Looking back to the first week we got home from the mission -- Dec. 2013

Our oldest granddaughter,Elayna, became a teenager while we were in New York. We got home in time to attend her final 8th grade cross country meet.

Evan was so thrilled to have his Grandpa back home.

Yes, it was nice to be back in Texas again, back to home and family.  Our Satsuma orange tree celebrated our home coming by producing a bumper crop.

Looking back -- a few post mission thoughts!

We've been home from our mission for 6 months. Coming back, nothing quite seems the same. We love and appreciate our family even more. The grandchildren have grown so much.  Houston heat and humidity don't bother me as much as before. Houston traffic has gotten worse -- everyone is moving here due to the booming economy. I long for the quiet, scenic roads and rolling hills in upstate New York. The countryside we traveled through daily was wildly beautiful.

 Something else is different. I feel different. My heart has been changed forever.  Packing up our belongings and driving across the country to upstate New York to serve for 23 months was a leap of faith, a jumping off a cliff and out of our comfort zone. Am I glad we did it?  Yes! My heart has been filled to the brim-- with love and gratitude for our Savior, love for all the wonderful missionaries we served with, and for the wonderful new friends we have made.

To me, our assignment was difficult and very stressful at times, but the Lord has always been there for us. I am grateful for the many blessings he has given us -- that he has kept our families safe and well while we were gone, and that he has blessed us with the health and strength to do what we needed to do.

I found joy in forgetting all about myself and thinking of others.

  I will always be grateful for the opportunity my husband and I had to work intensively together, even though we often didn't see eye to eye. We both sure learned a lot about each other, and hopefully all this has made our marriage even stronger. 

Towards the end of our mission, Elder Perkins of the Seventy spoke to a few of us senior missionaries, saying, "We leave home to learn how to get back home." I am continuing to learn from our mission. Because of the things I have learned from serving a mission, my focus is sharper on the things I need to be doing during the last few decades of my life.

Taken in the Sacred Grove, Palmyra, N.Y., exactly a year ago.

Leaving our mission

Yes, I have been a blog slacker, thanks to Instagram and Facebook. But I've repented and am  back into the world of blogging. I've got a lot of catching up to do, starting with  Dec. 10,  2013, the day we left our missionary apartment in Brockport, N.Y. and traveled back home to Texas.

We left the NY Rochester Mission a week earlier than planned, due to predicted bad weather. On Dec. 10, we loaded the car on what would be the last sunny day in many weeks. The following day was icy and very snowy. So, we left just in time. 

 While Carl was hauling all our belongings to the car, I was finishing cleaning our missionary apartment. As we were getting ready to leave, the senior couple replacing us showed up on our doorstep. They helped haul out the last of our bags and Elder Ray took this photo of us.

Looking at this photo, I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. We felt like the Beverly Hillbillies going on a long road trip. How Carl managed to cram everything in is a major miracle -- looks like a pile of junk to me. It took my aging body a long time to recover from that car trip. I was so crammed in; there was little room to move. When we got to Houston, I was hurting and feeling like an old lady.

As we passed through Buffalo, NY that afternoon on Dec. 10, snow was starting to fall. We were a day ahead of  the Arctic Vortex which held upstate New York in a tight grip for most of the winter. The previous two winters of our mission were unseasonably mild .  I warned everyone that when we leave, we would be taking the mild weather back to Texas with us.

A huge  feeling of  relief engulfed me as we headed back home. Our missionary assignment was quite strenuous and demanding, and after 23 months of working very hard, it was good to be heading home. We would miss our associations with dear friends and missionaries, being close to the sacred sites, and the wild beauty of upstate New York. But we were more than ready to 

 hand our assignment over to the capable hands of Elder and Sister Ray. 

We drove through just a small amount of  falling snow on our way home, the last snow we will see for a long time. This part of the country was soon to be above its neck in snow and ice.

Our smiles were as big as the Texas sky as we crossed the Louisiana border and entered the Lone Star State.

The first thing we did, once we entered Texas, was to visit the grandchildren in Vidor, which was on our route back to Friendswood. (Dario is missing from this photo.)

It was especially joyful to be reunited with little Dahlia, who was blessed with the gift of a heart transplant while we were serving our mission. She was in our prayers everyday and we feel she has been blessed by the Lord to be doing so well.

the final full week of our mission, the week of Dec. 2, 2013

It was surreal to be experiencing the final week of our mission in upstate New York. At one point in time, it seemed as if we would be gone forever, but, looking back, the 23 months have flown by.

All of a sudden we were attending our last transfer meeting, on Tues., Dec. 3. Every 6 weeks, Carl and I have attended transfer meetings, saying good-bye to departing missionaries and hearing their final testimonies.

Now it was our turn to give our final testimony.

This is Sister Butters, one of the departing missionaries, is giving her testimony. We gave ours right after.

We said "Good-bye" to the Arringtons. Lorraine is battling brain cancer. It is so hard. Her husband Lee, who isn't in the best of health, takes such good care of her with such love and devotion.

We spent a lovely evening at Patty Lucero's home, where she and her grandson Tyler made us a dinner of  Navajo tacos. The sister missionaries came with us. After dinner, we were treated to a violin concert by Sister Andrus and Tyler, two very talented violinists. The music was heavenly!

On Wednesday, Dec. 4,  Jerry and Barbara Johnson treated us to a wonderful lunch at Hose 22 Firehouse Grill in Charlotte, a small town in north Rochester. Hose 22 is a wonderfully restored 1916 fire station.

We love all of our dear friends in New York and miss them so much!

.Down the street from the Firehouse Grill stands the scenic Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse. This octagonal 40 foot stone tower, built in 1822 on an Indian campground, stands on Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the Genesee River.

View from the lighthouse -- mouth of the Genesee River and Lake Ontario. We lucked out with the weather. The following week, the afternoon we headed back home, the nice weather disappeared, and snows and a bitter cold winter descended on Upstate New York.

a final visit to Palmyra, Dec. 2013

On my birthday, Dec. 5, we made our final visit to Palmyra.  Luckily, our last two weeks in the mission were unaffected by the polar vortex that hit right after we left New York. We took a final stroll through Sacred Grove and parts of the Joseph Smith farm.

 

When we entered the Joseph Smith Farm Visitor Center, Elder and Sister Poulson and Sisters Astorga and Sister Rippstein surprised me by singing "Happy Birthday". How we will miss not only the sacred sites, but our associations with wonderful junior and senior missionaries.

We took a few photos inside the visitor's center, to capture a picture for our Christmas card.

The building you see through the window of the Visitor's Center is a replica of the Joseph Smith Log Home. It recently got a new roof, hence the bright color, which will fade with time.

Next, Sister Astorga (from Guatemala) and Sister Rippstein (from Texas) gave us our final tour of the Joseph Smith Log Home.  This has been one of the highlights of our mission, getting to know such wonderful young missionaries. The Sister missionaries serve for 18 months, and can now serve at age 19. They do such a fine job teaching others about the Gospel of Jesus Christ that has been restored upon the earth.
                         

Recap of week #3 of final weeks of mission

On Monday morning, we looked out our bedroom window and saw this -- snow before Thanksgiving!

 

The next day, we had a district Temple trip. It's extra special being in the Temple with our young missionaries.

 Our Brockport district: the old folks with Elder Johnston, Elder Kelly, Sister Butters, Sister Sumsion Elder Barnes, and Elder Fierros.

Sister Graham, who was also there with her district,   did a photo shoot with the doll she carries around with her.  It was given to her by a Primary class in her home ward. She e-mails the class pictures of where the doll goes with her, so the children can catch a glimpse into the life of a missionary. A very clever idea!

 

 

We had a fun Thanksgiving Day District Meeting, with  Elder Fierros teaching  us how to make tortillas from scratch! His Grandmother taught him.

 Those tortillas made the best breakfast tortillas!

We had Thanksgiving dinner with other senior missionary couples at the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center, in the basement. We each brought different dishes. It was all very yummy.

 

 

On Saturday, we did our very last move, (something like move # 36 in the 23 months we've been here!) . It was a simple move, since we didn't have to buy very much. The Elders were relocating from one apartment to a new one which we had recently found for them. 

Here is Elder Willis moving his mattress into the new apartment.

How many Elders does it take to move a pole lamp?

 (L. to R.: Elder Rawe, Elder Erekson--Elder Rawe and Erekson are the Assistants to the Mission President and help with moves, by driving the mission moving van--and Elder Brunner)

Everything is all moved in, and now the Elders face the daunting task of making their new place look like home!  These are such great young men, who have worked so hard with this move.

 

 

Tonight, after our fast Sunday dinner with all our missionaries, we had one last photo with Sister Butters, who is completing her mission, and going home (Utah) on Tues. She will most likely be landing a job writing for the Deseret News when she gets back home. We are heading back to Texas in 12 more days. It sure feels strange being at this point in our mission, so close to the end.

 

Week #4 has come and gone

Our remaining few weeks, have been flying by. Last week, we had fun with Elder and Sister Ray, as they accompanied us for the last few days of apartment inspections this month .(Next month, we'll be home in Texas, and they will be hitting the snowy roads all by themselves). 

 Nice thing about our mission is that there are always so many interesting places to visit, along the way. Elder Ray had never been to Niagara Falls, so even though it was freezing cold, we made a quick stop, since it's minutes away from the last apartment on our route.

 After the big Thanksgiving snowstorm hits Buffalo in a day or two, this last bit of the Autumn color will be gone.

 

 

On the way home from Niagara, we decided to join another senior missionary couple, Elder and Sister Young for supper at Rudy's Diner in Medina. Rudy's is next door to their apartment, and someplace I always thought it would be fun to go to. I'd never been in a "Diner" before. It was a good excuse to visit with the Youngs, a couple we love very much.

Elder Young is a retired Church Seminary teacher. He taught at Pleasant Grove High School in Utah, which is where I did my student teaching . Sister Young is one of my mission heroes. She suffers from Lupus, which has almost destroyed her vocal cords, so she speaks barely above a whisper. The Youngs originally signed up for a 6 month mission due to Sister Young's health issues, but have now extended it to more than a year.  This is in spite of Sister Young's continued health challenges, even requiring recent hospital stays. Sister Young is so upbeat, and has a smile that warms your heart. She and her husband are two of the most loving, Christ-like people I've met. Everyone in the little town of Medina loves them.

 

 

So, after a fun time together at Rudy's, we strolled the quaint main street of this little canal town. We visited some of the neat little shops, like the Candle Nook (shown here) and Della's Chocolate shop. We had fun talking with the owners of these great little shops, who have become very good friends of the Youngs. 

 

 

What a great ending to the week, as Andrew and Heather Jonas were baptized on Saturday. They came over our place for dinner, along with the missionaries, last weekend. They are a great young couple. Heather coaches women's  rugby at a local college, while Andrew does computer work and is a volunteer firefighter.

 

From left to right: Elder Jones, Andrew and Heather, Elder Kelly, Elder Fierros. Taken after the baptism. It is so neat to see the joy the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings to others.