January 18, 2025 — Eric and I were flying home from Fort Lauderdale, Florida after spending a fabulous week-long family cruise to the Bahamas.
For some time, we had been praying to know what the Lord would have us do after the school year. Eric was teaching his 34th year. I had returned to work after retiring as a principal and was serving as the Interim Director of Curriculum. We had many questions: Should we continue working? Should I apply for a permanent position—either in my district, another district, or even in another city or state? Should Eric continue working, even though he had already retired but chosen to stay on? Despite our prayers, we had not yet received an answer.
While on the cruise, I applied for two positions. One was as a director in a different district. The other was in Utah as a principal at my grandchildren’s school.
Before the trip, I downloaded President Nelson’s general conference talks from the time he became prophet. I listened to them and felt the Spirit so strongly. While spending time in prayer, I once again asked the Lord what He would have us do. This time, I received a very clear answer:
You and Eric have been wanting to serve a mission. Go now. You are both in good health. After this school year, serve a mission and let that experience and the Spirit guide what you do next.
I leaned over and whispered to Eric, “We’re going to go on a mission after this school year. You can turn in your letter of resignation.”
Eric replied that we would talk about it later. I responded, “I’ve already received my answer to prayer. I’ll pray that you receive yours too.”
We attended church the next morning (January 19, 2025). By then, we were ready to tell the bishop that we wanted to serve a mission. We found Bishop Snedaker after church to let him know. He said he would open the mission paperwork online. This would allow us to begin the application process.
That afternoon, we Zoomed with our children and grandchildren to let them know we were starting our mission paperwork. The grandchildren had mixed reactions—I think they were hoping we were announcing our next family cruise! Ha!
February–March
We quickly learned that it wasn’t as simple as filling out paperwork. We had to schedule doctor and dentist appointments, which took time. Miracles happened with scheduling, and we were able to complete all the appointments. Once finished, we submitted our paperwork and met with Bishop Snedaker. He forwarded it to our stake president, and we waited to hear from the stake executive secretary.
It took several weeks to get an appointment with the stake president. We eagerly awaited our meeting scheduled for Sunday, March 16. On the Friday before, the executive secretary called. He said the stake president could not meet with us because we had not completed a TB test. We somehow missed it on the paperwork. We did not want to reschedule after waiting so long. We searched for a place that could administer the test immediately. We found a 24-hour urgent care clinic and drove there at 9:00 p.m. They told us the results would be ready Saturday night. We called the stake secretary and asked him to keep our appointment. Woo Hoo!
On Sunday, March 16, 2025, we met with President Rainey and he submitted our mission paperwork that very day.
Friday, March 28
We had heard that mission calls were emailed on Tuesdays. We checked our email on both Tuesdays following our meeting with President Rainey but nothing came. That Friday, I came home late from work after helping at the district cheerleading competition. I was exhausted and told Eric I needed to go straight to bed after sitting down for a few minutes.
The next thing I heard was Eric saying, “Our mission call is in our email!”
We immediately called our children so we could read the call together. Owen was in the middle of a baseball game. We managed to sneak in a quick FaceTime call while he wasn’t playing. Reading the call together was incredibly exciting. We were all surprised to learn we had been called for 23 months to the Sydney, Australia Mission!
April–May
With the call came even more paperwork, especially for our visa application. We needed multiple clearance letters, including FBI fingerprint clearance and notarized letters from city, state, and county police departments.
We also had to decide what to do with our house, furniture, and cars while serving our mission. After prayer, we decided to sell our house. We chose to store most of our belongings and give some away. We also opted to sell our cars and travel trailer. We worked tirelessly to prepare the house for sale. We hired a pool plumber, a handyman to repair cracks in the walls and another plumber to fix household issues.
On Wednesday, April 9, 2025, we listed our house with a realtor and even had a showing that same evening. We were scheduled to travel to Utah that weekend, and our realtor had planned an open house.
On Friday, April 11, while driving to Utah, I began to feel emotional about selling our home. We had lived in Phoenix for 34 years—nearly our entire married life. Our friends, memories, and life were there. The thought of not having a home to return to felt overwhelming.
I received a text from my sister at that moment, asking if we would consider renting our house to our niece, Madi. Receiving that message at that exact moment felt right. We worked out the details with Madi and took the house off the market that weekend—before the open house. I felt immense relief and peace, knowing I would have both a home and a “life” to return to.
Throughout the mission and visa application process, we experienced countless tender mercies and miracles. Wrapping up our work was difficult. Packing up our home proved challenging. Preparing to move out was not easy. Despite these challenges, we felt incredibly blessed. We knew we had made the right decisions—the decisions God wanted for us.
The Helland's Down Under 