We're Gonna Need Passports

We've known for a number of months that Don's dad was asked to serve as a Mission President for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He and Don's mom will voluntarily give up three years of their life to preside over missionaries teaching the Gospel in another part of the world. It took months between the call to serve and the actual assignment of where they were going. We all knew it would be a Spanish speaking mission, but even still the possibilities were many!

Finally two weeks ago, the Fed Ex package containing the official 'call' for them to serve was delivered to their home in Orem, UT and family anxiously gathered to see where grandma and grandpa were going. We were on a speaker phone here in Kansas----it was great to hear an eruption of cheers go up when the announcement was read:

Santiago, Chile, West Mission

This is really cool for a few reasons! Don's mom Sherri served in the Chilean Mission (when it was just one mission) when she was 21 years old--so this is like going home for her! Also, Don's aunt Sheila served her mission there, AND two of Don's older brothers, Paul and Mike served in Chile! Paul even got to train Mike before he went home!

It's like familiar territory for the MacArthur bunch!

So they will report to the MTC (Missionary Training Center) on June 23 and fly out on July 1. We will be heading to Utah for the entire month of June for family reunions and farewells.

We are very excited for them, but a little sad to have them gone for three years. We know with all our heart that this is a wonderful thing they are doing and the people of Chile will be blessed to have them serving there!




Now we are saving our nickles and dimes so we can hopefully take the kids down to see them sometime in the next three years!! From looking at pictures online, it looks like a beautiful country...