California Sacramento Mission

Thirty-one years ago today I entered the Mission Home in SLC to spend five, yes, that's right, 5 days learning "everything" I needed to know before I went to the California Sacramento mission. The SLC Mission Home was torn down so that the Conference Center could be built, but what an intense 5 days I spent there under the piercing eye of Pres. Bird, the mission president. Whew! He was something else!

After I had left Panama to go to BYU I started feeling like I was supposed to go on a mission. This wasn't something I really wanted to do, nor had I given it much thought, so I was sort of rattled to be feeling this. Then I blamed my Mom because I remembered my bed-time prayers as a little girl. Under my mother's careful guidance she'd have me pray to"grow up and go on a mission", maybe because she had gone on a mission before her marriage to Dad and she knew what a blessing that would be to me as a wife and mother.

Still, I really fought the whisperings. I fought long and hard actually. I remember the day I "lost". I was walking to campus from my apartment on 100 East. The whole way I'd been having a rather "heated discussion" in my head with the Holy Ghost that went something like this: "Go on a mission." "No, I won't go on a mission." "GO on a mission." "No, I WON'T go on a mission." I was heading toward the ramp and was across the street from Heap's Pizza (now Brick Oven) when this happened: "GO ON A MISSION." And I said back: "OKAY. I'LL GO ON A MISSION" (said with a very exasperated tone). And as soon as I said that EVERYTHING, and I mean everything, settled down inside of me into peace, and I thought, "OH NO! I'm going on a mission!"

Doesn't seem like a really great way to start, does it?! But it ended up being such a great experience for me. I didn't register for school in January because my 21st birthday would be in March and since I was going to do this I wanted to get going with it. I had my parent's blessing, of course, and I went ahead with the preparations. They were in Panama and I was in Provo, so they sent me money and I'd just get what I needed and do what I needed. I remember needing to get my wisdom teeth out so I found a dentist in the phone book and got it done. While I was doing all the necessary things, what was most meaningful for me during those months of January until May was the time I spent studying and learning the gospel in depth. I went to a few religion classes at BYU and just sat in on those and learned. Once I had gone to the temple I'd walk up the hill three times a week to go back. I read and read and read scripture and other books by General Authorities. It was an incredible time of learning for me. I haven't had that kind of intense study since and I've always felt very fortunate to have had that time. Thank you, Dad, for supporting me then.

My memory is a little fuzzy on this, I was probably feeling a little shell-shocked, but on May 14, 1977, my sister and some dear room-mate/friends dropped me off at the bottom of the steps to the Mission Home. We hugged and said good-bye and I picked up my suitcases and walked up those stairs and it began. No fanfare. No big to-do. Just me and the Lord. And it was okay.

I have wonderful memories of my mission. It is such a unique thing to experience, I don't think anything can compare. I do feel kind of bad that I was so hard-headed that the Holy Ghost had to yell at me to get me to obey. But at least I did obey....

The following are some photos from that time so long ago. It was fun looking through my pictures and remembering so many great things about those 18 months.

Me with Pres. and Sis. E. LaMar Buckner when I arrived.

My first companion, Sis. Debra Barnes from Idaho. Last year while our family was in Hawaii we visited the temple on Sunday and we were talking with a Sis. Barnes. I told her that my first companion was a Sister Barnes from Idaho and she said that's where she was from. Turns out my comp. is her aunt. Small world!

Sis. Barnes and I with our district on P-day at the Sacramento Zoo. My first area was South Sacramento.

My second area was Citrus Heights and we lived in this REALLY hippie house. (Sam would call it a ghetto house. It was.) It was also my only bike area. Here I'm holding a delicious pomegranate I'd been given. This was a P-day, obviously.

After the challenges of Citrus Heights, I went to Petaluma and trained my first sister, Deb Olsen. This was the San Raphael District and this was SUCH a fun time and a good bunch of people to work with and associate with.

Sis. Olsen was a crack-up. We had a good time together.

This was our bulletin board in our room (we lived with a family, the Lambert's) that we put all sort of things on. Looking at this picture brings back so many memories because there are so many memories on the board!

We befriended an eccentric rich couple, Reg and Miss Ottie Redway, who really loved us and always wanted us to visit them, especially on our P-days, which we loved to do. We got permission from our Pres. to spend a P-day with them at their cottage on the beach, and it was the COOLEST thing!

It fed my soul to be at the beach again.

It was hard to leave Petaluma, but I was transferred to Woodland. I had a sort of crazy companion for a few months. I'm not joking on this one. And then I trained another sister, Elise Lund.

Sister Lund was a lot of fun. Here she's getting our Frisbee off the roof of our old "hippie" house. (Remember this was the 70's.)

After Woodland was Paradise and another sister to train, Carrie Folsom, who was one of the sweetest people you can ever know. Here she is with two people we taught and baptized (well, they didn't let US baptize, but you know...)
Sis. Folsom and I also went and opened up an area in Gridley, which was kind of hard after Paradise.

While in Paradise my Dad came up from Panama for business and got permission for he and my sister to visit me. So they drove out from Utah and came to Paradise and it was a really great P-day.

This is me with Sis. Huihui from Hawaii. I was changed forever from the things I learned from her. She was my comp. in Folsom. I sit here thinking about what I learned from this woman. She taught me about how powerful it all really is...

I can't even remember what district this was, but it was a lot of fun, as you can see.

Before I went home to Panama I was blessed to be able to to go the temple with Al and Jere Clemmens. We had taught them in my first area and now they were going to the temple. This was a really wonderful event. I've kept in touch with the Clemmens all these years.

This was my last Sister's Conference before I went home. Here I am with the three sisters I "trained" (they trained me) and Sister Hodson, who was trained by Sister Olsen, as I recall, so that made her my "grand-daughter"! It was all so good.

Pres. Zwick was also my mission president and he was a wonderful man. This picture is shortly before I left. At the final meeting that Pres. Zwick had with those of us who were leaving, he said something that made a huge impact on me and my life. He told us that we were all finishers. Maybe we didn't finish the way we might have wanted, maybe we wish we could done better, but we were finishers. The world is full of "starters", he said, and what the world needs more of is "finishers". He challenged us to be finishers in whatever we start. THAT was great advice.

And this is the end of my huge stroll down memory lane. I am finished.