John & Leesa Dupree--Alpine German-speaking Mission

     When I was on my first mission in Germany (during the 70s), the U.S. had a pretty strong military presence there, and military personnel had an 18-month European Enlistment option. Soldiers whose time in Europe was coming to a close were referred to as "short timers," and those with less than 10 days remaining briefly carried the title of "one-digit midgets." Only with us, we are counting the days until we can go over there.      Well, it's Saturday, the 18th of February, and we fly out in eight days, right after boring people to death in Sacrament meeting. And it'll be a full weekend this coming week:     --Friday, Open House at the Andersons, 5117 Butterwood Circle in Orangevale, from 7 to 9 p.m. Come one, come all. Let it be clear that Kirsten Henderson is IN CHARGE.     --Saturday, Dinner Group (homemade pizza(!) by invitation only) at the Andersons again, and directly afterward we'll have the White Elephant Gift Exchange at the...

 February 4, 2023, 5:30 a.m. Very often I sleep in two shifts, from 11 until about 3, then up for a couple of hours, back to bed until 8. I just finished making a red velvet cake for dessert tonight. We're feeding the missionaries smoked baby back ribs. I warned them to bring t-shirts. Besides the ribs, I need to make chocolate chip cookies for family dinner tomorrow, besides housecleaning. Just finished a big week at work. Tax season is in full swing, and I get to catch up with clients/friends whom I see but once a year. It's a big honor being in a position of trust like that, bigger still when they tell you they don't trust anybody else to do their taxes. We're slowly accumulating all the physical stuff we'll need: thermal underwear, luggage tags, power converters (220 volts over in Europe versus our 110). Just received a bunch of compression socks from Amazon. I thought I ordered six pair, but I guess I didn't look very close at the item description: Three pa...

      As mentioned, Leesa and I met with our Stake President in early November, and I spent the next three weeks full of hope and excitement, along with a lurking fear of disappointment. We both badly wanted to return to the land of our first missions.     I woke up on the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 29th, and with bleary eyes saw a text message: "You may now view your mission call on your missionary portal."       Suddenly, I wasn't so bleary-eyed anymore. Leesa was still fast asleep (she is a nightowl, staying up into the early hours knitting and watching playoff reruns of her beloved San Francisco Giants. Every year, just after the World Series, she begins watching each postseason win of the Giants' championship years of 2010, 2012, and 2014. I can't forget an evening two years ago, when she started watching the first game of their 2010 playoff run against the Atlanta Braves. That year, the Giants had picked up a fringe player by the name of ...

    My name is John Dupree, and I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My wife and I are about to embark upon a one-year mission, and so many of our friends and acquaintances have asked us to post news and pictures, so here we are at the beginning of this adventure. Warning! This blog will contain a lot of religious references, which are necessary because they speak to our core motivations for doing what we do. At the same time, we don't want to get too preachy. 😁     A brief bit of history is in order. I am a convert, and was baptized into the Church at age 19 in 1975. My wife, Leesa, is a lifelong member. Both of us served missions when we were single, and both of us were originally called to the Germany Frankfurt mission in 1976. We had not yet met, and though we served in the same mission, we always served in the different zones, and didn't really become acquainted until we returned from our missions in 1978, to the Fair Oaks, Californ...