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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.

We’ve loved the opportunity to teach seminary on our mission. High-school youth in the early morning present an interesting teaching challenge, not only because we need to engage them with thoughtful discussion and spiritual fulfillment, but because we have to keep them awake! On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve loved the opportunity to teach Institute. It’s traditionally a class for young adults, but there aren’t a lot in our area so we’ve adapted and taught older adults. Our classes are on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and tend to delve quite a bit deeper into gospel topics.

Well, this was the end. We finished our Tuesday evening class with (of course) a party, and took a group photo afterward.

This evening we had another party with our Wednesday evening group, and another photo.

Although most of the “regulars” are in these pictures, several were missing and we had others who came occasionally. All of them were great fun, and brought a lot of great insights into our discussions. Thank you to Willa, Eileen, Jerry, Karen, Dale, Veronica, Monica, Celia, Keja, Valentina, Natalie, Vicki, Dave, Marilyn, Woody, Lorraine, Cathy, Judy, Tom, and Miles!

These missionaries have a knack for sneaking some pictures on my phone…

Today was the last day of seminary for the school year. We’ve spent nine months with these amazing high-school youth, and although I admit not every class was a home run, I think we did a decent job of it. I’m always impressed by these kids’ willingness to get up at five in the morning and participate in discussions about the gospel. And frankly they’re just fun.

Another great thing about our seminary work was our co-teacher, Jen. She hates early mornings– even more than I do– but somehow managed to conjure up an amazing amount of energy and spirit every day she taught.

After the youth left, we cleaned up everything and took one last photo of our classroom.

Seminary is hard. It’s hard to get up early, it’s hard to prepare lessons every day, it’s hard to engage sleepy high-schoolers. But it’s also so very rewarding.

This week is becoming a series of “last”s! This morning we had our last district council with our little group of Valley missionaries. As usual, it was good to work with them and discuss the things they’re doing. They asked Pepper and me to share some closing comments, and both of us got a little emotional as we talked about how much we’ve loved our mission, and especially our time with them.

Afterward, a bunch of us headed to In-n-Out for lunch. Two of them asked for a final photo with us.

If it’s not evident from the plethora of blog posts I’ve written, it’s these young missionaries that have been one of the best parts of our time here. They’re amazing and funny and hard-working, and they give me hope for the next generation of leaders in our world.

Our young single adult (YSA) group has been a really cool part of our mission experience. We’ve seen the group grow significantly during our time here, and we’re excited for the direction they’re going. Today was our last activity with them, so of course we had to have a party.

Yasmine shows off her handiwork on the cake they made for us.

We had a good dinner and lots of laughs. Of course we finished the night with a final group photo.

Celia had college class and couldn’t make it, but she joined us via phone (see her a little right of center?). And one of the ladies’ boyfriends, Luis, showed up. That broke the usual tradition of me and a bunch of women.

What an awesome group!

Today was our last p-day with the missionaries. P-day is always a good time, and we’re going to miss hanging out with them. When we walked into the church, no one was around, which was strange. We checked one of the rooms and suddenly they all jumped out and screamed “Surprise!”. Party horns blared and confetti exploded.

It happened to be Sister Brown’s birthday, so there was a “dual” cake. Everyone was sad that we’re leaving (NAY) but happy for her 20th birthday (YAY).

Here she is, dancing to some Mexican fiesta music we turned on.

There was, naturally, a piñata. After Elder Ginos and I took our swings, Elder Searcy finished it off.

It was a lot of fun to celebrate with the birthday girl and the rest of the gang.

I love these yahoos.

We’re heading out of California in a few days, so I went for one last run on the streets of El Centro. I really don’t enjoy running, but I know it’s important to exercise, so I go out roughly three times a week. Even in the early morning, the temperature is pretty hot.

Here I am on the I-8 overpass:

I’d much rather be playing ultimate, but running is a good way to stay in shape. Back in Montana I might need to get a treadmill…

Last September I started decorating our little apartment with photos from our mission. It was a fun way to fill the walls (and much cheaper than buying artwork!). Now that we’re coming to the close of our mission, I printed one last batch of photos to fill the wall. We now have almost 450 pictures on all three walls of our living room!

The missionaries visiting our apartment love finding themselves in our photos. In fact, a few of them appear in quite a few of them. Some have served with us in the Valley for four months or more; others served for a couple of months, moved to San Diego, and then came back for a few more months. It’s awesome to step through all our photos– which are roughly in order from start to finish– and remember these great people and great experiences.

For the past year, we’ve been doing our best to help in community service throughout El Centro. Our food distributions are definitely the bulk of our service, but we’ve helped package that food, give beds to kids, clothes to families, organize a thrift store, and several other things. A few days ago, we got a call from a Baptist preacher who runs a small church in town. He needed help painting the inside of the chapel, and asked if our missionaries could do it. It was sort of strange– why not have his congregation do the work?– but the missionaries were thrilled to paint, and there’s never a reason not to help our fellow Christians.

This morning we went to work.

It was a lot of fun, and when we finished the chapel looked as good as new. We cleaned up a few paint drips on the pews (sorry!) and posed for a picture on our way out.

The preacher was so grateful for our help, and we were grateful for the opportunity to serve. I love that the missionaries have a “reputation” for helping in the community!