This post begins with a photo of flowers, which are hard to see, unless you click on the photo to enlarge it. We’d never seen the “Naked Ladies (above),” until someone pointed them out to us. Absolutely unique: a bit of joy, wherever we noticed them during this busiest of mission conclusions. We cleaned and packed throughout the month. The young missionaries would move into our apartment (our third home, during this mission). The mission moving van found all our senior missionary furnishings gathered in the living room; the boxes and suitcases for our own car were left in the dining room. Our excellent landlord had made every little repair we noted; we enjoyed last visits with each of those with whom we had been reading and discussing the scriptures; we made sure our valiant bishop received the new addresses we had collected in person and on White Pages, the list of those desiring more regular contact or rides to church, the list of those who have no current interest in the restored gospel; and we said goodbye to each of the active members of the ward. (The young missionaries visited them in their homes, but we specialized in the less active and homebound members — so we knew more about them.) There were so many farewell moments!
We had arranged with our mission president to make a quick visit to Oak Ridge TN to see Marty’s sister. In thirty years, we had never seen them on their home turf. We drove there in eight hours, visited two days, and then dashed eight hours back to our missionary apartment. It was exhausting, but we were glad to spend that time with Amy, Dan, and Stevie… (although disappointed not to meet Tomi or the Belnaps). They treated us royally, and we were just so happy to see their home and a bit of the local area, which is so scenic. Somehow my photos didn’t stick, so here are some older photos of this wonderful family. Proud to be related to them…
Marty had pulled a hip flexor, so he was unable to stand up straight. But he was perfectly comfortable taking his turn to drive. He did, however, beg the assistance of the young missionaries to load our car that hot morning. We couldn’t have done it without them! The car was fully packed, and now we were supposed to arrive at the mission home in Bentonville AR in time for dinner. This four-hour trip took a bit longer than usual. We felt fortunate to enjoy a lovely dinner by Sister Collins, and an inspirational meeting with other departing missionaries. We left as the testimony portion of the meeting began.
President and Sister Collins were dynamic teachers who left a lasting impression on us. Of course, we never got to know them as well as the mission presidents we served as office specialists in Ghana. But that is to be expected. The Arkansas Bentonville Mission includes ten ecclesiastical stakes, parts of four states, plus there was extra time and attention given to supporting the recent Bentonville temple open house and impending temple dedication. Our particular mission assignment was the furthest to the east, just an hour from the St. Louis temple. This was an immense mission, both in geography and in number of missionaries. We feel privileged to have served there under the Collins’ leadership.
We needed to return through Colorado to our home in Billings MT, a trip of nineteen hours. So we stopped in Oakley KS one night. Once again we were surprised to see acres of windmills and solar panels in the farming country. On Sunday we made a shorter drive to see Becky and Wendell, who are our true angel supporters, dealing with mail and accounting items whenever we serve a mission. They are near Fort Collins CO. We relaxed and ate and talked and picked up our mail. And dashed on to our motel room in Cheyenne WY.
The next day’s drive was only seven hours, across the Crow Indian Reservation, which includes the infamous Little Bighorn Battlefield. We stopped as little as possible. We were eager to be home in our own bed, and thoroughly tired of driving the car.
We had an excellent property manager, Sunlight Property Management in Laurel MT. We came home to a spotless house! We will definitely use this company again. The last renter had moved out 60 days before our return, so perhaps you can guess the only thing which didn’t look quite right when we returned? Yes, our gorgeous artificial turf was ringed on most edges by foot-tall weeds — because there had been no one there to yank them as they appeared. Marty took care of the weeding right away. It didn’t take long.
All our furniture and boxes were stored in our basement bedroom and cold storage room. It took only a few minutes to extract the exercise bike, the blanket chest, and several cabinets. Voila! Our own bed was ready for us. The next morning we began to place the pictures back on every wall. Marty’s maternal grandparents and paternal grandma with her Czech wedding certificate; our tired faces in our mission shirts beside our family tree; an improved display in the living room
Plus some of my favorite family portraits, surrounding the Family Proclamation and a miniature oil painting from Parker CO. Just above that tiny treasure is a five-generation photo of Julie, Alena, Grandma Stacy, me, and my father. We are home!
I missed my daily three-mile walk during our long days of driving, so I celebrated by walking around Lake Elmo, which might be twice the size of the city lake in Sullivan MO. Not nearly so many birds and insects here — Montana is a desert compared to Missouri!
Before our mission, we painted the front door blue, which attracted fewer insects than white. We live on Las Palmas Avenue, which I think is positively hilarious, because Montana is not known to have palm trees, at all… I now have a quality fake palm tree on the front porch. Now it’s time to walk around and meet the neighbors again. The whole world seems to be falling apart, but I know that good neighbors in rural Missouri and Montana continue to watch out for one another. It feels great to be home again!
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