San Francisco, CA may only be 650 miles away from Hillsboro, OR, but it's a different world. The other day in Costco, I mentioned to Tom that I wouldn't even know I was in the US by looking at the Costco employees and customers if I couldn't see the English signs in the store. We were standing in line waiting to checkout. There were long lines and many, many customers. All the employees I could see were minorities and so were all the other customers besides us.
Our mission is not much different. We have mostly foreign-born elders and sisters. Out of the 17 arriving new missionaries only one is from the good old USA. We have 2 from Tonga, 1 from Singapore, 1 from Hong Kong, 2 from Japan, 1 from Fiji, 1 from West Samoa, 3 from Samoa, 1 from New Caledonia, 1 from Mongolia, 1 from Brazil, 1 from Honduras and 1 from Mexico. This provides quite an exposure to different cultures.
All the excitement and education of a foreign mission without the hassle!
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