Well, this is it. The end of the mission.
After over a year in California, we packed our car (absolutely stuffed it full) and headed out of town. As we were shoving the final items into the car, a few of the missionaries stopped by to say their final farewell.
I’ve said it many times in my blog posts over the past year, but these young missionaries were one of the greatest things about our mission service. All of them are amazing, talented, smart, funny, hard-working, spiritual, dedicated servants. I learned so much from their examples. We’re going to miss them just as much as the other (older) friends we’ve made here.
We pulled out onto “The Eight” and headed east. These highway signs are so familiar. We’d either turn north to Brawley or south to Calexico. Today we chose Yuma.
Since we drove right through the Imperial Sand Dunes on Highway 78, we simply had to stop one last time.
We cruised through southern California, into northwest Arizona, then Nevada, and ended up in St George Utah. It was awesome to spend the night with our sort-of-in-laws (Kaitlyn’s parents Brett and Andrea).
In the morning we stopped in to see our friends the Jongewards, who had just moved to St George from Brawley! In other words, we’d said goodbye to them just a few weeks ago as they headed out of California. And here they are again. Weird.
We enjoyed lunch with our friend Tania, formerly Sister Maravilla on her mission. She finished a few weeks before us and is home with her family before heading to school. Don’t tell the other missionaries, but she’s one of our favorites.
Late in the day we made it to the Villa, where our boys were waiting.
It was so good to see them after a year apart.
It feels a little strange to be a “civilian” again, to not wear my name tag any more.
As we close this chapter of our lives, I have much to reflect on. I’m grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to serve the Lord for a year, doing so many things that had an impact on people, meeting so many amazing friends, and fully dedicating myself to one purpose in a way I’ve never done before.
This is the end of our mission, but it won’t be our final mission.