Thoughts After Farewell Testimony Meeting

Last Friday night (and every Friday night on transfer week), all of the missionaries going home that transfer spend the evening and night at the mission home and at 9:00 pm, we have a mission wide Zoom meeting where they each bear their testimony and give advice to the other missionaries.  This time, two missionaries we knew were going home--Sister Halladay and Sister Malpica.  It was great to hear their sweet testimonies again and to listen to their advice, knowing a bit about them.  But it was great to hear from all 20 of the missionaries going home.

These young men and young women are in the early 20s.  They have just completed a major accomplishment in their lives to serve for 24 or 18 months as a full-time missionary.  Their missions are often something that they had planned for their entire lives...and now it is done.  They are amazing-each in their own unique ways. And you can hear and feel their testimonies especially of Jesus Christ whom they have served.

But as I listened to them, I was struck by the thought that all of their adult lives are still ahead of them.  They are returning home now and starting back into "real" life with all of the joys and the sorrows that are entailed in that--school, work, marriages, children, health, ....the list of what is ahead is long...and it is a list that in many ways, we (meaning Gary and I) are looking back at.  It was a bit of a weird moment--them posed at the beginning of adult life after 20 years of growing and mostly being taken care of and us nearer to the end of it--maybe we have 20 more years left but for the most part, we are in the harvesting part of our lives--reaping what we have sown--loving our kids and grandkids, serving in the Church, traveling, being involved in our neighborhoods and community but probably more limited or at least differently than in the past.  I am not saying that struggles and hard times aren't still ahead for us.  Old age doesn't look that fun and we have children and grandchildren just in the middle of the messiness of life.  But we know a bit about struggles and how to manage them and to get through them together.  Life doesn't feel unknown any more.  We have done many of the expected things and so many of the wonderful unexpected joys of life.  We have been and are so blessed.

I am content to be 68 and looking back on the "bulk" of my life.  Good luck, my sweet friends, may life journeys be sweet and challenging but hold on, hold on to the faith that led you on your missions and through those tough days.  It will get you through it all.