Coming Home

Well, I am home now! That giddy little girl who always dreamed about her mission is all grown up and finished saving China....um...France! And if you read my emails you were able to go on the adventure with me! And what a wonderful adventure it was. I'm sorry if my emails became repetitive or preachy. I'd probably agree with you. I definitely never felt perfect out there, but did know that what I was doing was right.

Today my french professor needed to evaluate my language abilities and asked me to speak about my first baptism. (I attend an Latter-Day Saint affiliated university, so for us this wasn't an unusual topic for a student to be talking about with a professor). As I spoke I became so excited and could feel the love I have for Delphine so strongly. I was reminded, yet again, just how much my mission has changed me.
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For this post, I thought that I would tell you a little about what happened when I came home.

On my last full day as a missionary my companions and I traveled from Blois to Paris, where I met up with the sister missionaries that I started my mission with. We all just kept repeating how weird it was to be finishing. I know it's such a cliche thing to say, but this was the only time we'd be doing this so we had the right.

Then Soeur Alley and Soeur Searle and I spent Paris P-day together. We went to my favorite place, which you should know because I had already gone there twice...Sacre Coeur. It was so nice to catch up with Soeur Alley. After living together for 6 months and then barely seeing each other during the space of a year, we had a LOT to say.

It was also nice being with Soeur Searle because sadly, she was the only sister from our group that I didn't get to know well. Which is ironic because she and I spent the night in the same room our first night in France. She a very funny person, which I didn't know! Glad I got to discover that on our last day.

Afterward we went to the Garnier Opera house. I had seen the outside, but had never entered. I was worried about whether it was worth it. I thought it might have just been like another cathedral. I was wrong! It was so luxurious and rather different that any other architecture that I had seen. Plus, they were rehearsing a ballet and we got to watch. I really was so lovely. Definitely made my day.

We then headed back to the mission home for our final interviews. The whole time I just kept remembering my first interview all those months earlier. This was the waiting part of the night. We had to wait and wait and wait until all of us were done. By then it was 8 pm.

Then we had a nice little testimony meeting. Since we sisters weren't leaving with the same elders we came with, it was a nice moment to get to know each other a little better. I'm grateful for 1/2 an hour.

Then we went out to eat to a fancy french restaurant! Psych!!!! We totally ate Chinese buffet! I don't think I have ever laughed so hard in my life. We told funny mission story after funny mission story. I hope the other people in the restaurant didn't hate us too much...

Finally, some of us went to the mission home to sleep, while the rest of us went to a hotel. It was only 10:30 when we went to bed, but considering that we had to wake up at 5:15 and had a long day of traveling ahead we were kinda of worried about it. But you know what? I was so nervous I could barely sleep anyway.

Next day we went back to the mission home, grabbed a quick breakfast and then got on the RER for the last time. We had a couple of mishaps on the way and were worried that we'd miss our flights, but we all made it on. The sad thing was that we never really had a chance to say official goodbyes. We thought we would after security, but we didn't realize that there was several different direction we could go for security and we got sheparded off before we had a chance.

Then I was on the plane... for ten hours. I sat next to a nice military contracter. He seemed to be glad to have another young person to sit next by, but he realized pretty quick that I wasn't going to be drinking wine with him. I think he was a little disappointed, but not too bad. I spent the whole time watching kids' movies. Surprisingly I couldn't sleep.

When I got to Detroit I called Mom to let her know I was safely in the states and waited for my flight to Huntsville. And I have to say that was the worst flight EVER! It was so cramped, my foot hurt from lack of use for ten hours and I was very anxious to see my parents.

When the plane landed I was off like a rocket. I've never walked so fast in my life. And there they were. My parents. I grabbed them together and didn't cry. I was to happy to cry tears of sadness and too sad to cry tears of joy. Coming home from a mission is weird like that.

An hour later I was sitting in front of my stake president. He read me a letter that President Poznanski had written him about my service. And asked me to report on my mission. I expressed gratitude for something that my stake president had blessed me with as I was set apart: to be obedient. Although I was never a perfect missionary, obedience was something that was always in my head. It was a blessing in my mission life and I wanted him to know how much his blessing meant to me.

Then, in great soberness, he asked me to take off my name tag. And that was it. I was no longer an official representative of Jesus Christ. But I will always be a missionary.