Dear Elder Travers:
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 England London South Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 24 months.
What an exciting time as the letter is opened and you finally find out where your son will be serving for the next 2 years. England is not a place that I even thought about Ryan being called to Serve. But there it is England London South.
On 16th May Ryan will report to the MTC in England and now the journey begins.
I know that this will be a tremendous journey for him - filled with highs and lows. It will also be an interesting journey for me and a time a change as I adjust to Ryan not being around and making us laugh as he always does. I am so excited for him and also to see his growth over the next two years but it is with mixed emotions that I watch him move into the next stage of his life. As a mother we want our children to move forward and progress but that means moving away from our immediate care and protection. It means that we can't always be there exactly when they need us. Of course it is always harder I think when it is your youngest. How quickly the time has flown by.
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Of course there is much to be done before Ryan leaves sometime around the 14th May (not sure exactly when yet). We have started the Stage One process and are now waiting for the Sponsorship letter to come back to us then we progress to Stage Two which is actually applying for the Visa. The Sponsorship letter should take about four weeks to come. The process actually hasn't been too bad so far. Much easier than I originally thought. He will, at some stage, have to take a trip to Melbourne to the British Consul.
Then there is a new suit to purchase, along with shirts, trousers, ties, belts, shoes, sports gear, etc. There is the warm winter coat, scarf, gloves, waterproof boots, etc. He can buy these things when he get there rather than filling his luggage with unnecessary weight. Also they will have exactly the right gear when you are living in the country where there is snow everywhere in winter. I can't imagine how you would get a sturdy umbrella into your luggage anyway.
The time will go quickly before he leaves. I decided to start this blog so that if people want to they can keep in touch with what is happening with Ryan on his mission. The other reason is, of course, to give me something else that I can focus on (you would think that I had nothing else going on in my life) while he is gone.
You can follow if you want and, if you do decide to come along for the ride, I hope you also enjoy the journey.
