Baby blessing in Texas

I was able to be in Friendswood Texas this past weekend to participate in the blessing of our newest Grandson, Eli Thomas Smith.

He sure is a cutie, and will have no problem being "mothered" by his 3 older sisters.

Kamryn 10, Maya 4, Grandpa, Eli 2 Months, and Lindsy 7

It was a quick trip, and it was great seeing our Texas family before leaving for our mission. Lily had made the trip in December when Eli was born, and did not make this trip to the Blessing.

Kamryn, Jeni, Eli, Jason, Maya, and Lindsy

With regards to our mission, I did call Elder Fuller at the Senior Missionary Desk in Salt Lake today to see where we were in the process. He said that a General Authority reviews the applications on a Friday, and that our application would probably be part of the February 25th allocation. He did not think we had made the cutoff for tomorrow the 18th. Packets are then prepared and mailed on the following Tuesday. and then it depends on how long the mail takes to get to you.

So, we are looking at mailing on the 1st of March, with a possible delivery date of March 4th.

Hopefully that will be the schedule.

The Black Hole

When I was in the corporate world, most of my working career was at a "field location" versus the "HQ location". Whenever Corporate Headquarters was not responsive to our requests for anything we felt we needed, or when encountering any delay in their response, we would say that our request was in the "Black Hole" at Corporate.

I have just discovered the "Black Hole" at Church Headquarters!!!

After checking the mail everyday for our mission call (see prior posts), and once again coming away today from the post office empty handed, I decided to give the Missionary Department a call to see where we were at in the process. I'm not anxious, or anything, just curious.

But first . . . . . . . a little background.

The contact person I have used is situated at the "Senior Missionary Desk" which is staffed by a volunteer Senior Missionary Couple. This is the desk I called back in September when I found out I needed to cancel my mission assignment to Blacksburg, VA, to undergo surgery. This is also the "desk" I called the first of December to let them know that I had been cleared by my doctor with a clean bill of health to pursue missionary service. A copy of the doctor's release was emailed to them, and our names were supposedly placed back in the pool of senior couples available for assignment.

Three weeks later in December, when no mail was coming from SLC, curiosity got the better of me (I don't wait well), and I called the Sr. Missionary desk to find out that our paperwork had been send to our Stake President and will need to be resubmitted. Of course it is the Christmas/New Year holiday and the Stake President is out of town until January 2nd.

We meet, and the paperwork is resubmitted the third of January. I received word from another source that we have been assigned and should receive word soon. It has now been four and a half weeks.

So I call "The Desk" today, and guess what? They can't find our paperwork!!!!

Two hours later, I get a call back from "The Desk" to let me know they found it "in a hole where it should not have been", and that the application has now been transfered to their computer. From the time it hits their computer, it will take 2-3 weeks for things to get processed.

They thanked me for calling. They found the application from another couple "in the same hole".

I told Lily that we should just move to Hawaii for 18 months and pretend we are on a mission.

The emotional roller coaster has been difficult, but hey! the Church is still true. (Now, if we can just do something about the people).

Hopefully we will know where we are going by the first of March.