with volunteers from the community. It has all been very good and useful, even though ours is not a proselyting assignment.

Wednesday was the day for the new young missionaries to arrive, almost 1,000 that day! Our grandson was among them so we went to the arrival place hoping to catch a glimpse of him Sure enough, we got to see him and say hello before he was rushed off for his orientation. His mom got this photo.

Isaac Evans, Max Evans, Samuel Evans, and Mary Evans, at the MTC when Sam arrived.

 We also saw him twice today in the cafeteria. He is doing well and seems happy and confident.

We are getting to know a lot of nice senior missionaries and making good friends. We will miss them when we leave tomorrow afternoon. We will drive back to our home in Salt Lake, finish packing, then load the car Saturday morning. We will drive to St. George Saturday, stay Sunday, and then leave for Los Angeles Monday morning. We expect to arrive in the afternoon.

Mary and Max

GETTING READY

Three months since receiving our call and two days from the MTC! Max retired and we went to Maryland to see Katie and her family. We've been playing, working in the garden, fixing up the house, going out to eat, deciding what to take, and having our portraits taken.

We went to San Diego with our daughter Emily and with our son David and his family and had a nice, relaxing time, seeing the sites and enjoying the beach. Mary and I drove to LA one day to check out the LA family history center and met a few of the missionaries. Its a wonderful facility. We will enjoy our work there.

Emily will be staying in our house and taking care of things while we are gone. So we had some work done. Fixed the rain gutters and added ceiling fans to three rooms. Because we pulled the plug on Comcast TV, internet, and phone, we had to make other arrangements for each and ended up adding an antennae for broadcast digital TV, added a Clear 4G system for broadband, and acquired a Verizon home phone, so we can take our home phones and phone number with us.

We also planted a garden, with Emily's help. We've had broccoli, herbs and raspberries already and Emily can enjoy the zucchini, pumpkins, tomatoes, potatoes, apples, and peaches when the are ready.

Last week we took Emily, David's family and Laura's family to Midway, UT, for a week-long vacation. It was interrupted when we all returned to Murray for a sacrament meeting where David's son, Sam, spoke prior to going on a mission to North Carolina. He did a nice job. He will enter the MTC in four days. In Midway we swam in the condo pool, hiked, fished, flew kites, visited the Homestead crater, played games, watched movies, and ate together. The younger members of the family skateboarded, in-line skated, and rode scooters, while the girls and Max went to the outlet mall.

It was nice and relaxing.

Mary and Mary spoke in our sacrament meeting last Sunday. Most of our children and grandchildren were there. We also had three of Max's sisters and their husbands and four of Mary's brothers and sisters and their spouses.

This week has been busy with dinner and lunches with family and friends, packing for the MTC, and getting ready to pack for the trip to Los Angeles.

We will go to the Stake High Council meeting at 7:00 AM tomorrow, go the church at 11:00, and have the Stake President come to our house tomorrow evening to set us apart. We will arrive at the MTC in Provo Monday morning between 9:30 and 10:00 and stay there until Friday at 3:30. Then we will come home to finish packing and loading the car. We plan to leave here Saturday morning and drive to St. George, then leave St. George Monday morning for the six-hour (depending on the traffic) drive to LA.

Our preparation is guided by a personalized web page that tells us what to do before the mission:

• Have a temple recommend
• Re-read the Book of Mormon
• Watch The District, a six-episode TV program showing missionaries at work
• Complete the Mormon.org profile
• Study Preach my Gospel, the missionary manual
• Read The Missionary Handbook
• Learn about Family History

We will keep you posted.

Love,
Mary and Max

AT LAST!!

We expected our call on Wednesday. Even had a family party planned. When the letter didn't come, we had the party anyway, at least with Laura's family, because we brought Jared home with us.

Disappointed again yesterday; I decided it would come next week. But, no, IT CAME TODAY!

California Los Angeles Mission, with an assignment to work in the Family History Center

Here we are opening our letter.

We are both pretty excited. Looking forward to a great adventure.

Wish us well and pray for us.

Love, Max and Mary

The END IS IN SIGHT!

Our grandson, Samuel, who submitted his missionary application the same day we did, got his mission call last Wednesday. He is going to the North Carolina Charlotte mission. He leaves for the Missionary Training Center on August 7, which is what we put in our application as our availability date. We were on the way home from a short trip to St. George when he called us with the news.

And, our bishop, who monitors these things online, checked today and let us know that we have been "assigned," meaning that we should receive our call next Wednesday, May 1. We've invited family to come watch us open our letter and together find out where, and when, we will go.

The countdown is now about two weeks from Max's 70th birthday; five weeks from his retirement; and ?? weeks from the mission. We are getting pretty excited, and a little scared.

Here's a photo of our flower garden from last week.

The WAIT

What do you do when waiting for your mission call?
Well, we enjoy the Spring flowers growing in our front garden

and our forsythia bush in bloom.

 And we watch General Conference, here in the Conference Center Sunday afternoon.

Max works every day at the Church History Department (eight more weeks). Mary continues to serve as a Church Service Missionary two days a week at the Family History Library. She is also working at home organizing her genealogy papers and documents.

We also tended Laura and Jared's kids Friday night so they could go on a date.

Becky and their children went to St. George for Spring break and used our condo.

The INTERVIEW

Max says:
Our bishop acted quickly and got our application to the stake president. We had a telephone message waiting yesterday asking us to meet for an interview. We got out of church at 2:00 and met with President Mendenhall at 2:20 PM. Together, we went through our application and medical forms and answered his questions. He wanted to know where we would prefer to serve and we told him England or the British Isles. He will finalize the application and submit it soon. We should expect our call in about five or six weeks.

He said he has seen couples come and go and in each case the mission has brought them closer together and blessed the lives of their families. We are looking forward to a wonderful experience, no matter where the Lord chooses to send us.

Mary says:
Today is a beautiful warm day with spring flowers coming up in the yard.  A beautiful Easter.  We will always remember that we were interviewed  for our mission on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013.  As we wait to hear about our call, we will continue to read the Book of Mormon individually, say our morning prayers and look for ways to serve others as we go about our daily activities.

Max says:

Our Sunday School lesson today was "The Field is White Already to Harvest" using Doctrine and Covenants, section 4 and others.

 3 ... if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;

 4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;

 5 And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.

 6 Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.

 7 Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.

The SUBMISSION

Max says:
Finally. I finished with my doctor appointments today. We turned the medical forms over to Bishop Wirkus this evening and just now pushed the "Submit" button on the online forms. The bishop will check our application and make his recommendation to the stake president. President Mendenhall will interview us and send the application to the Church Missionary Department. We are told that a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will, under the inspiration of the Lord, make our assignment. We should receive our mission call in five to six weeks after the stake president submits it.

We are trying to prepare, by reading the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants and saying our prayers. We think we are in for a great adventure. Writing the title of this post made me think: we not only pressed the SUBMIT button to start a process, but by doing so we are to SUBMIT to the will of the Lord. We will go where He wants us to go, and do what he wants us to do. A mission requires submission, in every sense of the word.

On Wednesday this week, we met with the human resources director for the Church History Department and I signed my retirement forms. The date is set: Friday, May 31, just nine weeks from now. Mary will continue as a Church Service Missionary in the Family History Department until the end of July. We should be ready to go on a mission in August or sometime soon after.

Mary says;
I'm not sure what we put down as we answered the questions on the form over a month ago.  But we'll go with our first impressions.  The bishop came over to get our medical papers; he seems as excited as we are.  The Stake President has been talking about this for senior missionaries for some time now.  I'm sure he'll be excited about this too.  I feel like we're on the bandwagon with thousands of young 18-year-olds--not the least of whom is our own grandson, Sam Evans, who is putting in his papers as we speak.  He just needs to talk to his stake president and then the process will start;  wait a minute that's all we have to do too.  I wonder where we will be called.  That's the $64,000 question.  And what kind of a mission will it be.  Your guess is as good as mine.

The DOCTORS

Nothing much happened since last week, except making doctors' appointments and seeing doctors.

Mary called the dentist and since we both had recent visits, he had her bring in the forms for him to fill out. So that one's done.

Max as able to see the dermatologist and get his precancerous skin things frozen off and have a chunk of skin taken from his back for a biopsy. Negative, thankfully. Dr. Reese, the skin doctor wants to see us six weeks before we go so he can check us again since we will be gone for 18 months. We usually see him once each year.

Max needed a blood test for something else, so he arranged to have all his lab work done at the same time on Friday. He will have the tuberculosis skin test done at the next doctor's appointment, in early March.

Mary will also she her primary care physician the first week of March.

Max went to the optometrist on Friday and ordered new spectacles, even though there isn't a big change in the prescription.

Max spoke at the devotional for the Church Service Missionaries in the Family and Church History Mission. That's Mary's mission; she works on the British floor of the Family History Library. She sat on the stand in the Chapel of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building with Max. There were about 200 people in attendance. Max spoke about the Joseph Smith Papers project, since he is on the Editorial Board for the papers.

Since the Salt Lake Temple is still closed for cleaning and minor remodeling, we went out to dinner with friends last night. We went to the Symphony Friday night and heard two versions of Romeo and Juliet in honor of Valentines Day on Thursday: Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky.

Mary says:  Planning for a mission gives a new perspective on about everything.  I'm still driving Mom's car, the 2000 Mercury Tracer;  although we need 2 cars, buying a new car is out of the question until we come back.  We have been constantly remodeling our house since we've moved back into it 5 years ago:  new bathrooms, new basement apartment, new paint, new roof, sky lights, new patio, new front porch, hot tub, pergola, and new landscaping.  I think of new carpeting, but it makes no sense to tackle until later.  We buy season tickets to the symphony every year, but, wait a minute, we won't be here.  Vacation planning this summer seems to revolve around spending time with family--no exotic places this year.  I can hardly believe Max is actually retiring in May.  We're truly entering into a new era of our lives.  

The MISSION

Max writes - Well, we finally took those first steps into the unknown. Since I will be retiring in May, we thought it would be a good time to put in our papers for a senior couple mission. Especially since I learned that seniors can apply up to 9 months before the availability date, not 120 days, as is the case for the young elders; yes, Sam.

The bishop has to start the process, so I asked him to get us going last week. It's all done online now, so we log in the the missionary application form on lds.org and begin to answer dozens of questions, about us as a couple and each of us individually. We each fill out a health survey that we will take to our doctors and dentist. It took us each a couple of hours. We had to find and scan documents to upload into the application.
We also had to have a photo of the two of us in our Sunday attire. Mary had her hair done, so she looked nice. I was about to get into the hot tub, so I put on a shirt, tie, and jacket so I would look decent. Emily took the pictures.

Here is the one we selected.

Emily also took this one, with me in my swim suit and Mary in pants and another jacket.

We will make appointments with our doctors this week. Then we give their reports to the bishop who scans  and adds them to the application. He then  notifies the stake president, who will send it to the Missionary Department.

I takes about four to six weeks to receive the call. We indicated that we will be available in August and that we want to serve for eighteen months.

Mary writes - Yes, it is my mother's white jacket that I thought would look the best.  I know I was smiling better in all the other pictures, but Max looked weird in them so that's the one we chose.  The process of filling out the mission papers takes a lot of thinking--we ended up going through medical files and shredding most of what we were keeping.  It changes your perspective.  You realize you need to organize your life and make plans in a different way.  We do have current passports and are in reasonably good health at this point in time.  We need to go sooner, rather than later--when our health might be more iffy.  So, we will let you know more as time goes on.  

Our St. George condo

We bought this condo in the Sports Village in January, 2012. It came completely furnished, so no move in was necessary. We used it twice, Presidents' day weekend in February and just now, in March.

Here are some photos --

Our building. It is building "A" the first of A-Z.

Steps to leading the the building entrance.

Our kitchen window has the shelf.

View from the front porch.
Our carport and storage unit are straight ahead.

Our front door leads to ...

The kitchen, dining area, and ...

Living room.

The "master" bedroom (the one without bunk beds). 

The bathroom. Lots of mirrors, a garden tub with a

shower, and washer and dryer in a small space.

The other bedroom. Not enough room to get a good shot.

There is a mirrored-door closet behind the camera.

See end of the bunk beds. The bottom bunk is a futon 

that folds out to a double bed. 

 The deck from this bedroom.

The deck.

The view from the deck.

The deck from the view.

Here are photos of the clubhouse, some of the pools, courts, and other recreational facilities--