DAY 73 --- More Medical Preparations

Well, we are still getting medical things done.  My appointment with the dentist this morning was as a dentist appointment should be.  I was sitting there, shot full of gunk to make my head numb, then he put his hands and feet into my mouth.  I was only in the chair for one hour, but it takes many hours after that to get rid of that drug to make my cheeks feel fat and cause me to have a lisp.  Have to go back next week, and then he will submit our papers.  We are close. 

Our original goal was to submit papers in April and it looks like we will achieve that goal.  Then four or so weeks after that we shall know when and where we are to go.  It still seems like a vision, or something that is FAR FAR away on Judea's plain.  It just doesn't seem real, even when I was sitting in the dentist chair, listening to that drill searching for oil in my mouth, knowing that I was doing it getting ready to go away for 18 months.  It still feels "not real." 

Then it seemed too real.  I was sitting there with sixteen hands in my mouth, and I started to smile. (You ever do that? Try to smile when the community has their hands in your mouth?)  They asked why and I said it was because I knew that it was mainly to be prepared to go on a mission, and I could endure even more hands in my mouth if need be, for it was a requirement so we could go and serve. 

There are hungry people in all parts of the world, and hopefully Bonnie and I will be taking a suitcase, or heart case full of love, of service, and of compassion to give to all those hungry people.  We are packing those things in our mind as we read our scriptures, pray, go to the temple, and many other things.  We are packing, preparing, and anticipating what is coming. 

My boss said yesterday that he needed to replace me within 90 days.  I was amazed that it was that close. But it may be.  When seniors get their mission call, there is often a time they are needed, and thus they may be called upon to go quite rapidly.  And then there are times when it is a long time before they need you. Guess we will wait and see. We are putting our availability as of July 15, for my two daughters will have delivered by then.