Steve & Liz McAllister

(All-mission conference picture.  We are the 7th and 8th heads from the left. Liz is wearing a black top.) Earlier this month we had an all-mission conference.   Prior to the conference, Pres. Watson asked Liz and I to share our thoughts about the Prophet Joseph Smith at the beginning of the meeting. The conference began with everyone standing to sing “Called to Serve.”   I had sung that song hundreds of times over my lifetime.   But it wasn’t until we took Julie to the MTC that it really struck home.   Ever since then, whenever we sing that song, I have to check my emotions.   It happened when we took Martin and Christine as well.   Even now when we sing it at church, those same emotions come back.   But to sing it with 200 missionaries, with me being one of them, and coupled with the MTC experience, I was struggling.   I knew I had the potential of being a basket case while sharing my testimony. When it was my turn, I thanked the missio...

Sunday, April 25 th , 2021 (My first blog.  Excuse how it looks.  I'll get better at formatting over time.) A quick recap of events leading up to this last week. We have always planned to serve a mission.   My parents went on a mission to Bristol England and had some wonderful experiences.   My older brother, David and his wife Lora, served two missions; one to Sydney Australia and the second to the Temple Square Mission in Salt Lake City.   All 3 of our children had wonderful missions, and loved their experiences.   These have been great examples and have cemented our feeling that this was something we wanted to do. After getting our affairs in order, and with family commitments fulfilled, we finally decided to pull the trigger in October 2020 at which time we submitted our papers.   We received our mission call on Feb. 2 nd , 2021 to the California Riverside Mission.   Our online MTC experience began on April 5 th and we finished the afte...