Packing up!

Yes, I know!  I have been packing for weeks.  The china cabinet has been empty for a month.  The linen closet, coat closet, and the bathroom cupboards have been cleared and there have been a couple of trips to DI.  The spare room has been empty for a week and the play room is packed, ready to move everything to storage, but it wasn't till today that I started to feel that we are really moving.  What 'did it' for me?  There are now empty shelves in the study.  Rod's 'inner sanctum' is starting to empty.  We are really doing this!

Wow! Almost all of the finishing up projects are done.  The doors latch, new tile is in the bathroom.  It is truly going to happen. We have been in this house since the month before our last daughter was born, about 25 years ago.  There has been a lot of living here, lots of wonderful memories.  Who knows if we will ever live here again. Not us.  Still, you can't move forward if you don't leave the past behind, sooooo onward we go to new adventures.  Stay tuned.......

'Farewell' sort of.

In between our camp out and our family photos, we had our 'farewell' Sacrament meeting.  Normally I don't have too much trouble speaking in church, but I admit to being nervous about  this one.  The reasons were probably  the stress of planning the camp out and also from the feeling that people have high expectations from Rod and I.  Actually, Rod has to face more of that than I do.  I was glad that I went first.  I quite purposefully made my talk quite short and left Rod most of the time.  Our assigned subject was 'attitude and hope' and I was glad that Rod chose attitude.  I took the subject of hope and talked about the comparison between the Spanish esperar and hoping and waiting  (the Spanish verb can mean either). Studying the scriptures on the subject, it became clear that hoping is a very active process that leads to charity.  That is one purpose of speaking, it forces me to study and grow in understanding.  Another reason I was glad that I went first was that all five of our kids sang the 'special number'.  They sang  'As Sisters in Zion- Armies of Helaman'  They did such a beautiful job and Rod and I weren't the only ones in the congregation that started crying when the boys sang 'we have been born ... to goodly parents'.  Rod did a fantastic job as always.  He spoke of the importance of attitude and the impact that members of the ward and their attitudes had on us and our family.  He quoted from his journal some of the comments that ward members had made that impacted our family.  We were deeply touched by all the people that attended the meeting to show their love and support for us and our mission.  We are so very blessed.  Thank you all!

Missionary companions!
Yea!  The talks are done!

I have a good looking comp.

Now we just have to get those visas in so we can actually leave.  As of now, we go to Provo for our 'medical training' on Dec. 3.  If the visas aren't ready by then, we will come back home and wait for them. Well, maybe I will be able to absorb more Spanish by then.  Pray for us.