She taught Primary first. Then she was a counselor in RS. One of her jobs was to purchase about 100 tomato plants to be given to the sisters on Mother's Day. She always paid her tithing, lived the Word of Wisdom, and everything she could do she thought was right. She loved to study the scriptures and attend church. She loved General Conference. She visit taught an elderly lady in Albuquerque and took food whenever she cooked because the lady didn't or couldn't cook much anymore. But this is not what you asked for. You asked for how she ended up on a mission.
Two years after my dad died she moved to Houston. After one year, in the fall, Bishop Ellis was contacted by SL that she was one qualified to serve in the Family History Center and that they needed her. Bishop Ellis first told dad. He was concerned Mama might think we did not want her around or something like that. Dad encouraged him to go talk to her. So he visited with her. She decided to think about it a few days. Then she got back with him and told him she would go for the length of time asked for - 1 year. I knew the bishop had talked to her, but she did her own decision making and I was not part of it. Paula was a new baby so I was not much help to her. That fall she arranged her housing (we don't have to do that anymore). She shopped for her clothes and got a warm coat. She packed up her apartment. I remember her saying that if the saints could cross the plains to SLC with handcarts or wagons she could get on a plane and go to SL. On about Jan. 4, 1990 dad got up about4 am and picked her up and took her to the airport. The next Saturday he put her things into storage. Probably some of the boys helped.
She made friends she kept up with the rest of her life- until they all died off. She absolutely loved her mission. She loved her new friends. She was excited about the records they put on the computer. Its important to remember how educated she was. She was college educated when many were not. She was good in math and had taught school. So learning new things was fun to her. She also liked to be the errand girl and get away from the desk. She used to meet up with Elder Ashton and Elder Perry in the elevators. They called her "The Little One." She knew Elder Haight. She was friends with Sister Hinckley. She and her library friends had to be at work at 7:30 am and worked until 4:30 pm. They often ate lunch off the cart brought over from the Lion House to the Church Office Building. She called it the COB, where she worked. After cat naps, she and her girl friends would hit the town. One had a car and Mama remembers her changing lanes from one side of the street to the the other and they would hang on for dear life. They would go to the Jordan River Temple and then out to dinner. Or they would see a play. Or watch what was going on at the Tabernacle. She loved the Salt Lake Temple. She went down to BYU and watched a football game with Patti. Well, they talked through it. She wrote letters to missionary grandson Edd. Patti quickly joined a choir when she found out they were singing at Temple Square and she could see Grandma. In the summer she got to go on a bus to the Manti Pagent.
These experience and many more changed her forever. They set the tone for the rest of her life. She came home completely dedicated to the gospel. She had listened to the speakers at conference and kept notes. She understood far more than I did now. I was a busy mother at home, but she had been to lectures and programs I could never dream of. And she loved the contributions she made to getting records onto the computer for others to use. It was a happy year for her.
One of the main reasons I wanted to come on a mission is because I wanted and still want to be like Mama. I want to be solid in the gospel. I want to obey a prophet's call to serve a mission just like she did. And she went all by herself! And all my boys have heeded the call and sons in law too. And now we start the next generation with Quinn. I know a mission is hard, hard stuff. If you have been, you know. I expect to come home forever changed
