Then, on a shopping trip to Utah, we went into a Barnes and Noble bookstore. I went straight to the back of the store to a table of books, all dealing with stories about children and their sad experiences after the Americans had pulled out of their countries after Vietnam. I started reading immediately and was so touched I cried over each book. I couldn't help but think of the happy childhood I had had in my blessed country.
Not long after I had read the books, Zeb started talking to me again. I was starting to think that I should pay the Lord back somehow for all the blessings I had been given but it hadn't quite set in yet that a mission might be one way that I could. So I made another feeble attempt at the excuse that Fred really wanted to take some time to de-stress and get himself into better physical condition after his long school teaching career. Zeb came back with the argument that his Dad might not get into better shape but his health might actually get worse and then we would loose our opportunity to go altogether. This struck me as the best reason I had heard of yet.
I went home from Zeb's house and informed Fred that I was ready to go. He didn't waste any time getting in contact with the Bishop and the next day we were filling out mission papers. We didn't make a request as to where we wanted to go. Mainly because we couldn't agree. Fred wanted to go to Russia and I preferred Switzerland. On the little space we had to tell about ourselves, I wrote that I had been raised on a ranch, I love to do artwork, sew, camp, cook for large crews of people, I helped four of my seven children raise guide dogs for the blind, I am good with little children, horses, and farm animals, and that I can catch snakes and large geese with my bare hands. When Fred saw what I had written, he looked at me in shock and said, "You idiot, now they're going to send us to India."
It seemed like an eternity until our call came. It took three weeks, but Fred got so anxious there at the end that he was actually calling the Post Master every morning and having him go look through our mail to see if the letter from the church might have come in. Then he got sort of embarrassed about doing that, so he would get in the car and find where the mailman was on his route and then try to figure out when our mail would be in it's box. Finally, the call came. We couldn't wait for any of the family to gather around, we just ripped it open. And to Fred's great relief and happiness, and tears of joy, it said we had been called to serve in the Hong Kong China Mission.
Immediately he started working on learning the language. The problem was, he didn't know which language to learn. He called the missionary training center but they didn't seem to know either. They suggested for us to call the mission. Fred then called the missionary department at the church office building. They also suggested that we call the mission. Fred didn't want to, but reluctantly, he made the call. The trouble was, he forgot to calculate the time difference and he ended up calling them at about 4:00 a.m. I'm sure he was very polite as he explained what he needed on the message machine. Then at about 4:30 that afternoon he recieved a call from the Hong Kong Mission President. This is how the conversation went down.
" Hello, Brother Weeks what's going on?"
"Well, my wife and I just got our call to serve in the Hong Kong Mission and I was wondering which language I should start studying."
"There's been some mistake here. I didn't put in for any more missionaries. We don't have room for you so don't come."
Needless to say, Fred was in shock. I tried to cheer him up by reminding him that we were in great company. There was no room for the Christ child or his parents either. Then Fred had another great idea. "Let's hurry and send our acceptance letters in and then they won't be able to turn us away".
A few days later, we were down in Las Vegas to attend our grandson Brynn Olsen's baptism. The night before, we were dodging traffic on the strip when we recieved a call from our Stake President Patton. He said," Brother and sister Weeks, you've had a mission change. There's an urgent need for a senior couple in the New Delhi, India Mission." The look Fred had on his face I'll never forget. And then he said, "You idiot. This is all your fault saying that you could catch snakes with your bare hands." Then I said, "You're the idiot, calling the mission president at 4:00 in the morning. You must have made him really mad."
I've since resolved in my mind that the Hong Kong Mission president is just a man. He doesn't know that mainland China is probably going to open up soon and then they will need a flood of missionaries there. He'll be sorry he turned missionaries away. And now I'm so glad that we're actually going to India. I think it will be a great and exciting experience for us. The following pictures of Fred and I were taken after we found out that we weren't going to Hong Kong. We look sort of shook up don't we?Ready or not India here we come....
