Our Call

Our mission call is to New Zealand, to the south island, in the city of Christchurch.  We are to serve in the CES program (church education system) and will teach two institute classes near the Canterbury University.  We will also oversee ten volunteer seminary teachers in the local area.  So, there will be a bit of driving involved.  Our flat is a five minute drive to the institute and only a fifteen minute walk.  When we arrive in New Zealand, it will be summer and shortly after fall.  I guess we will have two winters this year.  Actually, everyone we have talked to said that they have never been as cold in their whole life as they were in NZ.  We know that the members show up to church with coats, gloves, hats, and blankets.  After about an hour of church, they can start peeling off layers.  So, needless to say, we are preparing many layers to take, especially Sister Blackwell.

The Adventure Begins

Elder and Sister Blackwell

Today is January 1, 2013 and this is the magical year that we will serve a mission!  In just  48 days we will check in the  MTC in Provo and begin our training.  We are very excited and are in great anticipation of the mission experience.  For Elder Blackwell it will be his second mission, as he served his first mission in the southwest of England, from 1969 to 1971.  For Sister Blackwell, it will be her first mission.  People have recently been asking us when we decided to go on a mission.  We chuckled and had to think.  Before we were even married we talked about serving a mission together.  We always had that goal in mind.  We can hardly believe that we are to that point in our life, as time passes so quickly.