Getting Ready to Head out on the Mission

By Kevin V. Hunt

Elder Kevin and Sister Lou Hunt preparing for Missionary Service April 1, 2024

Blog #3

Getting ready to head out on the mission …  I announced earlier about the upcoming mission that my wife and I are doing for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The plan is to be gone for 18 months.  We have been asked to serve in Nauvoo, Illinois – which is a historic church site in Illinois.

As we prepared to go on the mission, there was much to do.  My wife and I both had “To Do Lists” that were a mile long – at least.  It was kind of over-whelming.  There was so much to do.  My wife wanted to organize and clean up the entire house.  She cleaned and sorted everything in the house and garage. Everything had to be perfect.  She wore herself out in this process.

I had many family history and other computer projects that kept me entertained.  I worked hard to get these tasks completed and ultimately got through many – but not all of them.  I worked on these projects right up to within a few hours before we were to head out of town.

We were invited to give a talk in church.  (See my previous blog, entitled, “Praise to the Man” Check it out!

As we anticipated the church talk, our children decided to come from all over to participate with us.  We had a steady stream of family for a couple of weeks as we were trying to make our trip preparations.  One daughter, her husband and son, came from Texas and they stayed a week.  A daughter came from Idaho with her two boys, and they were with us for two weeks.  Another daughter came from Idaho.  They made a family trip and came to be with us for two days on their way home.  And we had two children come from towns 50 or so miles away.  And of course, we have three families who live in our own home town.  Two sons-in-law were not able to come – and we missed eleven of the 42 grandchildren.  So, this meant that we had a crowd of 50 of our posterity – and many other family and friends gathered with us.

After the church meeting, we gathered to the home of a local son, and we had a great farewell dinner and activities together.  And of course, we posed for more family photos than any person should ever have to endure.  We got shots of every possible group gathering.  It was great!  (We have many able photographers in the family … so they are great!)

We had a few challenges in the week before our departure. Our microwave oven gave up the ghost. Our son had an accident in his vehicle. He needed a vehicle while he worked with insurance, etc . We offered to loan him our second vehicle. Then three days later, his wife wrecked our car.

On Thursday before our Saturday departure, the alternator of our vehicle decided to quit.  Three sons-in-law worked together to get the alternator changed.  They finished at midnight about eighteen hours before we were to head out.  They made a great team as they consulted together and tried to loosen all of the bolts, the belt, etc.  They called themselves, “Three brothers-in-law, a wrench, and You-Tube”.  We were so grateful for their combined efforts.

The night before we were to leave town, a daughter put out an “all hands on deck” call to get her siblings to come to help.  Again, there was much to do.  Many responded to the call to help us.  Son-in-law, Mike helped check out the vehicle to make sure it was road-worthy.  Ladies helped with packing and a plethora of other projects.  (And meanwhile, my wife and I still tried to complete tasks from our never-ending lists).  We said sad good-byes to the local children and grandchildren.  It was a happy-sad day as we all knew that it was good-bye for a year and a half.  There were a lot of tears and of course, everyone (including us) had to get in “just one more hug”.  One daughter sobbed, “How can I survive without you?”

Then came the big day to leave town – Saturday, March 30^th.  It was a short night before D-day.  We each only got about four hours of sleep – not enough, for sure.  We had already said our good-byes.  One son-in-law came to our home about 6:30 AM to load our two bicycles onto our car rack.  I finished packing the already-too-loaded vehicle.   (We had packed the vehicle on Thursday and Lou had meticulously packed different suitcases for each phase of our adventure of the next two weeks.)   Somehow, we got everything but the kitchen sink – and then some – into the Honda mini-van.

We had wanted to leave at 6:30 in the morning, but it was 8:00 AM  when we finally headed out of town.  We stopped in Tempe to say goodbye to one more family.  And then we were off.  We headed north on the I-17 freeway from Phoenix – and headed north toward Flagstaff.  We stopped at our usual Sunset Point rest area for “drink and drain”.

As we were just a few miles south of Flagstaff, the lack of sleep caught up with me.  I swerved a bit, and we were saved only because of our pre-departure prayer, and the faith of our family.  It could have been bad!

We had planned to drive clear north to Salt Lake City – to spend two nights with my wife’s sister.  We didn’t make it.  We decided that we had to stop for a night – in order to get a full night’s sleep.  We had driven north on Highway 89A – as is our usual custom on trips to Utah.  We spent a wonderful night in the beautiful Jacob Lake Inn.  (Such a great place to stay …  Everyone ought to stop there at least once.)  Their home-made cookies, alone, are worth the drive, but the drive through the Alpine setting – with a big forest of beautiful pine trees, made the drive most enjoyable.

Then the next morning, we awoke to four or more inches of snow on top of our car and everywhere else.  This was a bit of a shock to us desert rats.  Somehow we got the snow off of the window – or at least enough to peer out.  And getting up and out of the snow was another adventure.  We wondered if we would be going anywhere that day.  Again, the prayers of faith got us out of the ruts and on our way.

By this time, it was Easter Sunday, and it was not the Easter day that we had anticipated. – to celebrate the Atonement and Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  We did rejoice in Him in our interesting circumstance.    Our clothes were all packed tightly in the vehicle – such that it was not easy to get to them.   We had not planned for church along the way but our desires to attend church en route were foiled.  We opted to use our phones to tune in to a video broadcast of a daughter’s Texas local ward (congregation).

We arrived at the home of my wife’s sister and husband, and they had a wonderful meal waiting for us.  They are always great hosts, and we love them.  We noted with them that they have hosted us five previous times as we have prepared to send off our missionary children.  (Two other children also served missions – but they reported directly to foreign MTC facilities.  A daughter attended an MTC in England and a son reported directly to the Brazil MTC.  It was interesting to now be the parents entering the MTC.

And then, it was April 1^st – the day for us to report to the MTC (Mission Training Center) where many out-going missionaries are trained for the work they will do on their various missions.  (Stay tuned for our blog about the MTC – to come soon!)  We had been anticipating this day for almost two months since we had received our mission calls (assignments) to serve.

We had a leisurely morning – cold cereal and all.  I did some last-minute repacking of the vehicle.  Always such a fun task.  And I even found a few minutes to post the “Praise to the Man” blog post.  We dressed in our missionary attire.  I was in my black suit and a brand new shirt, socks, shoes, and everything.  Sister Hunt wore a beautiful dress that matched my suit (though this was not planned).  I think that we looked great – if I do say so ourselves.

We left in plenty of time to get from Salt Lake to Provo, Utah.  We had to chuckle a bit.  We were given rather specific  instructions that said we were to report between 10:30 and 10:40 AM.  Wow!  They have this reporting system down to a science.  Very impressive!

We had about fifteen minutes to kill before our scheduled arrival time.  We decided to do a video conference with our many children – located all over the globe.  Many of the family members were able to join in with us.  My wife manned the phone call as I drove the car into the MTC.  We got through the security booth and parked in a parking lot designated for “senior missionaries” like us.  Senior missionaries are those (with gray hair and expanded stomachs” who have achieved an advanced age – but who still have some energy to commit to missionary service.  We revise the old Primary song, and sing, “We’re glad they’ve called us on a mission … now that we have grown a foot of two.”  (Not to brag about the direction of that growth.)  Well, anyway, we got one of the last available parking spots.  And it even accommodated our mission bikes that were strapped onto the back of our vehicle.  We must have looked a sight with the fully packed car, the bikes, the Jacob Lake dirt, snow, and salt, and more.   Admittedly, we thought that we had everything that we thought that we needed for the next 18 months.

My wife continued the video call with the family – and they “went” with us right up to the front door.  I finally had to tell her and the family that it was time to “be hanging up now”.

We had many service missionary folks there to usher us in to start the mission.

And the adventure begins …!  Moving onto the Nauvoo Scouting trail … !  Can’t wait!