Lasts

I knew this time would come—the end of our mission—and I knew it would be hard. I just didn’t know how hard it would be to go through all the different experiences this past month or so and know that most of them would be our last…

Our last day at the Area Office, our last OGC staff meeting, our last Sunday in the High Wycombe Ward, our last time walking around London, our last ride on the tube, our last time driving in England, our last gathering of area senior missionaries, our last time with ward and office friends, our last hugs, our last pictures…and our last day as missionaries.

Our mission has been such a unique experience in so many ways. My feelings for the place we’ve served is almost as strong as my feelings for the people we’ve come to know and love here. I never quite expected to fall in love with England in the way I have, but that’s exactly what has happened. I will forever be one of those insufferable people who will always say things like, “On our mission we did this…”, “In London we saw this…”, “In England, they say this…”, “When we went to the Cotswolds…”, etc. I apologize in advance, but I won’t be able to help myself.

It reminds me of a paragraph I read in a Bill Bryson book called The Road to Little Dribbling. It’s the best description of England I’ve read:

In terms of natural wonders, you know, Britain is a pretty unspectacular place. It has no alpine peaks or broad rift valleys, no mighty gorges or thundering cataracts. It is built to really quite a modest scale. And yet with a few unassuming natural endowments, a great deal of time, and an unfailing instinct for improvement, the makers of Britain created the most superlatively park-like landscapes, the most orderly cities, the handsomest provincial towns, the jauntiest seaside resorts, the stateliest homes, the most dreamily-spired, cathedral-rich, castle-strewn, abbey-bedecked, folly-scattered, green-wooded, winding-laned, sheep-dotted, plumply-hedgerowed, well-tended, sublimely decorated 88,386 square miles the world has ever known–almost none of it undertaken with aesthetics in mind, but all of it adding up to something that is, quite often, perfect. What an achievement that is. And what a joy it is to walk in it.

And we have walked so many miles throughout this beautiful place!

We have walked through the forest that inspired the adventures of Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh. We have hiked in Sherwood Forest, where the legend of Robin Hood was born. We have visited locations linked to King Arthur.

We have strolled through ancient universities like Oxford and Cambridge where ideas were born in the minds of C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and Einstein.

We have stood in places where history was made and recorded, where events happened that change the course of history. We have walked the walls of ancient fortresses and seen the remnants of World War II battles.

We’ve walked in the footsteps of authors like Jane Austen and Charles Dickens and Shakespeare, and have been inside castles and palaces of kings and queens, and manors and estates belonging to some of the wealthiest people in the world.

England is truly a land like no other!

But what has meant the absolute most to us are the people we have met, served with, had the opportunity to serve, and have come to love so much.

I have enough pictures of the amazing places we’ve seen to fill dozens of photo books. But more importantly our hearts have been filled with memories of the people we have come to love and the experiences we’ve had that can’t be contained in a photograph. Photographs will remind me of our time here, but only the heart can capture what this time has meant to us.

As we prepared to finish our mission, I tried to be intentional about taking as many photos as I could of our friends here (sorry for my big head in the pictures, I’m always the designed selfie taker!). I know I missed some, and certainly wouldn’t want anyone to feel left out because I didn’t get them in a photo, but here are just some of the people who have been a part of our life here and will forever be a part of our heart. There are numerous ones not pictured, but still remembered just the same.

We gave talks in our ward on our last Sunday and there was a “munch & mingle” (or “linger longer”) for us and another family who is moving back to the U.S. It was a sweet opportunity to share our last thoughts and testimonies and give hugs to our ward family.

This picture will always make me laugh—we were standing outside near the pub where we had just eaten dinner. An older lady walked past us and exclaimed, “You all look like you could use a stiff gin and tonic!” Not sure what it was about us that made her say that (so much for looking wholesome!) or if that’s just something funny that British people say. Either way, it’s a funny memory!

Just seeing all these dear faces again as I’m writing this fills my heart with both joy and tears and I’m already missing them so much!

On August 4th, we were officially released as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I can relate with most every missionary who struggles to take off the nametag they have worn every single day for 18-24 months. It has been so strange walking around the last few weeks without it. Having the name of Jesus Christ literally written on our hearts has been both a privilege and also a challenge—it has been a reminder to try to live up to the expectation that we would be examples and disciples of Him and His gospel and that those we come in contact with would feel God’s love through us. No simple task, but one we have tried our best to do for the last year and a half. Now the challenge is to continue to keep His name written on our heart, even though we don’t have the official nametag and title.

It has been a whirlwind the last few weeks as we finished up our mission, packed our things, and prepared to return “home”. So many feelings and so much unknown. We still don’t know where home will be yet, but that’s a problem for another day. :)

Now that we’ve been released, we’ve been able to travel for two weeks prior to returning to the U.S. (The Church allows that extra time for senior missionaries, on our own dime, and then we fly back to London to leave from there and then fly back to Salt Lake on the 20th.) I’ll share more of those pictures in a separate blog post, but here’s a quick little teaser—we were able to go to Norway (epic hiking!), Denmark (to see kids/grandkids, so wonderful!), and we’re finishing right now in Sweden where I have family ancestry and where my Dad served a mission 60 years ago.

Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) in Norway!

Celebrating our youngest grandson’s 1st birthday in Denmark. Happy day (even though he doesn’t look too sure about what’s happening haha)!

Me and my brother in front of a chapel in Stockholm where my Dad most likely attended church as a missionary.

We’ve barely had a moment to rest, but it’s been wonderful to see places I’ve dreamed of for years.

We will arrive in Salt Lake on the 20th, have a day to recover from jet lag, drive our old van back to CA (hopefully it still works!), and then speak in our previous Roseville Ward (on the 24th) and in our Walnut Creek Ward (on the 31st). Somewhere in between all of that, we’ll check on our stuff that’s been in storage for years, maybe try to buy a car, start figuring out where we’re going to live, and hopefully get a nap in!

We’re looking forward to seeing all of you at some point in the next weeks or months, wherever you are! Since we don’t have a house, we have some road trips planned to visit family & friends and might end up on your doorstep at some point! :)

P.S. — Here’s the information for our “homecoming” talks in both wards:

• Roseville 3rd Ward - Sunday, August 24th, 9:00 am - 7950 Hazel Ave, Orangevale

• North Gate Ward - Sunday, August 31st, 10:00 am - 100 North Gate Road, Walnut Creek

♥ Until next time, we love you! Cheers! ♥

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Words of the Week:

Our last words of the week…

Stitching you up - pulling one over on you

mad as a box of frogs = crazy (not angry)

Spend a penny - this is a great one to save for last, we heard it said by our Bishop’s wife - it means to go to the bathroom. Back in the old days, it cost a pence to use a public toilet (more like 40 pence now!) in some place in London. So if you were going to “spend a penny”, it meant you were going to use the bathroom. It’s our new favorite saying haha!