A BRIEF FAMILY REUNION IN BALTIMORE

Family members together at Baltimore's Inner Harbor

Sister Lindsay and I had a brief opportunity (for about 10 minutes) to visit with two of our sons and four of our grandsons at Harborplace in downtown Baltimore on June 14, 2012. The six of them and other youth and adult leaders of the Summerfield Ward scout troop from Greensboro, North Carolina had been on tour in the Washington, DC area during the week visiting many of the monuments and museums plus the National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. 

On Thursday evening the group drove to suburban Baltimore and then rode the light rail to Camden Yard to attend a major league baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates. Since the ballpark is only a couple of blocks from the Inner Harbor where the USS Constellation (built in 1854) is permanently berthed, they decided to hike downtown to catch a glimpse of this historic sloop of war (the only existing sailing ship that participated in the Civil War).

I took a photograph of the entire scout troop in front of the Constellation. One of the other scouts took a picture of Sister Lindsay and me together with our sons and grandsons in front of the Cisne Branco, a 3-masted sailing ship from Brazil that was in port this week. And then, they were gone.

You may be wondering how we were able to arrange this brief family reunion with some of our children and grandchildren while serving a full time proselyting mission? Pages 37 and 38 in the Missionary Handbook describe the limitations and conditions associated with visits from family members while serving full time missions for the Church:

"Visits from family members, friends, and acquaintances are against Church policy. The impact of such visits may extend far beyond the visit itself, both before and after the visit and among other missionaries. It can often take some time for missionaries to refocus on their callings and their work . . ."

The rules for senior missionaries concerning communication with family members are somewhat different than for the young elders and sisters. We are allowed to telephone or even have video calls with our children and grandchildren whenever we need to do so; and we are also permitted to have brief visits with them from time to time as well. So getting together for a picture at Harborplace and a round of hugs from our sons and grandsons was not a violation of mission rules. It was a special moment of joy for all of us and a reminder that we are trying to set a good example for our grandsons by serving a mission away from home.