All Good Things

You know the saying, "All good things must come to an end." Aren't you glad that in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that isn't true? Good things don't come to an end but go on forever. Unfortunately, when it comes to missions, that saying is true. There comes a time for a mission to end.

My last blog post ended with my leaving Brazil and arriving in Atlanta. I was there for two weeks. I loved being in Atlanta with family. (I have half my family there).

We celebrated granddaughters' birthdays early by having fun shopping trips and going out to eat Thai food (yum!).

 

 

 

 

 

We played games. With this game, a wrong answer wins a bop on the head with a plastic club. I think people liked bopping each other more than the actual game itself! (Those scowls are fake! We laughed and laughed!)

 

 

 

And I got southern food - grits! (Yay! They were served Georgia-style, rather than North Carolina- style, which I am more used to, but I was happy!)

 

 

While I was there, we went as a family to the temple and afterwards, we went to Chick Fil-A. One of my granddaughters, who is a real think-outside-the-box person, once worked for them, and wanted to go to Chick Fil-A as her wedding luncheon! Ever since, we call this "The Reception Center" and it is a family tradition to go there after the temple. What fun!

Soon it was time to head to Utah! I arrived on January 30 and how wonderful it was to see this half of the family! I am so blessed with wonderful family all over the world (and I will see my family in the UK soon!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

My sons and their families in Utah all went to my storage unit and moved everything to my home before I arrived. All the big furniture was in place and all I had to do was unload about a thousand boxes (an exaggeration, but it felt like a thousand boxes).

 

 

 

 

I was released on January 31, and I was sad. I was really afraid that I would lose the sweet spirit that goes with missionary work. But I have learned that while I have lost the "mantle" of a missionary, I still have the "mantle" of a mother, which is eternal, and the "mantle" of a member of the church, which is also eternal. I believe that as long as I keep studying the scriptures, praying, being humble, and serving others, I will keep having the spirit to be with me. That is wonderful. 

I unpacked, and unpacked, and made many phone calls to get the electricity, gas, insurance changed to my name and my home, to get all my mailing addresses from many accounts updated, and made doctor's appointments, etc. It is a shock to realize all the things that I didn't have to juggle as a missionary that now have to be taken care of!

On February 11, I had my homecoming in my ward. I was very nervous, for some reason. I rewrote my talk three times, the last of which was at 2 am on the Sunday I was supposed to give it! I bought a LOT of food because I didn't know if I would have 5 people or 40 people come to the open house afterwards. Everything turned out well, because there was just enough food left over for one meal for me.

The hit of the open house was Sister Barneck's Brigadeiros!  There were so many people who asked me for the recipe that I asked her to let me put it in the blog for you. Here it is:

(Thank you Sister Barneck!)

So now, everything is put back in place in my home, things are quiet. I think it is time for a new adventure! In two days, I will go for an interview to be a temple worker! On March 1, I will start helping as a service missionary for Pathway Brasil. I have some genealogy to work on. And I have a book that is almost finished and ready to be published. I think I am going to stay busy!

Goodbye, my friends. I will miss writing this blog and hearing your responses. But we are all still friends and family. I love all of you. Let's keep in touch.