Long Transfers and International Calling

Missionaries begin their long journey of service with mixed emotions. There is excitement for their new adventure, fear of the unknown, anticipation of learning discussions and teaching the discussions. That 18 to 24 months ahead of them seems like forever. Yet day by day and week by week time ticks on. The young missionaries go through a growth process that is hardly possible in any other setting. This was witnessed today with another group of young people who have grown and matured, become awesome missionaries, and have completed their term of service. It seems sad to say goodbye to these phenomenal elders and sisters as they step into their next great adventures.  We told some of them we think this long transfer will take them to their toughest area yet, and they need to always remember the things they learned while they served in the Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission.

Our days continue to tick on and soon enough it will be our turn for the long transfer. But for now we are content to be very busy as we take care of the assignments we have been given. We had another Skype call with Self-Reliance missionaries this morning, and have found the connection can be better at our apartment. With that in mind we stayed home a little longer this morning, did a batch of laundry and made our call before heading to the office.

We have learned a lot about international phone calls to home during our stay on the other side of the world. We have a local cell phone which we share, and Sister Oveson's phone from home we use with WiFi for emails and internet calls. We have found the best carriers for video or voice calls to the U.S. are Google Hangout or FaceTime, or Skype, at least for us. We use the free Skype, which is great for many calls, including calls to all the other countries. When we are calling home to the U.S. it depends what service we are calling to. We have really enjoyed the ability to do conference calls with our family, and the best source for that service is Google Hangouts. We are not meaning to advertise for any company, but this is information we wish we had known before we hopped on a plane and went around the world for two years.

Our photos today include a few of the elders headed on their long transfer, as well as some recent traffic pics. The rack of jeans really is attached to a moto and driving down the road.