Kevan Kingsley Clawson's Blog, page 18

Trinidad

We have been hanging out in Trinidad to be interviewed by President Mehr and for our flight out to St Martin on Friday. President and Sister Mehr came in on Weds and we were invited over for dinner on Thursday evening.

It was a great evening! Sister Mehr cooked salmon, rice, and a salad, and we talked about a few things. Mostly we talked a little about us and our experiences (so the President would know how best to use us). On our part, we promised to be good and to support him in his very difficult calling (it is like running a small country–just a unbelievable amount of work to do! Besides dealing with some 200 missionaries on 9 islands, three countries, and multiple languages, he has 40 church branches he is in charge of!).

Terri, of course, will be responsible for all the medical issues for the mission and I will be working with the local church leadership and missionaries. With all of the small islands and disparate languages, etc., they have placed couples on many of the islands and given them authority over the mission in those areas (like mini-mission-presidents, or like the Neeleys in Burundi). They then report to the mission office each month.

We have also been asked to take over the teaching of english to the missionaries (all non-english speaking missionaries have been asked to learn english, like we did in the Congo, and we will direct and proctor the exams, etc.). It will be different though, as the missionaries are scattered among the islands and usually learn individually rather than in classes.

I’m sure more jobs will be coming our way as we settle into the ebb and flow of the mission. But right now they are all up to their ears in transfers and the mission split (which also means they have to split the missionaries between missions, and the leadership between missions–for example, they have already called additional assistants for the Barbados mission).

The Turners have been given the chore of preparing the new Mission Office in Barbados. Wow, what a job! Finding buildings and apartments and setting up computers and getting all the mission programming and reports, bank accounts and money, etc., up and running for the new mission president when he arrives in about 3 months…. We are so happy we are going to be able to hide on the small island of St Martin!

And, as we have experienced before, once the new mission presidents come, everything will change, as they will have their own way of doing things. It will be a wild and crazy few months!

We leave soon, so our next post will be from our new home in St Martin!

Tinidad

We have been hanging out in Trinidad to be interviewed by President Mehr and for our flight out to St Martin on Friday. President and Sister Mehr came in on Weds and we were invited over for dinner on Thursday evening.

It was a great evening! Sister Mehr cooked salmon, rice, and a salad, and we talked about a few things. Mostly we talked a little about us and our experiences (so the President would know how best to use us). On our part, we promised to be good and to support him in his very difficult calling (it is like running a small country–just a unbelievable amount of work to do! Besides dealing with some 200 missionaries on 9 islands, three countries, and multiple languages, he has 40 church branches he is in charge of!).

Terri, of course, will be responsible for all the medical issues for the mission and I will be working with the local church leadership and missionaries. With all of the small islands and disparate languages, etc., they have placed couples on many of the islands and given them authority over the mission in those areas (like mini-mission-presidents, or like the Neeleys in Burundi). They then report to the mission office each month.

We have also been asked to take over the teaching of english to the missionaries (all non-english speaking missionaries have been asked to learn english, like we did in the Congo, and we will direct and proctor the exams, etc.). It will be different though, as the missionaries are scattered among the islands and usually learn individually rather than in classes.

I’m sure more jobs will be coming our way as we settle into the ebb and flow of the mission. But right now they are all up to their ears in transfers and the mission split (which also means they have to split the missionaries between missions, and the leadership between missions–for example, they have already called additional assistants for the Barbados mission).

The Turners have been given the chore of preparing the new Mission Office in Barbados. Wow, what a job! Finding buildings and apartments and setting up computers and getting all the mission programming and reports, bank accounts and money, etc., up and running for the new mission president when he arrives in about 3 months…. We are so happy we are going to be able to hide on the small island of St Martin!

And, as we have experienced before, once the new mission presidents come, everything will change, as they will have their own way of doing things. It will be a wild and crazy few months!

We leave soon, so our next post will be from our new home in St Martin!

Biding our time in Trinidad

Terri and I had an eventful trip to Trinidad, beginning with the ‘full Monty’ pat-down of Terri by the TSA at the Salt Lake Airport to begin our trip. Usually we get TSA Preboarding, which lets us go in the fast lane and little hassle…but this time we not only did not get to ‘pass GO’ but got pulled out because something we had triggered a full inspection and pat-down–but only of Terri! I just got to stand by an watch!

After a long day our trip ended by having to stand in a 2 hour line to get into Trinidad. It was late, and we were tired, but the Francom’s were waiting for us with some home made chicken soup (it cures anything!).

Since then, we have been hanging out in the office with the occasional trip to here or there where we can see parts of the city of Port of Spain. It is beautiful here, and all of the office couples are great! We will miss the opportunity to get to know them better as we head-off to Sint Maarten on Friday (but everyone is very jealous of our going to St. Martin/Sint Maarten and have offered to trade us!), but we look forward to seeing where we will be living for the next few months.

Terri at breakfast

 

 

The hotel we are living in is great–it is a little local bed & breakfast that reminds me of the one we used in the Congo–much better than some modern tourist hotel! We get a free breakfast every morning and have slept very well.

The office is crazy…well, understandably crazy…as they prepare for 1) transfers on Friday, 2) mission split in just 3 months. The preparation for splitting the mission is mind-boggling! And, as usual, they need far more couples/help than what they have. And, in spite of all the hard work they will put in to prepare BOTH missions to restart in three months, once the two new mission presidents arrive, everything can/will change! The new presidents will do things differently, reorganize things the way they want them, etc., so everything will change again.

Elder Bevin’s office (financial secretary)

 

 

 

Notice our picture at the bottom left? We were actually expected!

 

Elder Francom’s desk (travel)

But, having gone through this before in the Congo, Terri and I are ready. One of our family sayings is to ‘live on the balls of your feet!’ In other words, always be ready for anything! One never knows when, where, or how God will decide to use your talents, and it is our job to be ready to serve whenever, or however He decides to use you.

We look forward to living on a small island again (we lived on Tinian for two years), but if things change and they need us somewhere else, we will be ready.

We meet with the Mission President tonight and will hopefully gain some added insights as to what we will be doing and how we fit into the overall plan for the mission. Then we leave tomorrow.

In the meantime we are enjoying Trinidad. The weather has been great, the food has been great, the people have been great… the trip was worth it!

We are currently in Trinidad (the lowest island on this map), and soon will be on ST Martin (the island at the top of the map!). Tomorrow we travel there, stopping at 4-5 islands along our route…just to make it fun!

And we’re off to Trinidad

Today, we embark on our second mission to the West Indies. We are excited to serve but absolutely blind as to what we will be doing for.the next 18 months. No matter! As Elder Perkins quotes Elder Scott in the April 2015 Ensign article “Go Forth in Faith,” “When you are living worthily and your choice is consistent with the Savior’s teachings and you need to act, proceed with trust.” And so we move!

Departure for West Indies Mission March 2015 (ah, the fly-away hair!)

Two years and 3 week ago, we left with 4 bags as well but they were much larger (and shinier)! We happened to get away with one bag each but it’s those odds and ends that kill you! So,we ended up with one medium-sized checked bag and one carry-on bag each.

Departure for the DR Congo Lubumbashi Mission, March 2012

Speaking of odds and ends,at the last minute, Kevan decided to take two bottles of sealed, unopened benadryl. We didn’t get TSA pre-check today, so out came all the liquids. Lost  my jar of Cereve cream (rats) and got sent to the explosive screening because I had so many electronics. That went just fine. Cleared. Ready to move on. Then they walk over with the bottles of benadryl and say they have to be tested individually. Okay. Fine. No problem because they’re sealed, right? WRONG. One bottle tested positive. Call the specialist. It’s okay Sister Clawson, we’ll have you on your way. Please put all your luggage here. But its already been tested, I reply. No, Sister Clawson, this is a different test – more thorough. OK, I said. Do you have any electronics? Me? Me? When would I ever have electronics? My bag is opened to reveal FIVE external hard drives, TWO external batteries, a battery charger, and numerous plugs and cables, each one of which had to be swabbed and tested. THEN, I was patted down. This was an ISRAELI pat down. THIRTY MINUTES LATER . . .  Well, Sister Clawson, everything is in order, and oh, the benadryl is just fine as well. UGH! I looked at Kevan and said, and it was YOUR benadryl!

Time to get started again!

We have received our next mission call. We have been called to the West Indies Mission to begin 13 April 2015. Kevan was called to Member and Leader Support and I to Mission Medical Advisor.

Interestingly, it has been announced that the mission will be split into two missions on 1 July 2015. We await assignment to a mission – whether the predominantly English/French speaking mission of Barbados Bridgetown or the English/Dutch mission of Trinidad Port of Spain mission.

Just in case, I have not only been working on getting my french back up to speed but also learning some basic Dutch to include prayer and testimony. Oh, there is one magical island which is French AND Dutch . . . St Martin/Sint Maarten. Now wouldn’t that be interesting?

Terri

Homecoming talks

Last sunday we gave homecoming talks in our ward. Not sure how well it went…really didn’t have much time to even tell a good story! But we were able to see a few people who traveled to come see our talks:

 The Wrights came, and two of the Davis’ children came

Now that all our obligations are over, it’s time to get back to work:

Going fishing with my grandson Kael!

Adjusting

Who knew it would be so difficult to adjust to normal life? I remember how hard it was coming home from my first full-time mission to Pensylvania, but I thought (being older and wiser) the adjustment would be easier now… oh well! After traveling 90 miles an hour for 19 months, and suddenly cooming to an abrupt stop, takes some getting used to.

Today we give our homecoming talks in church. I will let you know how that goes… We both hope to inspire more seniors to take the leap of faith and go on missions themselves. Although it is a sacrifice to leave friends and family to serve, the reward is worth the sacrifice. I don’t know anyone who couldn’t spend 18 months of time (out of a lifetime) to serve the Lord. At our age, the time goes so fast one hardly notices its passing…

Your service sets an example for your family and friends, fills and fulfills your own life, and gives untold blessings to those you serve. There just isn’t a down-side to serving a mission!

And when you get home, it is like a whole new world! Everything seems other-worldly as you recognize the great blessings we have living in America: running water, power 24/7, good food, entertainment…the list goes on forever. No one can truly understand how blessed we are to live in the United States until they have lived abroad for a period of time. We are so blessed here, we have an obligation to share those blessings with others.

I hope to post just a few more pictures, once I get my computer problems worked out. I was lucky my mission computer waited until a week before we left to crash, and that I was able to transfer all the info and pics off of it before it got sent back to the factory.

We look forward to General Conference, and then to traveling to see Terri’s parents in a couple of weeks. Perhaps by then we will finally be sorting things out!

We also have a dinner this week with the McMullins and Wrights (old home week?), that should be great.

Home again, home again

We are finally home again after an arduous trip of over 35 hours!

     

Just had to show a couple of more Congo trucks as we close out our blog!

This is our last group photo of the office staff at the Lubumbashi Mission home (without the Thomas’ as they left the day before for Burundi).

The prop plane that we took from Lubumbashi airport–the start of a long trip home

We made it back alive, and with all our bags!

Our new home in Daybreak living with our daughter Liz.

It’s good to be home!

The Last Day

The Last Day September 16, 2014

Well, today is our last day in the mission field. We leave in about an hour for the airport. It is very surreal… so many mixed emotions about the day.

Last night we went to dinner at Al Bashi restaurant (good american food–go figure…) with the Atkinsons. They have been in the mission almost as long as us–they leave in about a month or so. It was fun to reminisce about our time here, and what we will do (or won’t do) when we get home.

We have been staying in the Mission Home for the last few days, and it was very quiet, as the Thomas’ left for Burundi yesterday. Neither Terri nor I slept too well, and we have a very long trip ahead of us: almost 32 hours. We hope we can get some sleep on the plane, but not usually, so we should be pretty dead by the time we get home.

This morning we finished packing (we have a good scale in the mission home for weighing boxes and stuff that we used to get our bags the right weight), and I put on my suit for the first time in 19 months. It feels a little big. I feel like a son wearing his father’s suit–its weird.

So now we are just waiting for our time to leave. We have said our goodbyes to most everyone, and are ready to give warm hugs to our family when we arrive on the other end of this long day.

It has been a spectacular experience. I quite literally could not have been better! It reminds both of us of our first mission with LDS Charities aboard the USNS Mercy. That also could not have gone better–we did more, saw more, and experienced more than we could have imagined as we traveled through Asia. This has been the same. If we had tried to plan our mission (i.e., if we chose the place we served), I think it would have been a disaster for us. But by taking that leap of faith and letting The Lord choose for us, well, that has made all the difference!

We leave with no regrets, having put everything we had on the altar, and know that we have made a difference in the world. It is a joyful and fulfilling feeling. There is a peace that descends upon you as you come to recognize that God has accepted your sacrifice and you can almost hear His words softly in your ear: well done good and faithful servant!

No one can, or will, experience or understand this overwhelming feeling of love and peace without making the same sacrifice. I have no doubt we will be serving again somewhere in the Lord’s vineyard…it is just a matter of time. But for now, we will be able to enjoy our family and friends, get some rest, and know that God is pleased with our service.

Could life be any better?

The Last Days

Saturday we made two airport runs: the first to pick-up the last of the transfer stragglers from Buruni, and the second to pick-up the Mikesells who will be taking over from Terri.

We brought them back to the mission home with for their interview with the President, then stopped at the local marche for some fruit and veggies, then finally to their new home away from home: the lower apartment at the Macameno complex (where the Wrights lived). So they are in the lower apartment, the Atkinsons live above them, and the Davis’ live in the house. The place is now full!

They were up for more, so we went out to dinner that night. The President was up for Chinese, so we had a total of 8 go to the Chinese restaurant (clawsons, mikesells, drapers, and Thomas). They had new menus, and a menu on an ipad! But no one could figure out how to order (it took a long time…), and finally we just had the President order some food, and asked them to bring us something good…

It turned out to be a great meal, and we ended up ordering more because we ate it as fast as it came out! Of course, this being the Congo, the lights went out about half-way through the meal…but they did not have a generator, so we sat in the dark for a long time, and used our phone lights.

There was a wedding celebration going on at the same time, which was sad for them, as they were trying to take pictures without any lights around.

Terri still has her infamous phone, but hopes to give it over on Monday. The Mikesells have a new iphone, but need a SIM card to use it here, which we have to wait until monday to do. But today we will go to church together a Luano and spend some time talking to them about the work. They are excited and feel very comfortable about being able to do the work. They seem happy with their new home (which has an office for them), and I believe they plan to work out of their home.

Monday will be a busy day for us, then we leave on tuesday!

Sunday we went to Luano church with the Mikesells and the Davis’. It is our favorite ward and we wanted to say goodbye to everyone. Afterward we drove around the city to show the Mikesells the medical clinics we use here. then a miracle happened…Terri gave up her phone! Not that it will help them much yet, as they don’t know French and don’t have an Internet connection yet (for google translate).

Terri had used that phone the entire mission, it was on and used 24/7 as missionaries called her about medical issues. It was a clarifying moment: the end was near!

That evening when the President returned from Likasi we ate dinner with the Thomas’ (great spaghetti and home made bread, with home made ice cream for dessert!).

Then we had our final interviews with President Thomas, and individual interviews for a new temple recommend. It was a great meeting, in which he challenged us to do a couple of profound things, which we will do when we get home, and we came to understand the profound impact we have had on the mission.

The first was a blessing we received from him…a most unusual blessing that we will share will family and friends, and the other was counsel that we receive a blessing when we get home– from a family member.

It is a great feeling to know that we worked to the end (jusque la fin!), and left nothing on the table. We have no regrets or things we would change. We had the unusual opportunity to serve under two mission presidents, and see for ourselves how a mission transition is accomplished. There are just so many wonderful experiences we have had and been able to share…

Why would anyone NOT want to serve a mission?

Tomorrow we take the Thomas’ to the airport, as they travel to Bujumbura to meet with Elder Ellis (the end of the mission tour), and Terri completes what training/transition she can with the Mikesells.

We will probably go out to dinner tonight, and then we do our final packing for going home!