Finally Gone

Finally Gone
Friday June 6, 2008

Today, Friday June 6, we are at Trisha & Chris' home in Orem for the weekend recuperating from the long nights and busy days trying to get out of town. I'll start with last Saturday and continue in several other entries.

You know that Cindy and I want to be with our friends and family as much as possible in these last few days and have split ourselves between those activities and getting ready to leave. Saturday was no exception. In the morning we took the Odell's to breakfast, a combination last Home Teaching visit and social time. In the mid-day we tried to finish some projects around the house to not leave anything undone. In the afternoon we went to Lodi to our niece's son's first birthday party, but had to leave in time to drive the hour back home in time to meet the 7 friends who had agreed to help us finish packing up our personal things for storage in the guest room. When they left at 9:30 we spend until after midnight working on more "get out of town" projects. I am so looking forward to the mission's 10:00 going to bed rules.

Sunday we went to the Hurley Ward block meetings for the last time and again received many kind words and well-wishes. People have been too nice to us. I told Cindy that if anything happened to delay our mission, we still had to leave town on the 5th because we could not stand to have any false starts.

After church we went around and visited many friends whom we had not yet seen. We heard that Frank Levett was in the hospital and expected to find Karen and Robert there. We just missed them at Mercy General, but saw Frank for the last time. He later died on Wednesday afternoon. We did see Karen and Robert Lee at home. The Sunday before we had seen the Poplawski's, Mike Kiester, Carol Matich, and the Sherwoods, being concerned that they may not be here when we returned after 2 years.

Sunday evening we had the last BBQ with the family, cleaning out the freezer. It was enough food for 20 people, including three ribeye steaks, 6 pieces of lamb, and the last of the swordfish from our Hawaii trip in April. After they went home at about 9 we stayed up til 1:30 am working on projects.


Continued on "Finally Gone 2"

The real work begins

5/18/2008
Now the real work begins

May 18, 2008 We spent most of the evening calendaring and planning the next two + weeks to get ready to go. Janell will come and help us start moving things around this week and we'll get the carpets cleaned for a fresh start. 

Speaking of Janell, she began working for us in our yard and cleaning our house when she was 14. She has worked with and for us ever since. She knows more about our house and we do and will do a great job taking care of things. She recently got married to Peter Frangel  and they are the perfect couple to take care of our home while we're gone.

We plan to move all of our personal things into the guest room so that Janell and Peter will have free access to what's OK for them to use without worrying about damaging our personal stuff. That is a new project list that will take some real doing.


We will also give our perishable food stores to family and anyone else who needs/wants it because Janell and Peter could not possibly eat all of it before it spoils.  Janell will have access to the rest if she wants.

This is going to be a big job.

This is a great mission.

May 18, 2008
"After the Ball"

The BBQ is now history, the Sacrament Meeting sermons have been delivered and we are sitting in our kitchen trying to absorb all that has happened. Bob Lee ( bishop's counselor) said that there were 380 sacrament cups used during the meeting and that would not account for our non-LDS friends who were there. That means that almost Four hundred of our friends came to church today to show their support and love while we declared our love for them and the Lord in our talks. Several came from great distances (Utah & Canada) to be there. What a thrill.

Cindy spoke about her epiphany, her personal revelation as to why go on a mission to Russia. She rehearsed our 1990 experience in the then Soviet Union and the workings of the Spirit. Simply stated, she is going because she said "yes" a very long time ago. Doug talked about giving and God's commandment to give freely of our time, talents, and all that we possess for the building up of the kingdom of God on the earth. Both bore testimony of the Gospel's power and truth.

Now, as we sit and look at the cards and gifts we again feel the love and support of our friends. We are so blessed to have so many good people in our lives who are willing to take time to show their love and support. Especially our friends of other faiths. They must be wondering why we are doing this but supporting us anyway. What good people!

We will post to this blog regularly to keep our friends and family up to date on our doings during our mission. We hope you will enjoy it.