On December 13th 2007 (which is the 30th anniversary of our engagement) Kaye and I were in Las Vegas, Nevada. We had taken Mom and Dad Mangum to the National Rodeo Finals for their Christmas present. We had been to the rodeo the night before and today had enjoyed a tour of Hoover Dam.
We had just finished a late lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. I had stepped out to get the car and to finish a call regarding a missionary in our stake coming home with health issues. While I was on that call another call came in. To my surprise Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve was calling. He wanted to know when Kaye and I could come in for a visit. While we were speaking Kaye and her parents came to the car and in order to make sure that everyone was a bit more quiet I mentioned Elder Hales by name in my conversation. Kaye said, “Don't tease me!” and I mouthed back to her that I wasn't teasing. I reminded Elder Hales that we had met about 15-20 years ago while he was on the board of Aerotrans, a company I had worked with for a few months, and he said, “When I saw your picture in the temple with the First Presidency and the Quorum of the 12, I thought I recognized you.” We set up an appointment for Tuesday, 12-18-07 at 11:00.
As a side note, Dad Mangum had said to Kaye just an hour or two before, “When Tom and you go on your mission you should sell your home and I’ll get busy overseeing the building of your new home next door to us while you’re gone.” It was interesting to me that over the next couple of days Kaye did not want to talk much about the call for fear that she would cry while we were still with her parents.
Tuesday we arrived at Elder Hales office about 30 minutes early. I had hoped to be 15 minutes early, but since I had no idea how long clearing security and getting to his office would take (and since I would rather arrive an hour early than be 5 minutes late for this appointment) we ended up a bit earlier than I anticipated. Elder Hales was out for a few minutes and we had a warm friendly visit with his secretary, Mary. Elder Hales came in after we visited for 5 minutes or so, and was a bit surprised that we were there already. He went into his office for a minute and then returned and welcomed us in.
Kaye and I were invited to sit on the couch and he pulled a chair in front of us. He had a file in his hand and I could see that it had a 3x5 picture of me on it, and looked to have 3 to 4 pages of writing on it as well. He told us that the purpose of this meeting was to gather information about us, but we knew very well why we were there. Elder Hales asked about our children, health, employment, and debt load etc. He turned to me and asked me to fill him in briefly. I asked Kaye if she would like to talk first. He told us he liked it when the husband asked his wife to speak first, as sometimes the man will do most of the talking.
Kaye had been to the doctor the day before for a scheduled follow-up on her kidneys. When she had her gall bladder out in early 2006 they had notice a concern her kidneys and the doctors had been monitoring them. During her visit with the doctor she was happy to find out that things were slightly better. The doctor told her that her kidneys would need to be monitored 3 to 4 times a year, but that he didn’t think it would require any more significant testing at this time. She asked the doctor if he was LDS – he said he wasn’t, but that he had lived in the area long enough to speak the language. Kaye told him of the pending appointment with a member of our church’s leadership, and he told her she could use this health concern as a “get out of jail” free card. In truth, he thought if she went to any developed part of the world she would be fine.
Kaye mentioned to Elder Hales her health concerns, which he duly noted. He told us to work with the challenges you have and then made reference to his own health problems over the last few years. He then asked about our children and Kaye had me give him that summary. He listened as I told of Chalisa’s solid relationship with her husband and children and spoke of John’s career, followed by Tommy and Ashlee’s life and his plans to go to MBA school, and then Ryan and Rachel’s plans to finish school this year and go away to start a career, and then finally of Clint’s service in the mission field. He then looked at Kaye, “Oh this will be hard on your daughter to have you leave and her brothers and their families go too.” Kaye got a little teary eyed as Elder Hales said, “and hard for you too.” Kaye assured him that Chalisa and she and the rest of the family would be fine. Elder Hales then said, “You tell her to come and see me if she feels a need to visit.” He also said that when Clint had found a girl he wanted to marry that he would be happy to visit with the two of them, and do the father interview thing for me. It would be great if the kids took advantage of that invitation.
Elder Hales asked about our house, the health of our parents, if we had any debt that couldn’t be repaid before we left, if my employment would take me back when I returned, etc. He said he wasn’t suppose to tell us why we were there, but if we were too stupid to figure that out, then we might not be bright enough to take on the assignment. He mentioned several times “I normally don’t say this much, but ….” And then he would proceed to tell us how great Kaye would be with the sister missionaries, and how when I was called by the First Presidency to be issued the call in a couple of weeks, and that Kaye could come home for Clint’s wedding, but that I couldn’t, or something else about being a mission president. We spent an enjoyable 1 hour and 15 minutes together and were comforted by the Spirit throughout the visit. This is something that I thought might happen in my life, but it was always in the distant future, and not something I particularly looked forward to. However, as we spoke I felt the words of Nephi apply to my life. I will go and do – even though I don’t really know how all will be worked out.
We told our children on a Monday night (following a larger Macdonald gathering at our home) that we needed to talk to them for a few minutes, Chalisa said, “You’re going on a mission, right?” Kaye said no, and then updated them on her kidney condition which they had not been aware of previously.
In the days since the eventful call and the interviews Kaye and I have been living in a stage of shock. It is hard really to think of much else when so many things may be changing in our lives in the next few months, and we won’t find out for a few weeks. I spoke with my partner Scott and he said “How can this be anything but great news? We will be blessed as a partnership to have you go.” I was impressed with his level of faith, and pray that my own level of faith will be as great. I also pray that when we are allowed to talk to our children that they will feel the comfort of the Holy Spirit over them and be blessed as we were blessed when Kaye’s parents served.
We had a family home evening dinner with our children. The time we should have known about our call had passed and we still hadn’t heard. We decided to let the kids know what was going on and that we might be called. We waited until after dinner was over and we were all sitting around the table. Chalisa wasn't at all surprised and she said Clint wouldn't be either, because they had this conversation before he went on his mission. Everyone else was in different degrees of shock. We received a phone call the next day to meet with President Monson.
