September 8, 2024

This may very likely be my last blog documenting our mission. What a wonderful adventure it has been!! We have loved every minute of it and it is hard to believe it has come to an end. We were released on Thursday night by our Stake President, Robbie Yates. He is new since we left on our mission and we don't know him but he was very kind and let us talk about our mission experience. It was hard to go home and take off our badges. There are moments already where I feel like it was all a dream. A beautiful, wonderful, incredible dream that we will never forget!

It was a busy week working on leaving Oregon. It started on Sunday when we took Larsons with us to go and visit Tracey and her family. This wasn't really a goodbye because we will be back to visit them often. Tracey made us a yummy dinner then we walked the forest and played a little Bucket Golf. I actually didn't play too bad this time. Tracey's house is getting so empty with just Alyssa at home now. I know these changes have been hard for Tracey with Hayden in Boston and Danica in Boise. Hopefully Alyssa will enjoy all the attention :).

We had our last Office Staff meeting on Monday morning. Just as we expected the President took us all out to Black Bear Diner for brunch. But that was after pictures and a special musical number written especially for us by our very own Elder Larson. It has become tradition for him to write departing tunes for the Sr missionaries. Ours was set to the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies theme and Elder & Sister Larson were joined by the young missionaries in performing it for us. It was so fun! At Black Bear Diner the President spoiled us all. You want shakes to go with your meals? Sure, no problem!!

The rest of Monday and early Tuesday we spent finishing our packing and cleaning. Then we picked up the trailer and headed to MLC to say our final goodbyes to many of the missionaries.

After MLC some of the missionaries followed us back to our apartment and helped us load the trailer. It really is true when they say many hands make light work. We had the whole trailer loaded in less than 45 minutes. We appreciated their help so much!

Wednesday morning we were off and headed for home. By then I felt numb and utterly exhausted. It had been such an emotional roller coaster. We dropped our keys off at the office and said even one more last goodbye! By then I already felt replaced. The new Sr couples had taken over our desks and were already hard at work. Just as it should be!

The best thing about coming home was getting to wrap my arms around Ryan and giving him a great big hug. He starts his chemo on Thursday so we are here just in time to give them support in whatever way we can.

Rachel and Chris were amazing helpers. They met us at the house and helped us unload everything quickly. Then the work began as we cleaned, unpacked, and tried to remember where everything went. The house was left in reasonably good shape but I still felt like I needed to clean and wipe down every surface before putting things away. Women are like that sometimes!! It has been exhausting but we are making progress. The kids all came back on Saturday and helped with some of the work which was very much appreciated. They cleaned windows, washed doors, hung up clothes, and connected the electronics. Sunday we attended church in our ward and it was so, so, so good to see everyone. We look forward to visiting even more at Empty Nesters tomorrow night and a Relief Society Activity on Tuesday. We returned at just the right time :).

Our "Homecoming" talks will be next Sunday, September 15th at 10:30 AM. We look forward to seeing lots of other friends and family there! Next week I will close this blog with copies of our talks and departing testimonies.

September 1, 2024

It is hard to believe that this was our last full week in the mission field. When I post next week we will be home!! This was a busy week training, wrapping up everything on our desks, and cleaning and packing up the apartment. I think we are just about ready. We will spend Sunday afternoon at Tracey's, then Monday the President will take all the Office Staff out to Black Bear for one last goodbye. Tuesday we will attend MLC and then the missionaries will follow us home and pack up our trailer. Wednesday we hope to drive away by noon.

Last Sunday was our last District Council with these cute young missionaries. They have made us feel loved and valued all week. It will be nice to get our Sunday nights back but I am sure we will miss it. Looking on the positive it will be fun to have Sunday dinner with family and play games too!

Monday was exciting because we got to be on a group call with our very own Elder Parker Rowan. His family patched us in and it was so good to see him!!! We should have been doing that every month. Now that we know how fun it is we will have to do it more often. He is so much like all of our missionaries here that it will be a good reminder of all those missionaries we are leaving behind. We had to laugh because just last week Elder Parker Rowan turned too soon in a parking spot and scraped the car beside him. We have lost count of how many incidents just like that Elder Jack Rowan has had to deal with! I was worried how Parker was handling things about his dad's illness but he seemed in good spirits and was taking things in stride so far.

Tuesday we had a long day of training but then we were able to go and hang out with the Hermanas for dinner and dessert. Elder Rowan has loved the opportunity he has had on our mission to speak Spanish with our young missionaries. They think it is pretty cool too that he can talk to them. He is going to miss that so this was a good ending to his Spanish experience. We headed over to Woodburn to take Hermana Anderson, Pace, and Mickelson to dinner. They wanted to take Elder Rowan to an authentic Mexican restaurant and it really did feel like we were in Mexico. There were lots of locals there and I even had Tacos Al Pastor! We weren't ready to part ways after dinner so we walked around the corner to a Mexican ice cream shop called El Paisanito. It was such a fun night!

On Wednesday night Elder Rowan put his last batch of cars up for sale. The batch included the beloved Toyota Tacoma that the Assistants drove for a good part of our mission. It was the car Elder Reil had his accident in. When they had the accident a piece of the front fender came off the car. The Elders saved it and then it became a "thing" in the office. If you drove the Tacoma you could sign the fender. Lots of Elders (and Sisters too) came in, got the key from Elder Rowan, and drove it around the parking lot. Then they signed the fender. Sister Larson and I decided we wanted to sign the fender too, so on Thursday we drove it and then had a signing party. Elder Rowan and Elder Larson had previously signed it. Turns out the church won't let us sell the Tacoma because there is pending litigation but when we drive away from here on Wednesday we will have the fender with us as a souvenir for Elder Reil. He is going to school in Utah now and promises to drop by!!!

On Thursday I got my hair cut for the last time in Oregon. The Sr Sister missionaries have all been going to the same hair stylist while we have been here. And the Sr Sisters before us went to her too. She is not a member but cuts the hair of several members and was recommended. Her name is Traci Mashburn and she is a sweetheart. She immediately puts you at ease and can keep up a steady conversation. At one point I was hoping to give her a Book of Mormon but it just never felt right. She loves Jesus and has been active in her community church in the past. Her best friend is a member of the church so hopefully someday the time will be right for her to learn more.

One of the biggest things stressing me out (after Ryan of course) about going home is having to give our "Homecoming Talk". It is so dumb that things like that get to me. I have been praying and pondering about it for a few weeks now and was finally able to get some thoughts down. As part of my talk I wanted to include some thoughts from our young missionaries about how they have changed on their missions. So one night I sent out a text to a random group of about 12 different companionships asking them that question. The responses I got back brought me to tears and reminded me again (as if I needed a reminder) of why we have loved our mission so much. These missionaries are amazing and give me so much hope for the future!!!

By Friday we were tired of training and things were slowing down. I pondered what to do to fill up our last full day in the office. The answer came to me! We should play pickleball!!! So funny. I have not played pickleball our whole mission except with family on (2) occassions. When we first got here we thought we would play often but it just never worked out. Elder Rowan hurt his knee playing with the young Elders early on and by the time he was better I was having problems with my sciatica pain. Then his shoulder started to ache and so it went. The Kanzlers (she is my replacement) are big pickleball players and they were really hoping they could play with us. I don't know what came over me but suddenly I wanted to play them. I was pretty sure they were going to destroy us but it turns out that we are very evenly matched. It is too bad we won't have more chances to play with them. And guess what? We actually beat them 2 games out of 3. It was a proud moment for me!!!

Our last activity for the week was participating in a zone wide service project. We got to volunteer at the McMinnville Air Show, featuring the Thunderbirds. In the morning we volunteered as ticket scanners and bag checkers and then in the afternoon we got to watch the show. It was HOT!!! We volunteered at this same activity last year but it was later in September and cooler. The most fun was watching the young missionaries get so excited as the planes did their flyovers. Several of them went home convinced they want to be pilots now :).