The Reason For Our New Call

Well dear friends, here we go again. This is a summary of how this new mission call came about.

In April, we received an e-mail from Elder Lynn A. Mickelsen asking if Cheryle and I would accept a special Area assignment in Mexico City. We said yes and the process began. We completed our paperwork and scheduled the interviews with Bishop Tait and Ivan Holland, our stake president. During the week preceding the interview with our stake president, I was contacted by Elder C. Scott Grow, First Counselor to President Mickelsen and advised that with the change in the Area President, and with Elder Mickelsen being reassigned, the assignment we discussed had been eliminated. He then asked where we would like to serve in Mexico? Guadalajara would be nice, I thought. While pondering this, we had our stake president's interview on Sunday, and then on Monday another telephone call, this time from Elder Richard E. Cook who asked if we would be willing to fill a special assignment in Lima, Peru instead of Mexico. The Spirit verified that this was what we were to do, so we accepted the assignment.

The week of April 19, I expected a call from Elder Grow, It did not come. I later received an e-mail from him telling me he had been traveling. Elder Grow and Mickelsen were notified of the new assignment and were thrilled for us.

On Thursday, May 7, I was involved in a long conference call which also included Elder Nash and Elder Cook. During this call, the following information pertaining to the assignment was explained: Under the direction of President Monson and Elder Christofferson, the Perpetual Education Fund has been requested to develop a pilot program in Lima that would basically rescue and then retain a sample group of participants who have experienced difficulties while involved with the PEF program. That will be my role; to develop that pilot program that will “Rescue and Retain” the sample group. I have been requested to work closely with the participants and priesthood leaders and stress the importance of making and keeping sacred covenants while also teaching and stressing priesthood correlation.

We will be assigned to work under the Area Presidency and a core group of nine stake presidents and approximately three hundred participants. Initially, I will be involved with one of the four coordinating counsels in Lima. When the program begins to see results, this involvement will expand to the other areas. As I was told by the Brethren, this has never been done before and it is the desire of the First Presidency that once developed, the program be implemented throughout the church. To say that I am humbled would be a vast understatement. However, I know that “Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.”

On Monday night, May 18, we received a telephone call from Elder Cook and he confirmed that the assignment to Lima was firm and we would receive the official call letter this week. The next day, Tuesday, May 19, we received a second telephone call from Elder Nash. He called to confirm our assignment and talk about his vision of what he would like to be accomplished. He talked; I listened, making only singular comments.

Both Cheryle and I are humbled at the confidence the Lord and the General Authorities have in us and continue to marvel that the Lord would take a tough street cop and use him to assist in building the kingdom. This will be our fourth mission together; third to South America in nine years and my fifth which includes the five years spent as a full-time counselor in the Nevada Las Vegas Mission Presidency. Both Cheryle and I have expressed to the Lord the desire to serve on a full-time basis dedicating all our time, means and talents to the building up of the Kingdom of God upon this earth. We are richly blessed to have the desires of our hearts granted and are fortunate that circumstance allows for this to occur.

To each of you who has followed the last two missions to Quito, Ecuador, if you so desire, we will keep you in the loop which takes us on a "Journey to the Land of the Inca."

May the Lord bless you and I want to personally thank you for your continued love, support and prayers.

Faithfully your companion,
Elder Richard B. Whitaker

Of course, that is Richard's contribution to "my blog." We are deep in the throws of getting ourselves ready to depart. I will keep this as up to date as possible, of course we will add pictures along the way. We will be in Lima on August 1st.