A Fond Farewell

 It is Saturday - again!  These weeks are flying by.  I got up with a firm resolve to get the insurance papers done and submitted - no matter what.  But things began to crowd in.  For one thing, a dear young woman whom we have know for over a year now texted and asked if I would be willing to teach Relief Society tomorrow morning.

I said "Yes of course I will."  But then I added that someone would have to conduct the Zoom meeting since I do well just to tune in.  You would be amazed at some of the more complex Zoom.  The person teaching can see everyone on his/her screen, and can call on them if they raise their hands physically or technologically.  He can split the screen to show himself on the one side and a graphic on the other.  He can share his screen and show a video or a Powerpoint mini-presentation as he moves along with the lesson.  He can ask people to send an answer back on chat, so that people are typing in fast responses and those answers show up at the top of the screen for all to read.  He can split the audience into smaller groups and set a timer for them to be done by with their discussion.

It's remarkable.  The young woman said she would be there.  I hope it works alright.  It always seems to me that these kinds of things don't work for me in this kind of a setting.

So I have been studying Elder Bednar's talk this afternoon as much as possible.  I made dinner for the sister missionaries and we delivered that, and then we tuned into our mission Zoom Saturday night call.  We have 12 missionaries departing in the next few days, which will drop our numbers to a smaller and smaller number.  I think we may be under 140 now.  When Dave and Deb took over it was well over 200...maybe at one time as many as 260.  

The ones leaving are incredible missionaries.  They were each given 5 minutes to share what they had learned on their missions.  Some took longer, but they were eloquent - every single one.  There were several we have known since we first got here and have loved ever since.  

One sister told how hard missionary work was for her.  She got discouraged and felt like a failure.  She just felt that she wasn't "enough."  When March came and missionaries were going home, she waited for the call to tell her that she would be going home - to Milan - at the time an epicenter for the virus.  Instead, she heard from President Checketts that her work wasn't done here.

It warmed her heart, wondering whose life she would touch.  After 8 months she has discovered the life she would change was her own.  She was eloquent in her testimony of Jesus Christ and his ability to heal, to comfort and to strengthen.

One by one, nearly every missionary testified how difficult missions are, and how difficult this lockdown has been, but every one bore a very strong witness that (as one sister put it), "Life is hard, but hard is good.  It is how we learn.  A mission is hard, but hard is good.  That is how we learn."

In the time we watched and listen to these young people articulate so eloquently their faith and what they have learned, Elder Bednar's talk came over and over again.  They weren't quoting him but it was though they were enlarging on his topic, illustrating it and internalizing it.

Dave's emotions got the better of him as he closed the meetings telling how much we would all miss them.  Paraphrasing him, he told them that through every struggle and strife, every challenge they faced, through fasting and prayer, their testimonies of the Savior and His presence in our lives were burnished bright.  He challenged them to continue to be disciples of Christ, and to stay in close contact about every major event in their lives.

I'm certain that Dave and Deb will be quoted long after they have left this earth.  Even now, these young missionaries can hardly go a day without quoting something that they have said that was meaningful to them.  I'm sure they will return home with a longing for England and its people, a desire to have these days back and a lifelong remembrance of their times as missionaries in the England London Mission.

I will miss those very special young people.