Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Neil Diamond




'Nough said!!
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The End of a Great Experience

We have spent much of the day saying goodbye's, it seems. Then we had a surprise farewell party sprung on us this afternoon. Everyone in the mission offices came to wish us well and to say goodbye.

Then, tonight we attended an addiction recovery class which is directed by our good friends, Elder and Sister Powell. It is humbling to see these good people who want so badly to be free of their difficult problem as they come together to help each other.

At 9:45 tomorrow morning, we will meet with President Mecham for a moment to kneel in pray before we depart. Then, he will drive us to the airport and we will be on our way shortly there after. Then, at about 7:45 that same night, we will be reunited with our family. Only an 8 hour trip (not counting the 13 hours or so we gain enroute)!

See some of ya' tomorrow! The rest of ya' will have to wait a couple of days!
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Sunday, August 22, 2010

Almost Time To Go

Been an interesting couple of days. Been saying a lot of goodbyes.

Saturday night, we attended our farewell party from the senior couples. It was a fun night with a great potluch dinner. And we played a couple of games -- something the seniors enjoy doing. One was a Mongolian ankle bone game and the other as a game called 'Dork'. Sister Caldwell won one of the ankle bone games and I won the Dork game (keep your comments to yourself, ya' all!)!

Then today, we bid a final farewell to our Nalaikh Branch. The first picture is of Sister Caldwell as all her Primary bid her a goodbye. She has grown to love those children and they her, as well. She will be missed there.

Then they held a little going away part for us. They moved all of the chairs over along the wall (this is one of those phase one buildings where the large area serves as Chapel, Cultural Hall, etc.) sang a few songs, read a poem or two and then gave us these wonderful gifts shown in the picture.

This seemed to sort of make it a bit more final for us. We left feeling a bit more empty, as we headed back to Ulaanbaatar and our apartment. We had been able to sort of ignore the going end to our experience, what with all the work it has been taking to get things ready for us to go. But today . . .

Only two and a half days now before we will be on that outbound airplane. We are going to miss much, not the least of which will be the missionaries (old and young) we have worked with, cried with, laughed with, fed and grown to love.

But we haven't lost sight of the good things, either. We are really anxious to see our children, grandchildren, freinds and neighbors. It will be good to see them again.

We will arrive Wednesday night and they already have us scheduled to speak in our ward on Sunday.

Boy, they don't give a body much time to rest in this Church!!
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