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.