Being
comfortable in a Church assignment is a sign that things are about to get
interesting. Our assignment as the
driver for trips to New York City,
the Statue of Liberty, and other mission destinations were, at first, a little
outside of our comfort zone. Now that we
have made several of these trips we were
beginning to feel some degree of confidence.
No longer were we completely terrorized by phone calls from mission HQ telling us
they have another job for us.
So,
it was no surprise when President Jeppson grabbed me by the arm at a mission
get-together and asked if I wouldn't mind taking another
assignment. I told him I would do
anything he asked. He said, "Good,
because I need you to be the designated driver of the mission truck and
trailer."
So
much for being comfortable in my calling.
For one thing, I knew this meant hauling the luggage of arriving and
departing missionaries to and from the dreaded Newark
International Airport
and the mission home. I have never cared
for the experience of going to any airport even with our Honda Civic so the
thought of going to the amazingly complex Newark
Airport with a 12 foot trailer and monster truck
created a whole new level of anxiety.
Almost immediately I was having flashbacks to the time we went to the
race track near Magna, Utah
with Ron, Sherri, and the boys. The main
event was a race on a figure eight track where each vehicle was required to be
towing a trailer. Oh the carnage! Oh the
humanity!
Then
it dawned on us that this also meant we would be hauling furniture all over New
Jersey to furnish missionary apartments. What made anyone think a computer programmer
could do this sort of thing? Consider
the fact that the senior missionary (Elder Loertscher) currently doing these
things was a professional big-rig truck driver from the time he was 15! He seems to think he can teach me everything
he knows in three weeks. This is crazy!
"My rig"
NO, I did not put the dent in the bumper!
