** DAY 24 -- Saving WHAT?

If you were twenty four days away from realizing a dream you had waited over forty years to live, would you be excited?  If you were waiting twenty four days for a chance to work FULL TIME in the service of the Lord, helping in  building up His Kingdom, seeking those honest in heart, helping the youth of the church realize their potential, would you lose sleep over it?

As we go through the motions to get ready to go and serve as missionaries, as we do all the required things to be able to go, it is hard to remember all the excitement.  Our minds are filled with getting rid of things we have kept for years and years.  We are pressured with purchasing the things we need to be able to go.  We are wondering what to keep, what to sell, what to store and what to throw away.

We find it hard to even think of the glorious days that await us in far away Dominican Republic.  We are so pressured with getting ready, prepared, and doing every needful thing to be able to go.

As we were first called, we went to the library and studied about the country, that little island.  We were interested in the food, the bugs (for Bonnie's sake) the temperature, and all things about where we will be living.  Now, at least in my mind, I am always thinking about where to store this, or that.  I am thinking if I will feel sad if I DI something and then wonder why I did that when I get home.  I am evaluating things I have saved over forty years and wondering why I save them.  I try to keep to the adage, "If in doubt, throw them out."  Then I question if I should.

There are so many things that we save thinking, "I will need that one day" and then forty years later we laugh that we save it, caressed it for so many years, and then one day we throw it away, never having touched it. We are surely a saving people aren't we.

Yes, it is very difficult to remain excited about our upcoming mission.  In fact with so many things to do, it is hard even to think about it.  I would assume as more and more things are accomplished, our excitement and enthusiasm will return with a vengeance.  Bonnie is doing so well with her Spanish. She is going to speak it better than me.