The Florida Fort Lauderdale mission has been among those chosen to be a pilot mission for a program to hopefully help keep missionaries safer by improving their driving. The mission cars have had small boxes installed which monitors how the car is driven. This includes seat-belts being fastened, too quick starts and stops, driving over bumps too fast, and of course going over the speed limit. If the box registers one of these infractions, it vocally warns the driver and if a correction is not made then the violation is recorded and a record gets sent to the mission president.
Today we went to Miami Lakes chapel for a conference where half of the mission learned about how the Tiwi boxes will work in their cars. Yesterday the Northern half of the mission had the same conference. The fact that the President took all of the missionaries out of their areas for at least half a day and in some cases a full day, shows how important this new program to improve driving safety is to this mission and in the future all the missions.Â
The conference basically explained how the boxes worked, the reasons for them, and of course the consequences of not driving within the rules. Hopefully the missionaries will understand that it is their lives and the lives of others the Church is interested in and not in keeping the cars in good condition.
During the conference the President played the video of Sid Going who was so good in school that he would have been selected to play on New Zealand’s professional soccer team. However he chose instead to go on a mission and was sent to Canada. When he got off his mission he did get a chance to play professional soccer and was so good that they actually re-set dates for soccer games because he would not play on Sunday. Steve Young was not that good!
Each time I see this video I get teary eyed because I think of our grandsons who need to make or will need to make the decision to go or not to go on a mission. If they could just understand how important a mission is for their future, I am sure they would not hesitate regardless of what they think they will be giving up. But it their decision to make and we can just hope and pray they will make the right one.
While writing about missions, I remembered that I received a call from former Elder Adam George who has now been safely back in Washington for a couple of weeks. I think he called just to say hi to whoever was in the office and since I was the only one…how strange was that…we had a really good talk.He has been accepted to BYU Provo so in a year or so we will be able to get back together. We talked about adjusting to life after a mission and he seems to be doing fine in that area. What a strength RMs can be if they use their skills and spirits in building up the kingdom wherever they are.
Sounds like Durban had better be the next mission to try out the boxes! Your closing comment about the joys of being a senior missionary and working with the young people says so much. We can hardly wait to be out serving again, just hope that it is sooner than later!
Actually some of the Durban missionary cars did have a tracking device in them but it was a passive one that just recorded where they were and how fast they were going. I know of at least one missionary who had his driving privileges revoked when they were found going 20 mph over the speed limit for a very long time. But I think the main purpose was to be able to find the cars when they were stolen.
Arlo reminded me about the trackers in Durban and agrees with you that it was a passive variety, but still effective. We sure loved our District Meetings-ours were very small usually just 4 young and 2 old, but so much was gained by all of us!