A New Assignment

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!