My LDS Mission
Leon H Przybyla Jr.
I really can’t remember how long I have wanted to serve a
senior mission, but I believe that it has been an incentive for a lot of things
in my life. I also believe that I have
been preserved in this life for some reason.
As Jan and I contemplated going on a mission, we realized that we needed
to prepare ourselves temporally to be able to devote all our time to the
calling. This meant that all our
investment properties would need to be sold, and our own home would need to be
watched. At first we simply waited for
something to happen that would give us a sign that we could move forward in
this endeavor.
The first sign we were given was from a young family in the
ward who wanted to live in the same neighborhood as their parents which was the
Cherry Village area. We had a rental
home there which was of interest to them.
They approached us with a desire to purchase the home. We would need to remove the renters and pay a
great deal of money to clean the place.
After their inspection of the home and unbeknownst to us the negative
feedback from the renters to the prospective buyers, the deal fell
through. We were devastated since we
felt this was our sign to go on a mission.
Surprising to us the young couple came back to us in a few months and
consummated the deal. I must say that
nothing went smoothly, and we lived on the edge for a couple of months.
We knew that it was not going to be easy to prepare
ourselves for the mission. We still
needed to get rid of two more homes and a lot.
We prayed, and Jan indicated that we should trust in the Lord. Right after that our son, David, indicated an
interest in buying one of our properties.
We worked out a deal and completed the transaction. We then put up the last home for sale through
a realtor which we had tried to sell over a year ago. After it was on the market for a few weeks
with no action, our son suggested that he buy it. We worked out another deal and sold the
property.
We now believed that it was time to talk to the Bishop. We went in for an interview thinking it would
be an in depth interrogation. The Bishop simply said that you have a temple
recommend so you are ready to go. We
then started the paperwork process which is really the most intense part of the
whole process. I went online and spent
hours filling out all the forms with great details about your life, your
career, your medical history, and thoughts and feelings about a lot of things. After completion of the thorough
history, we learned that our doctors needed to fill out extensive forms and
submit them to the Bishop. This took
longer than expected and came with some surprises. My cardiologist had told me all along that I
could go to any first world country because on my pace maker. When he finally wrote the letter, it
essentially said that I should be assigned to Utah Valley. I complained to him and he changed it to the
USA. Our internist believed that we were
capable of serving in any first world country, so we did not submit the
cardiologist’s letter.
We were traveling on four back to back cruises on the east
coast after our final paperwork was submitted.
We were told by the Stake President that if would be anywhere from 3-6
weeks before we would get the call.
While in Florida, we called the church offices and found out that our
call was issued and would be mailed the week of Thanksgiving. We would be in New York at the time, so we
told Amy to call us when the paperwork arrived.
It came on Friday after Thanksgiving, and she gathered the family and
called us while we were having dinner in a restaurant. We couldn’t believe it but we were called to
serve in the Singapore/Malaysia Mission working for the church Perpetual
Education Fund.
We were stunned but elated that we could serve overseas. When we returned we read the complete set of
documents and realized that we still had a long ways to go in just a couple of
months. We were to enter the MTC on
January 27, 2014 and fly to Singapore on Feb. 10, 2014. We were requested to get all our immunizations
which required boosters for Typhoid, Shingles, Japanese Encephalitis, and
various other tests. The Japanese
Encephalitis shot costs over $300 per shot per person, and each of us needed
two shots. This is at our own expense
since Medicare only covers flu and pneumonia shots.
We needed to construct our LDS email and our profiles on
Mormon.org. We needed to view hours of
training movies as well as read Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon. We needed to pack two 50 lb suitcases per
person. I needed white shirts, black
pants, and a dark suit. Jan needed long
skirts and appropriate blouses for the hot climate. We needed proper shoes and enough garments,
and the list goes on.
We were fortunate that Amy and her family required some
place to live while they built their new home.
This also was the solution to selling our lot in Orem because this lot
is where Amy and Chad wanted to build their home. They also would stay in our home and take
care of it while we served a mission.
They moved in to our place in October, so we needed to make room for
them. We also realized once they were in
our place that they required more space, so we had one more project of putting
our belongings into the basement to make room for their stuff.
We had our farewell talks on Sunday Jan 19, 2014. Basically all our family attended the
sacrament meeting where Sister Reid, Jan, and I talked with a musical number from
the grandkids. We then had a family
dinner after church at Jay and Britany’s home where we watched the 49ers lose
one more time for a berth in the Superbowl.
