It is harder to say this than I thought it would be but this will be our last missionary moments. Our mission assignment will be complete after we pack up all the equipment tomorrow morning and send it back to Salt Lake. On Tuesday we will begin our next phase in life of going home and settling in and finding things to do that will keep us engaged and busy. My list has grown long and I am excited to get started. Today Scott spoke in our Sacrament meeting. He wrote his talk and practiced it all week long and it went really well.
I thought I would share a few thoughts on what we have learned during this 18 months and hopefully it will help you better understand how significant our mission has been for us. Lesson 1--Whom God calls he qualifies! To say we were reluctant in accepting this assignment would be a gross understatement and in all honesty there have been times, even recently, when I thought why is this so hard. But those times were quickly replaced with a wonderful sense of well-being because amid the feelings of doubt, the peace came. When we first saw the equipment, did the training and started the work it was overwhelming and now we can look back on it with a great sense of joy because WE DID IT! It is true--with God all things are possible! Lesson 2-Family and friends are everything! Two significant people made such a difference for me when we started our mission. Thank you Bill Lambert and Barb Walker. Without their wise counselor and encouragement I can't imagine how hard leaving our family would have been. Thank you Phil Duncan for calling us on a regular basis and supporting us with your enthusiasm for family history. Thank you grandkids for never forgetting us and for taking time to sit down and write us, make pictures for us, and for not forgetting us! Thank you my adult children for all your words of encouragement especially Angela and Andy who took care of our house while we were away. Thank you Cathy, Becky, Amy, Angela for being such great moms and cheering us on. Thank you all for the phone calls and letters which were always the highlight of our day when they came. Thank you Amy for spending time on the phone with me sharing your life and your family for a few minutes each day. Lesson 3-Tender Mercies abound! I don't think I had thought much before our mission about how our Heavenly Father gives us glimpses of His faith in us. The tasks we must perform in life are not easy and yet I have also learned that we never do anything by ourselves. I have had so many experiences especially in the last 18 months that remind me that no matter how complicated life may get we are a small drop in a big pond and yet Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know us, love us, and want only the best for us. Lesson 4--Missionaries are awesome! One of the greatest lessons learned for me while we have been here is how amazing these young adults are that leave family and friends and enter a world so completely different from what they are use to. Not all of them come with a testimony of the gospel but because they want to do what they have been asked to do. A young Elder told me that he had been out for almost a year and had become discouraged and wondered if it wasn't time to just stop and go home. He began to pray to know what he should do and in that process he was blessed to know that the gospel is true and he needed to finish what he had started. I can now tell you first hand that as much as we all want to do our part we do get homesick some times, we do wonder if we are up to the task, we do worry about our family back home, but we know that we belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--and we can do hard things! Lesson 5--God is in charge! On Thursday I finished a set of folders and went to close the set and evaluate them. I realized as I wrote the numbers down that something was wrong and in checking I found that I had a folder that was about 10 folders out of place. Why is that significant? If I hadn't stopped where I did that folder would have had the documents captured but would have been almost impossible to find later on if someone had wanted to see the original documents. When Heavenly Father wants something done He wants it done right. Fortunately he keeps us straight by the little things that happen so we stay in check and know when to redirect ourselves. I suspect that a majority of the work we have done may never be seen, but for those who will need to see it--it has been done right.
We leave for home on Tuesday morning. We can't wait to see everyone again. We have a lot of catching up to do!
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