We're going on a mission!

Apr 24/2018

Yes we're on a mission! 

How we met etc: 

Widowed several years each, we met in Sunday School class in Gordon's home town. Jackie's late husband Grant Miller (oldest son of Rex and Joyce Miller) grew up in Cardston, Alberta, Canada with Gordon (oldest son of BY and Mary Williams). Gordon's late wife Jean Kay Edmunds was from Los Angeles, California. Gordon and Jean married in 1971 and had 3 daughters together.

Both our late spouses had testimonies  of and an appreciation of missionary work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Memorably, Jean Kay had lived with her parents in Belgium for 3 years from ages 16-19 when her father served as the LDS Mission President there. 
Gordon served as a youth in the Gulf States mission. He worked on the family cattle ranch, graduated from Ricks College and BYU, and later taught Farm Management Education in Alberta.

Jackie's late husband Grant served 2 years as a youth in the Central British Mission, his birthplace, as his mother was a war bride. Grant, a lawyer, and Jackie married in 1972 and had 9 children together, 8 now living - 3 daughters and 5 sons. (Angela Michelle died in 1978 as a newborn baby). Some time after Grant passed away, Jackie (2nd daughter of Gordon and Catherine Oviatt Hudson) served a short half year on assignment in the West Indies mission office January-June 2015 with a local 20 year companion as the mission prepared to split. 

Both out late spouses would have liked to have served as senior couple missionaries after retirement; but unfortunately their health didn't permit it. We are happy to be able to fulfill those dreams together for them.
We can reassure you that our late spouses  - our eternal companions, as we were sealed in the temple - are both very much a part of our current marriage, which it is only made richer by our former experiences and by now having 2 very caring "guardian angels" .

When we met, Jackie had just finished 4 (painful, tough, lonely but very rewarding) semesters at BYU-Provo learning about the LDS "Proclamation  on the Family" and examining Women's Studies subjects from a gospel perspective. 

In the summer of 2017, in a long, memorable "getting to know you" dating phone interview, after realizing Gordon fit the criteria for marriage that she'd learned at BYU, Jackie added one more question: she asked Gordon if he'd ever thought of going on a senior couple's mission.... and (thanks to our Stake President's direction 2 weeks after we were married) the rest is history!.

We were set apart as missionaries one week early; and with a call to the Trinidad Port of Spain mission, our hearts began turning to the Caribbean....

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