The last two weeks have been a blur of goodbyes.
We will love you forever Trujillo...
But we had cried enough tears to last a lifetime
so we wanted to slip
out to the Trujillo Airport by ourselves.
BUT...
Alexis had to say goodbye and he had access to the flight info.
He is President Turk's secretary in the Mission.
And President Mendez his counselor showed up from Chimbote
because Alexis told him about the flight.
And he brought his whole family.
The office Elders showed up because they also knew
when the plane was leaving but they were
sworn to secrecy.
The Marlers, the new president and his wife
had to give the office Elders permission to come
so they jumped in and brought the office elders and
even had them practiced to perform a beautiful number
that made us all cry again.
Alicia couldn't stay away even though we have
had many goodbyes with her and Lucy and their families...
and she brought her whole family.
And that was the goodbyes in Trujillo.
As we took off, we looked out the window and wept.
We landed in Lima...
walked out with our luggage to check in on the other airline...
and we heard all of our returned missionaries in Lima
singing in English
I KNOW HE LIVES....
and again ... more tears.
We were able to spend two hours with them.
We ordered up hamburgers like the old times...
We played "Listo... Cae" for the extras
President and I spoke to them
We took a thousand photos...
The Lima Airport didn't know what was happening.
We sang... God be with you til we meet again
and Called to serve
We cried some more
and then we prayed together.
They followed us down the escalator
all the way to the check in....
It was hard to part.
Who knows when we will see them again...
Who knows when we will see them again...
As we passed through security... we came upon Elder Christofferson
who was in Lima organizing the 100th Stake in Perú.
He was by himself so we thanked him for setting us apart,
and for visiting our mission and for his kind words to us that day.
It started wtih him and ended with him.
We love him.
We flew through the night to the Dallas Airport...
We met up with a couple of Mission Presidents
that we knew from the MTC
We hugged them cried again and moved on to the last leg of the trip.
Forget about the make up.
President and I were holding hands coming down the corridor
in the Phoenix airport and we
started to hear the chants of ...
TURK, TURK, TURK, TURK...
It started to get louder and I started to pull President Turk
as fast as I could..
We came out of the corridor to this beautiful sight.
And then these fellas ran out to us first.
Griffy, Tillman and Walker
We hugged and loved on the whole family
and then went home for a very needed shower.
Then back to my sister Sherri's house for the
"Well Done Dinner"
that we have all together every time
a missionary returns in our family.
Before they leave we have a "Tie and Ice Cream" Party
or "Skirts and Desserts". Everyone brings a tie or skirt
for the missionary leaving... and then a short program.
We had a beautiful dinner. We bore testimonies.. and we always sing
Well Done thou Good and Faithful Servant.
Life is Good. The Gospel is Fantastic
Our Savior Lives and Loves us.
Our Mission will always be Sacred and Holy to us
and we will refer to it often and fondly.
