Mission Reunion for 2008 postponed

The proposed mission reunion scheduled for the fall of 2008 has been postponed, hopefully to the Spring of 2009. Several reasons were cited for this change, primarily due to lack of interest of anyone to take charge. If you would like to see this reunion still happen, the owner of this blog would be pleased to contribute publicity via email and blog updates. Thanks for all those who tried to get it together for this year. Economic conditions and prior travel arrangements were cited by some. Here's hoping things improve with the economy and the political climate in the next year.

2008 Bio Update from Raymond Race

My favorite part of the last reunion was when we all stood out of respect for President Eager as he took his place on the stand. It was a frustrating weekend. I was packed ready to go with all the hotel and travel arrangements made to be to the reunion early and just enjoy the moment and all those who would be in attendance.

Two days before the reunion I received a surprise email from my brother asking for me to confirm him at his baptism on Friday night (Yes, the same night as the reunion!). His timing was I still don’t know what. Of course with this being his rebaptism after almost twenty years I certainly am not going to say no.

Between the extra miles on the rental and not knowing where I was going I kept it together pretty good. I finally made it to the reunion and was able to relax somewhat and try to make up for lost time from being away. It was a busy and exciting weekend.

With eight children and 13 grandchildren, including two due this year, it would unfair and boring to list everything that’s going on. Suffice it to say we love the love the grandchildren, they are our reward for not killing our own children.

We remain Faithful and active in the gospel. I serve as a Branch president to one of the largest federal prisons in California. We have four facilities located all together yet separated, 2 medium security, 1 minimum security (A Women’s facility), and 1 maximum security facility which I oversee and minister too every week with a pool of faithful volunteers.

My dear wife of thirty years serves as my Relief Society President in addition to teaching Seminary (10 years). Life has been good to us and we remain grateful to our Father in Heaven for all that we have been blessed with.

I still am fluent in Spanish and perhaps the greatest blessing came when I was invited to participate in the dedication of the Redlands California Temple. I was able to help translate for the Spanish session, and was assigned to translate for the prophet simultaneously. I was the only Chele at the table and wow! Talk about intimidation. The lord doth provide and it was a wonderful experience.

I look forward to seeing all in attendance and reconnect with friendships and brotherhood that long ago was so much a part of our lives. May the good Lord Bless and keep all of you. I’m in the directory. Hasta Pronto,

Raymond and Wanda Race, Oro Grande, California (Nov 73-75)

Hello from Tom Cavanaugh

Hello fellow missionaries,

I am not sure what my favorite part of the last reunion is because I never got to talk to people trying to keep things flowing. Maybe I could say that my favorite part was seeing all the good people who helped organize and participate in the organization of it.

When we started I believe there were about six of us. Our motto became..."when we organize, they will come". Little by little with those few emails, the connections of each other turned into a successful mission of hundreds who came. It was a great reunion.

I am glad that this one will be in October of 2008 because as a former mission president we are having our ten year reunion in April 08....Colleen, my wife and I have five children...Christina the oldest with three children in Moab, Utah married to a seminary and institute teacher and use to be my first assistant when he was a priest.

Cameron, married to a former secret service fellow at the White House now both in Utah where her husband is working on a Master's degree in Criminal Justice; Crystal, a senior at BYU Idaho and just returned from her mission in Portugal; Tom Jr. a freshman at BYU, Provo and just returned from his mission in Argentina; and Tim, who is on his mission in Taiwan.

My Wife of 27 years is doing great and is stake relief society president. I am doing a second term in a newly called stake presidency. We live in Largo, Florida.

Tom Cavanaugh

Recent news from Nic and Honduras

Hello to all the missionaries of the best mission in the world.

As a missionary from 78-80 walking down the dusty dirt streets of Central America, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would one day return, as an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, to continue to serve these wonderful people who I had grown to love so much.

On many occasions as a missionary, I would sit in very humble homes and see the evidence of physical pain, suffering, and hunger. I often wondered how it was that these wonderful spiritual people could possibly have any interest in our message while living in such conditions. But yet more often than not, at least on some level, most accepted and a few embraced our message.

It was in December of 2003, just after our reunion, that I made my first trip to Honduras to use my skills as a surgeon to help alleviate, at least in a small degree, some of the physical suffering that I had seen as a missionary.

My wife and I had been looking for 3 years to find just the right project for our family to do humanitarian service - I don't know if it was because of the reunion or if it was just fortuitous timing but it was soon after the reunion that I was asked to join a group headed to Honduras to do the exact thing for which we were looking.

Since then our group has been going to Honduras twice a year to provide medical, dental, and humanitarian services to these people - many of whom are members of the church. In many instances we provided care for those young people preparing to serve missions and Latin missionaries.

Because of our work with "pre missionaries", we were invited by church leaders to go to Nicaragua in November to specifically do the work for young people who plan to leave on a mission within the next year. I just got back this past week.

During our 5 days of clinic we were able to get photos, physical exams, dental treatment, and all papers completed for 167 young Nicaraguans. As you are aware the church is growing exponentially in Nicaragua.

Hopefully by helping overcome some of the barriers to serving a mission, like medical, dental, and even photos for the mission papers (things we would not even give a second thought to here but can be a big barrier to people in Central America), for the first time Nicaragua will send out more missionaries than will be sent in to serve in their country.

The church members of Nicaragua are absolutely excited. They look forward to the day that they will have a temple. The church members in Honduras are literally jumping with joy that they will soon have a temple.

I never thought this would be possible as a 19 year old missionary. It just goes to show how little I know and just how great is the gospel plan.I feel very fortunate that I have been able, after all these years, to go back and serve these great people.

If you would like to know more, I can be contacted a drgcrawf@aol.com. Thanks to Tom and Phil and the other organizers. You are awesome. I look forward to seeing everybody in 2008.

Gary Crawford

First of the updated bios for 2008 posted

Ralph Cornell was kind enough to update his bio and provide some new pictures. You can view his bio on the Bios page or directly from this link.

If you want your bio updated, just send me the new information and some new photos. I'll post them as I have time.

Several of you have already offered to help organize the reunion. I'm going to leave to organizing and planning up to others.

Brent Romney and Phil Wing were the primary instigators of the last reunion. I suggest you contact them to see if they are interested in taking over that responsibility again for 2008.

I will continue to update the web pages and the blog. You feed me the information and I'll post it.

The 2003 Mission Reunion Bios are back online

In between putting away Christmas decorations today I re-posted all the 2003 mission reunion bios. I was once again impressed with how many of you submitted and posted your bios and photos. It was great to see your families once again. You are an impressive bunch.

If you are interested in updating your bio I will be happy to do so. Just shoot me an email with the updated information and I'll post it. It sure added a lot to have this information prior to our last reunion. Although President Muren couldn't be there he said how much he enjoyed reading about you in his video on the DVD.

You can view the bios here: http://www.3tcm.net/bios.htm