[Huntington Beach]

First thing this morning I called CES in Salt Lake City. I talked to Frank Bradshaw, Zone Administrator for Europe to see what intelligence he could bring to bear on this. He was fairly helpful. He said several months ago in a meeting with the Area Presidency over Europe in Germany, he was asked if CES had someone who could go to Portugal. The need there, he said, is two-fold: The Church is relatively new there, and growing rapidly. Leadership is a real problem. And the education is lagging—CES that is—and needs some help. A quick computer check revealed my old mission and my proximity to retirement age. Voilà!

Frank says it is a mission call, not a CES move. We would go for 18 months, go thru the MTC, work under the mission president, etc. But also work closely with CES. We are needed as soon as we can get there (but must be called first), our contract with CES would be paid out thru August, then we’d revert to retirement status. The department will move our stuff back to Tucson and we’ll store it. We must sell our HB Home.

So, the rest of the day was talk and think and talk and ponder and wonder and talk. The crux of our decision-making is to be seen next Sunday when we meet with our family at Coolidge for Christmas. Then we’ll see if we can get coverage for Donna. Then we’ll call president back and give him our answer.

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