Kate's Farewell & Open House

And finally arrived the Sunday of Kate's farewell and Open House.

FYI - In the LDS church, all talks during the Sunday Sacrament Service are given by Church

Members.  The most important thing that happens during the Sunday worship service is taking the

sacrament and renewing our baptismal covenants with our Heavenly Father.  In taking the sacrament we promise

to remember our savior Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice and always  to try and be like Him.

The Sacrament Prayer is actually the only rote prayer given in our Church.

The remainder of the worship service is a series of usually 2-3 talks given by church members

who have been invited to prepare a talk by the Bishopric.  A departing missionary is always

invited to speak prior to leaving on this mission. 

Katie was asked to talk on "faith" and after the conclusion of her thoughts,

she sang one of her favorite songs from her years growing up in Primary,

"I know my Savoir lives".   It was so sweet to hear her sing, as her singing has

been something that has brought me such joy over the years.  So many people in the congregation

didn't know she had such a lovely singing voice and were very touched by her

testimony through song. 

FYI - "Primary" refers to the Sunday School classes for ages 3 -12 years.  There are

lots of wonderful songs for this age group that really teach about the Gospel and

reinforce tender testimonies of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

FYI - Very often the family of a departing missionary will have an "Open House" later in the

day so that people can come by, give that dear young person a hug and their best wishes. 

Katie was really just amazed at all the love and support she received.  Throughout the 
day she kept exclaiming "people are just so nice!"  One of the great blessings of being a
member of this Church is the unconditional love and support that you can receive from
your Ward members (your congregation is referred to as your Ward). 

We had lots of yummy food at the Open House.  I was kind of busy so
didn't take any table pictures, or really many pictures at all at the Open House.

But we tried to have some typical Swiss food. One of Katie and my favorite Swiss
treats is Swiss Meringue with ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream. YUM!   So I had
been busy making dozens and dozens and dozens of little meringues over the past week. We also
had lots of fruit, Swiss cheese with bread and crackers,  and of course,  Swiss chocolate!
Thanks to my friends who helped! 

But thank you mostly for all our friends and family who came by to wish her well.
It meant the world to her, and to me, to have so much support and love. 

The pre-mission bucket list

quix·ot·ic  

/kwikˈsätik

This is an adjective I have often applied to Katie.  She's a dreamer, and dreams big and  sometimes with little regard to realism.  It's often hard for her to understand why we might look at her a bit cross-eyed when she comes up with a new idea.  Part of the

humor of it all is that she dreams it, and then expects our full enlistment in carrying

out her dream.  But it's part of what makes Kate, well, Kate, and we love

her for it and know that it will take her places others may not dream to go! Actually, it
takes us places we wouldn't dream to go too.

To that brings us to her 

Pre-Mission BUCKET LIST

Actually, it wasn't that unrealistic, but with everything we had going on, it did take some major effort and commitment to squeeze it all in.

She had just under six weeks after Winter Semester was over until she would report

to the MTC.  And some of us (actually all of us except her) had jobs, and work travel, and busy families etc etc etc.  But looking back, without her pushing and planning

we might never have had such a good time together in the weeks before she left. 

Live just gets busy and unless you really schedule and really push to make it happen,

it just doesn't happen.  

So here's a few things we did that were on her "bucket list".

ONE 

The house that built me. Northridge, CA

Katie wanted to make sure we went to California to visit her Grosvati, my dad.

She hadn't been back to their home since my mother's funeral ten years ago, and for 
some reason it was very important to her to refresh her memories of that home.

My dad is 92 and last summer I took him to Switzerland and met up with Kate
as she was concluding her hiking tours.  It was with me and my mom and dad that
Katie made her first trip to Switzerland 12 years ago while my mom was in
remission.  She has always shared with them a deep love for the outdoors and I wanted them to introduce her to their beloved homeland. 

This short visit, we took him for a couple day adventure to Lake Arrowhead, which is less

thank three hours from his home, but a lovely getaway from  the San Fernando Valley. 

Note Kate doing her customary trash pickup
and I love the picture of Grosvati working with
her on German pronunciation. 

TWO

A family camping trip was also on the bucket list.  This was actually  a 
bit of a challenge to pull off since the only night that was available in
everyone's schedule was the Friday of the Memorial Day Holiday and
most of the local campgrounds weren't open yet.  With two nursing moms
who weren't going to be able to spend the night, we also wanted to be fairly close 
to home so they could still stay for the evening.  We ultimately decided on
camping along the stream at Big Springs Park.  It was perfect and we all had a great time.

One lesson to be learned is that if you don't REALLY want to do something,
it just doesn't happen.  Our lives today have gotten so busy that it's easy
to not want to add more to the agenda. But often that means we omit that which is really
most important.  This campout was a good example.  I know it was so 
important to Katie to not only get her family together as often as possible, 
but to share some of what she loves most with these little nieces and nephews
that she will miss so much.  

THREE

Then Katie's friend James came home from his mission to New York North, Spanish, 10 days before Katie was to report to the MTC and so the bucket list took on a whole new dimension. They both love adventure and so the fun continued. 

We went together with the Hulmes on a trip to Goblin Valley.  Again, it would have been

easy to say that this was "pushing it" the week before she was to leave, but it was

really a lot of fun and I'm so glad we went and especially that Jesse & family were

able to come as well.  We left late Sunday afternoon and some of us went into

Goblin Valley in the dark that night which was awesome and then went back to spend

the night in Green River before going back to Goblin Valley in the morning to

hike Little Wild Horse Canyon.

It was so fun to watch Bella (5)  and JJ (almost 3)  have SUCH a great time.  It was hot, we hiked for quite a long time but they never complained and just had
such fun.  Katie, and many of the rest of us, had never been here
before and for being under 4 hours from home, this was just a 
perfect trip for the "bucket list".

FOUR
Going to a number of different temples in the area was also important to 
Katie.  She first went through the Timpanogas Temple and then during the
next weeks went through the Salt Lake Temple, the Manti Temple, and the
Provo Temple.

Katie with her grandma, Madeline Lewis

Katie with her cousin, Regan Lewis, who is 
serving in the Rochester, New York mission,  Spanish-Speaking

FYI  - The Lord has commanded His people to build temples from the days of the Old Testament. Much of the LDS temples mirrors things we have learned from ancient temples and ancient temple rituals. They are

sacred buildings, different from chapels where Sunday worship takes place. Temples are a place of learning and peace.  When a temple is first built, the public is invited to tour the temple.  However, after it is dedicated, only faithful church members participate in temple activities.  These include the "temple endowment" and the sealing of families together for time and all eternity.  Marriages that take place in the temple are blessed by the Lord to be not only "until death do us part" but for the eternities.  The blessing of eternal families is central to the Lord's plan of salvation and our belief that families can be together forever.   

FIVE

Squeezing in as much adventure as possible, Katie was also happy to be able to go with the Hulme family when they rappelled Bridal Veil Falls up Provo Canyon.   This happened the day after getting back from Goblin Valley and the day before Katie and James
went Hang Gliding at the point of the mountain (no pictures).  

SIX
One last trip to wakeboard on Deer Creek Reservoir and spend the
night at our cabin in Wallsburg was saved for Friday night.  We have
built wonderful memories there over the years so it was important to Katie to be
there together again just a few days before she left.  David was able to
come from Denver to join us for the weekend so that was great. We missed
Austin, Lizzy and their family but work schedules just didn't let it work to
have them with us :-(. 

We like to finish off lots of our weekend jaunts to the cabin
with a trip into Midway to the Tarahumara Restaurant.  We love
the food, and really love just sitting out on the porch all together. 

So thanks Katie for making a bucket list!   We couldn't get to everything, but I 
think we did pretty well and we certainly made family memories that
we wouldn't have without your dreaming and planning. 
We are going to miss this girl so much!

What is an LDS mission and how does it work????

FYI - What's a mission anyway? 

LDS missions are unique, and so I think it will help to explain them a little to those who are not familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

When a young man or woman decide that they would like to serve a mission for the church, they submit an application.  It includes the reports from medical and dental exams and also an endorsement from their local "Bishop" who is the leader of their local congregation. They also submit information about ancestry, locations where family members have served missions, copies of their passport etc.  They send their application to the church headquarters in Salt Lake City.  At this point, since they know their Bishop has endorsed them as worthy and ready and willing to serve, they know they will receive a "call".  Special designated apostles of the church review their application and then issue a call.  The call could be anywhere in the world, including all over the United States....anywhere missionaries are allowed by the home country to come and teach and serve.  The call letter comes in the mail and as you can imagine it is an exciting moment when that young person opens that envelope and learns where they will serve, what language they will be speaking, and the exact date they will begin their service. For young men the length of the mission is 24 months and for young women it is 18 months. 

The missionary typically has a number of months to get prepared with the correct immunizations, clothes etc.  Next they will report to the Missionary Training Center.  The largest one is here in Provo,Utah, but there are also MTCs throughout South America, England,  and numerous other countries.  Typically a missionary will be in the MTC for a period of two weeks to three months based on whether they are learning a language, the complexity of the new language etc.

Missionaries are called to serve the Lord and to testify of Jesus Christ and the restored gospel.  They support struggling members of the church, provide community service to anyone in need and seek out people to teach who are open to having their lives blessed by learning of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  Missionary life is very challenging.  Expectations are high, and the rules are clear.  There are assigned to a companionship of  two (sometimes three) individuals and they live on their own in small, modest apartments and work hard.  These companions spend ALL their time together. Apartments have been arranged by the church.  Every missionary pays a set amount to the church per month.  This covers their rent and from this they each receive a modest stipend to cover their food and basic necessities.  No matter where you are serving, you pay the same amount to the church as you can imagine the costs vary quite a bit between Hong Kong and rural Bolivia, and this makes it so that you are not paying more just because you have been assigned to serve in an area where the cost of living is really high.  If a person wants to serve a mission, but is unable to afford to do so, other church members contribute to a fund that is used to support them.  

Their days are expected to start at 6:30 with exercise, individual scripture study starting by 7:00, companionship scripture study, planning, language study (if learning a new language).  They then embark into the community to serve and teach, serve and teach and are supposed to be back in their apartment by around 9:00-9:30 and to bed by 10:30. 

Currently there are more than 70,000 young people serving LDS missions around the world.  There are also many older couples serving as well. 

Every missionary knows they are making a sacrifice to serve a mission but do it out of love for their Father in Heaven and the knowledge that it will make an eternal impact on their own lives and they hope on the lives of the people that are open to learning about the Restored Gospel.  There are strict rules on a mission. There is no TV, no secular music or books, no smart phones, no Internet, no boyfriends or girlfriends. Following the rules comes from an individual commitment; as there is obviously no one right there to make sure the rules are followed.  But following the rules makes for learning an amazing amount of self-discipline, strengthens your commitment to the Lord, and helps the missionary to overcome discouragement and frustration because they know that when they are doing all that they can do, the rest is up to the Lord.   Once a week is P-day (preparation day) for doing laundry, grocery shopping, emailing home and writing letters and other leisure activities in the area where they are serving.   They call home twice a year....yes, that's all.....on Christmas and Mother's Day in May. Yes, it is a refiners fire.  But their confidence, testimony, ability to serve and love others no matter what walk of life they come from, and their personal relationship with their Savior, who they have to learn to rely on, is magnified tremendously. 

Whether or not they follow all the guidelines is up to them.  But we believe that although the Lord loves us all equally, and we all have equal value in His eyes, obedience to His laws does bring blessings through the natural consequences of righteous living.

The parts of the world that allow LDS missionaries is divided into fairly large areas called "Missions".  A mature married couple is assigned (non paid) as "president" of each mission and their job, along with other adult volunteer missionary helpers, is to organize and oversee the mission area.  They help with housing, transportation, medical issues, spiritual support etc.  Throughout their mission, missionaries are assigned to specific smaller areas within their mission boundaries.  For the time they are assigned there they are expected to serve in that area only and keep their "P-Day" activities within that area as well.  Every six week are " transfers"... when the missionaries are reassigned.  They could receive a new companion or not, they could be changed to a new area within the mission, or not.  At the beginning of someone's mission they are paired with a more experienced missionary who is their "trainer"....someone who knows the language better etc.

So, Katie has wanted to serve a mission for as long as she can remember, and submitted her "papers" in early February. .  Her "call" arrived in the mail on Wednesday, the 21^st of February.  Unlike many who open their call at home with their family, Katie took her envelope up the canyon, went on a hike through pristine snow until she reached one of her favorite waterfalls.  There she learned what The Lord had in store for her!  Meanwhile the family (me and Franklin, his mom and dad, Jesse & Tara and family and Lindsey & Joe and family) gathered at our house for dinner awaiting her return.  She just beamed as she came through the door, and she then read the first paragraph of her letter, which informed her that she had been called to the "Alpine Mission" - German Speaking, which includes Southern Germany, all of Austria and Liechtenstein, and all of German speaking Switzerland.  The "mission home" where the mission president lives is in Munich.

 As part of your call letter, you are given the date which you will enter the Missionary Training Center.  Katie enters on June 12.  There is much to do to prepare for a mission, including getting the proper immunizations for your destination, passports and visas if necessary, gathering your missionary wardrobe and getting as spiritually prepared as possible!  It's an exciting time as you prepare to sacrifice your time and talents to the Lord!  

I

Pictures, pictures, pictures

A mission is a great excuse to take some pictures.  The first is the one you need  to send to Salt Lake City with you mission application.  This is the picture that one of the 12 Apostles sees as they determine where it is the Lord would have you serve.  

Then there are those that you just take for fun because, well, because you're going on a mission and it is a terribly exciting time!

Her  smile and the pure love it reflects with serve her well! 

It was raining when we took pictures that day, but
we figured she'd be seeing plenty of rain!  Can't be that
green and beautiful without lots of rain. 

THE CALL !

February 20, 2013

Today was the day that Kate's call came in the mail.  

Katie has wanted to serve a mission for as long as she can remember, and having all her application materials and interviews completed, her papers were submitted the second week of February.

Her "call" arrived in the mail on Wednesday, the 20 of February, 2013.

Kate lives in an apartment near campus, and was in class at Brigham Young University when her dad let her know the large white envelope had arrived.   

It was prominently displayed on the counter for her to find
when she came home.

She knew the family wouldn't be able to get together until after everyone got off work, so she patiently went to the rest of her classes for the day and came home around 5 to pick up her envelope.  Most people open the letter in the presence of family and friends, but Kate had another plan.  Unbeknownst to us until recently, she has always planned to take it up one of her favorite mountains an open it alone.  Since the snow was fairly deep at this time, she chose instead to go to one of her beloved waterfalls up Provo Canyon . . . one kind of hidden away where she could be alone. She was able to walk though pristine snow to her special spot. There she learned what the Lord had in store for her. Eventually she called to say she was ready to come back home and learning everyone had arrived (Joe, Lindsey & family, Grandma & Grandpa, Jesse & Tara and family) she returned.  

We were all so excited we could hardly stand it.  She walked to the family room and read us the opening paragraph. 

"Dear Sister Lewis, 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 

Alpine German-Speaking Mission."

This mission includes Southern Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and German-Speaking Switzerland!

I love these pictures of Lindsey and Kate right after she read her announcement.  I am so 
grateful that they are sisters who love each other so much.  
The photo may be blurry but it
captures such a special moment that is very dear to me.

Then of course it is time to get on the phone and start calling family.  
Friends would have to wait,

since after our celebratory dinner she was headed back to her apartment for another party to share the news with friends. 

   

 

We were all thrilled with her call.  But as Katie told us, when she got to
her waterfall and opened the envelope and saw the baptism picture she
was overcome with not only gratitude that she had been called on a mission, but also a
sure knowledge that it didn't matter where she would serve because she KNEW
she would be on an errand for her Heavenly Father and serving His children and
teaching about Him and His Son.


As for me, I'm thrilled.  My mom and dad, with my older brother,
immigrated to America from Switzerland in 1952 just a few months before my birth.
No other family ever came to this country so many of my living relatives
 live in Switzerland and that is the land of almost all my ancestry.  I'm
happy for her to learn the language and strengthen the thread
of continuity to my Haggenmacher-Grob heritage.

As for Katie, she's been fortunate to spend the last two summers working as a guide for ALPENWILD, 
a Provo based tour company specializing in taking small groups
on hikes through the Swiss Alps.   Since almost all her tours were
made up of Americans, she hasn't had an opportunity to learn German so that will be all 
new for her.  She probably won't spend as much time in the 18 months at
 those high elevations either,
but I'm guessing she will be elevated to news highs of spirituality! 

Summer 2012 on the Haute Route