And Then We Were Done - December 17th through December 29th, 2024

 I am writing looking back in retrospect, it being now January 22, 2025.  Here is what happened...

The week of December 17th we learned that our daughter, Nicole, who had been been diagnosed with lung cancer a couple of years ago, that the lung cancer has turned into stage 4 and has spread to her other lung.  We talked with our Mission President at Zone Conference on Wednesday, December 18th about going home early.  He told us that family comes first and to let him know what we wanted him to do.  By the end of the conference, Elder Gibbons told him we felt we should go home.  President told us he would reach out to the area authority, President Daynes who by Friday, December 20th responded that we should indeed be released to return home.  He asked President Peckham to relay a message to us that he was going to submit Nicole, and our family's names to the First Presidency's daily prayer roll.  What an amazing tender mercy for us.  This Church is over 17 million members led by 15 apostles and prophets and yet interested in the individual needs of its people.  

This set in motion our efforts to ready the home we were living in for our leaving after Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, December 22nd.  There was a huge winter snow storm coming on Monday and we felt that we should leave before the roads became dangerous.  We didn't tell anyone in the Branch that we had to leave because we didn't want the Christmas Sacrament Meeting to focus on us.  Sacrament Meeting is all about the worshipping the Savior, Jesus Christ.  What we did do is tell President Kieliszewski just prior to the meeting and asked him to make the announcement once the meeting was finished.  Our car was loaded to the max.

It was so hard to say goodbye and doing so at the last moment made it harder.  We have come to love the wonderful people of the Cheboygan Branch, many of whom weren't at this last Sacrament Meeting that we were able to attend.  

Couldn't hold back the tears as we realized our service with Sister Newman and Sister Thompson was coming to an end.

We love them so much.  We think we will be going to Utah often for homecomings and eventual wedding announcements!

One last picture with Arthur and Sheree Woollard and their grandson, Maddox (who is still meeting with missionaries and learning about the Church.)  We can't wait to watch how Arthur and Sheree progress in the Gospel and when they go to the Temple to receive their own endowments in June, we plan to return to 

be with them.

Can't say enough about Sister Cindy Pugh.  She was the Relief Society President for most of the time we served in Cheboygan.  She is the reason the Cheboygan Branch functions at all.  She is generous and filled with a love and desire to bless others.  She blessed us!

I am not sure that we ever had a picture of President and Sister Kieliszewski.  We tried our best to support and serve them and ease their load.  He was asked to serve as Branch President for three years and he is about half way through.  They live outside of the  Branch boundaries and have to travel over an hour each way to come to church.  Sister Kieliszewski was the only one who could play the piano and we so appreciated her sharing her talents.  I lead the music and she played.

Josh Hetrick was baptized about three years ago.  He is a counselor in the Branch Elders Quorum Presidency.  He also was the one that did the yard upkeep in the home we lived in.  He would do anything that anyone asked or needed him to do.  He is a tender-hearted and quiet man.  We tried to express appreciation to him often 

Brother and Sister Olson rented the home we lived in to the Church.  They were very diligent and making sure everything was working well.  When nothing but rust came out of the tub faucet he was right there with a plumber.  When the lights in one section of the house stopped working all the sudden, he got an electrician right over and about $2K later he had replaced all the very old switches and plates in the house and found the reason why.  They also found that one of the plates was potentially dangerous.  They also found as they went under the house that the heat duct had completely disconnected from the vent and that heating the house when the cold, cold temperatures came would not have been effective.  When the oven actually caught on fire, they replaced it right away as needed.  The house was over 25 years old and we just happened to be there when this all happened.  We felt very blessed.  

  This is Anthony Morris.  We met him about two weeks before we left Michigan.  He was baptized a member many years ago as a young man, but has lived a very rough life.  He sent self-referral to the church which was forwarded to the Cheboygan sisters.  We sat in a lesson with the sisters and Tony.  He wants to change his life because his 17 year old son, William, was coming to live with him soon.  We helped him to purchase some things for his new little apartment.  We hope he continues to progress in his return to truth and joy.  We will keep in touch with him from time to time.

Zach and Autumn Fuqua attended our Sacrament Meeting.  They became our friends because we all love Jesus!  Sadly they never expressed interest in learning more about The Church of Jesus Christ and the restored gospel.  Mostly because they have preconceived and erroneous opinions about what we believe.  We met them the first week we served at The Lord's Kitchen.  We were so happy every time we saw them in Cheboygan.  It meant a lot that they took time to attend church with us on our last Sunday.

Once Church was over and we said our last goodbyes, we drove to Lansing to the mission home and spent about an hour with President and Sister Peckham and had an "exit interview."  We cannot adequately express how much we love them and how much we were blessed by their inspired, loving leadership.  We hope to keep in touch with them for a long, long time.

The Mission Home

We left on Sunday afternoon and headed south.  It was a good thing we didn't delay any longer because within about 12 hours snow hit the state.  We had great road conditions all the way home.  We spent the first night in Indianapolis, Indiana; the second night with Codie and Todd in Edmond, Oklahoma; and on the last day drove the final 14+ hour drive.  We figured we went through 8 states and 30 hours of driving in less than three days.

We arrived in our new home on Christmas Eve about 7:30 p.m.  We found this on the garage door.  No one was home.  It was time for celebration and we told everyone we were just going to hang around and unpack through Christmas.  But the last minute welcome home meant a lot.

    

Even now looking back it brings tears to our eyes.  The opportunity to serve as the Lord's called and set apart missionaries was priceless.  Sure there are sacrifices, but what we learned about ourselves, about each other, about God's children and His ever present tender mercies as well as feeling His love for each of us cannot be exaggerated.  It is real.  It is perfect.  It is eternal.  Our name badges reminded us each day of our responsibility to represent Jesus Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ, and our commitment to love Them and all God's children.  We were stretched.  Tutored.  Corrected.  Rewarded and blessed.  And we were loved by so many.  And we love them.