There and Back again:week 79: Going, going, Gone

 

Wow, it really happened. We finished well and packed well. Our friends came and helped us clean. We drove away Saturday morning. Elder Cullen did not know I was taking this picture of him staring at the jail. Staring and staring....We are going to miss being on a mission.  We wrote this song for our friends.It all seems like a Dream

We had our last dinner with friends, after two weeks of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners with people who wanted one last time together. 

So many cards, small gifts, and expressions of love. We had our surry ride with Sawatskis because they are leaving too. It's so bitter sweet. So fun to go home so sad to leave people you have labored beside

You love the people you serve! We all served each other. 

The song we wrote really said what we felt. This has been a lovely experience.

The NEW temple visitors center will be dedicated June 27 in Nauvoo, we're sorry to miss that and all the fun of Pageant Season. You MUST go visit Nauvoo and Carthage. We highly recommend it.

So we're spending Mother's Day with our sons, Ben (Courtnie) and Ephraim  in Kansas City and will hang out here for a week.

Then two family reunions in Utah and time with Autumn (Aaron) and Spring (Calen). We'll be in California around June 10ish.

On to the next great Adventure!!

There and Back Again: Week 78 Stress Management

 

I have researched and taught stress management for decades. I know I can do hard things. I'm good at planning ahead. I can tell that, notwithstanding my knowledge of stress management, that I am under immense stress. 

Everything that is happening right now scores very high on the stress scale. Did you know  stress is just a response to change?

Any change causes stress. Marriage, Divorce, winning the lottery, going bankrupt, getting a great job, starting school, ending school,  loosing a friend, etc., all cause stress. 

Good stress is called Eustress. Bad stress is called distress.  Their effect on the body is THE SAME, it's our reaction to the stress that makes the difference.

So what is the change in our lives? Hmmmm. Let me mention a few but not all...leaving our mission, starting a new life as truly retired people, moving, packing, deep cleaning, leaving our covenant community friends,

 wondering what if anything has changed with our friends back home, going on another mission ( yes, we want to die in the saddle), renting our house and coming back to it, how will we find it?, should we buy a second home nearer our children? On and on....the thoughts swirl in our heads.

So what do we do to support ourselves in the chaos of change? We hold to the schedules and patterns we can control, Morning prayer and Scripture study, taking naps, evening prayers and Scripture study, listening to or playing great music, 

spending quality time in individual or small groups with our friends to say goodbye, stick to the schedule of providing activities.. like the soap making class I taught this week.

work work work to exercise and keep our blood flowing to sweat out and purge via the liver all of our stress toxins (those are real), eating healthy, working with my housing friends

 taking herbal tea, letting myself cry and cry, because that also releases toxins and feels so good when you are done. Attending the temple is a huge stress relief.

Humor is also a great tool for dealing with stress. For example I may have laughed a bit too loud 

when I was mowing and this webby worm dropped down from a tree and swung in front of my face. LOL the joy of knowing, I will be gone when these guys attack in force! Stay on the sunny side!

There and Back Again: Week 77: THE LAST Family visitor!

 

The past week I have been SO grateful for Elder Cullen.  I got up early every morning to help him get the Visitor Center Entrance looking guest ready. Then my cousin Aileen and I would take off to Nauvoo to take all the tours!

We DID IT ALL!!! (except the Pendleton School....weirdly we somehow missed that one)  We also found that our ancestors owned this hotel and surrounding land...which was stolen when they were driven out....can we claim reparations??LOL

It was VERY VERY nice for me to tour every single place and see all my site missionary friends as a last goodbye.  It was bitter sweet.

It reminded me that the people who were driven from Nauvoo, who lived through the abuse, were able to use the power of their covenants with Heavenly Father to survive and make it to Utah and start a new life.  They were so faithful and willing to sacrifice.  So many people held strong and did not loose their testimonies of Jesus Christ even when it seemed He wasn't protecting them. True in all conditions, they kept their faith and their testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

There is a statue at the end of the trail of Hope (our "Trail of Tears") where the saints walked across the frozen Mississippi and left Nauvoo.  Joseph Smith with his arm on Brigham Young's shoulder is pointing across the Mississippi towards the west.  

On Aileen's last day we went down to Hannibal to tour all things Mark Twain.   It was very fun to just be running around as a tourist.  We met Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher!  AGAIN thank you to Elder Cullen who stayed home and worked overtime so I could play hostess.

We had a blast, a lot of great conversation, good food and good sleep.

TWO WEEKS left on our mission. We love you and hope you are all diligently seeking a relationship with Jesus so you can trust Him through all your trials.  He's coming!  

Isaiah 41:10
Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

There and Back Again: Week 76 TWO TORNADOS

This past week was full of fun and fear.  We helped several new missionary couples move in and took them to eat to get to know them better. We had some great activities. I almost tipped the tractor over...that was truly scary.  

The heavy rains had made the ground very soft and when I did my normal route over this little hill it sunk down just enough on the downhill side of the tractor that the mower deck got jammed below the sidewalk line and I couldn't go forwards or backwards and as I tried to back out or move forward it started to tip sideways.  

Elder Cullen RAN over and was pushing on the top of the cab while we problemsolved.  I put it in 4 wheel drive and with his pushing on the cab we were able to wrench free and be safe again.  Then we had to fill, patch and reseed that bit of lawn...heh heh....At least it was at the Bushnell where the "public" never sees.

Wednesday we had a kit flying activity on the temple hill lawn.  It had been raining all day but stopped an hour before and was warm and WINDY!  No one even had to run to get their kit going. They just tossed them up and they went hundreds of feet into the air....Except for mine.  

I got a unicorn kite from the dollar store and it was a piece of junk!  LOL  I tried, three or four different missionaries tried, I gave up.  15 minutes later Sister P. started shouting my name.  I looked over and My unicorn was flying over the temple. LOL  What is the significance??!!

That night the blustery winds turned into a tornado!  Elder Cullen hunkered in our basement with the missionaries next door.  I went over to the Bushnell because the young sister missionaries were very scared and their basement was LOCKED!  As I headed over to their home the sirens came on...it was quite dramatic.  We kept cheerful as we gathered, told stories, prayed, and they were very very glad I was there to comfort them.

Two days later while we were having our movie night another tornado struck.  We gathered in the basement of the Visitor's Center and sang songs, played games, and talked.  When the sirens stopped we got permission to go ahead and watch the movie.  Then at a climatic part in the movie Thunder and Lightning struck. The whole room shook!  The Wifi was knocked out.  So that was the end of that.  LOL.  I thought it was quite metaphorical that we were focusing on the savior (The Lamb of God) in the middle of a storm.

So today is clear bright and warm. We're cleaning house and packing and grateful. I am reminded of a scripture or twooooo.

2 Nephi 2:11For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

So we NEED the crazy in our lives in order to be grateful for the good.  The more pain you have the more you appreciate your health, the more sorrow you have the more joy you have when the sorrow is over.  It's just the way. So don't fight it...paddle through it and remember Christ said

Psalm 55:22

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

Matthew 11:

28 ¶ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. 

There and Back Again: Week 75 Grand Journey to Georgia and KC

Last year we had a NEW type of grass appear in the lawn. We looked it up and found it was nut sedge.

I WISH we had actually researched it. I wish our "Grounds Boss" knew something about nut sedge. He told us to not worry about it and just mow over it. BAD advise.

Pulling the tops and mowing make it multiply faster..WAHHHH This year after a warm rain THESE popped up! Attack of the tribbles.

We couldn't just pull the stems, we had to dig them out by their DEEP bulbs! It's a labor intensive thing. So the lesson is, do not put off until tomorrow or take the easy way...no mowing over your sins to hide them.

JUST PULL THEM OUT by the bulbs through repentance. Because of Jesus we can root out our sins. Because of Jesus, Elder Cullen and I will somehow have the ability to get these things out of the lawn for good!!

Speaking of Jesus, our youngest son Ephraim played Jesus in a musical this weekend. Our older son, Ben, and his wife helped write and perform the music and lyrics, the producer is a friend of theirs and they have been working on it for two years.

Last night we got to watch it and it was AMAZING. So professional, so inspiring, so much talent. We were given permission to leave the mission for a week. So Monday We drove to celebrate Easter Monday with Autumn and honor our Slovak Heritage.

Even though it was a literally a 6pm to 8am visit we made the most of it! The boys showed us all their latest triumphs in bike riding, art, and music.

Autumn and the kids created a delicious Slovak Easter Meal. And we spent quality time together. I particularly enjoyed bedtime stories with Emmet and Taran.

Then we went down to Elder Cullen's cousins and had the BEST time doing family history, going to museums and just catching up.

 We LOVE the Davis's!

Then we visited the Cahokia Mounds...the oldest City in North America. It's timeline perfectly matches the people in the Book of Mormon.

It was amazing to climb the Monk's mound...amazing because we didn't have a heart attack, and amazing because the view was SO SPLENDID. We could see St. Louis in the distance.

Then spent the night at my BYU roommate's house and really enjoyed catching up with her and her husband and meeting her kids and grandkid.

We got to Kansas City on Friday, played with baby Wells, Ben and Courtnie,

watched the musical then got home Saturday (today) to find the Young Sister Missionaries had heart attacked our door!!

What a lovely REST and it feels so good to be back "home" We will enjoy it to the fullest for the next four weeks!!!