Home

 June 30, 2017 is the day we arrived in Sacramento and began the most amazing journey of joy. June 30, 2020 is the day we left it all behind and came home much different and hopefully better people than we were when we arrived. This experience has changed us in ways too many to count. 

Someone, describing this experience prior to our service, said 'You will go to bed the first night in the mission home and the next thing you know, you are waking up in the mission home for the last time'. At the time, 3 years seemed like an eternity, and I will admit, there were days and experiences and things that happened that also made it seem like an eternity. There were some long, hard, heartbreaking days, but mostly there was joy and love and a sense of purpose that is hard to describe. 

And, we actually didn't wake up in our mission home on our last morning, we had spent it at a hotel so the house would be perfect for President and Sister Zimmerman's arrival.  It was actually a hard morning.  We got up and went over to the house and reminisced a bit. We had to take some pictures of our special places. And you can see from my red eyes that I cried a lot as we did so. 

Scott in his office one last time

This is what we called 'The War Room'. More often than not this table was covered with our books and our computers. It is where we planned every zone conference and every other meeting. It is also where hundreds of missionaries sat for meals at MLC or at their departing dinners.  Lots of memories around this table.

This was the chair in our bedroom where I did my morning study, it was also my prayer chair. And this was the fridge that held Scott's Dr Pepper, that saved him on more than one occasion. 

We headed to the mission office one final time and had to get a picture of this sign that was a cross street of Madison, the street we drove to get to the office.  On our first trip to the office on that street we were looking at the street names.  Many of them could be considered church names. We have a Deseret Ave, a Palmyra street, and then we saw Kenneth street and said maybe it was named after Boyd Kenneth Packer. We thought we were hilarious and laughed about it every time we passed it.  

We got to the office to make sure all was in order for the Zimmerman's and our assistants had another surprise gift for us. This one, though made us laugh instead of making us cry. We will never forget Mr Pickle's or these wonderful assistants of ours. 

We headed to the airport and I had to get one last picture of Scott on his phone at the airport. The work never stops until it stops! He passed the phone to President Zimmerman as soon as he got to the bottom of the escalator. 

Our final airport missionary pick up. We have watched hundreds of missionaries come down those escalators, I remember coming down it myself. It was surreal to see our replacements coming down those escalators, but an interesting thing happened.  As soon as we saw them, all of the sadness left me. I felt completely at peace and so ready to go home.  The keys had been transferred and I knew it was time.  We had completely all we were sent to do, and we hope we made a difference in a few lives, but our time was over and now it was the Zimmerman's turn. How grateful I was for that sweet feeling of peace, of completeness, of knowing our offering had been acceptable to the Lord. It was a sweet moment.

How we love President and Sister Zimmerman. They are the kindest people and we already love them and are grateful to turn our beloved missionaries and mission over to such amazing people. We were able to spend a few hours with them as we took them to their new home, had lunch and shared some things concerning the mission and then we were off to the office to have them meet their new missionaries. 

Our work was done, and we left it in very good hands. Then, it was over.  President and Sister Kanzler took us to the airport as the Zimmerman's had their first meeting with their assistants. It was like reliving our first day there all over again, but being on the other side.  

As sad as I was to leave, once they were here and in place, the excitement of going home was SO much greater than the sadness of leaving.  We were no longer the mission leaders in Sacramento and so it was time to go home. We felt the mantle leave us, for which we were so grateful, and this was no longer home. We were leaving a place and people we loved, to go home to an even better place with people we loved even more. 

Last departing picture in front of the Sacramento mural

And we are off!

And we are HOME!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I think these pictures capture the joy we felt as we returned home to our precious family. We loved serving our Savior Jesus Christ for three years in this amazing work of gathering scattered Israel. We loved the place we served and we loved the people we met. We were able to do what we did with the help of our Savior and the love and support of our wonderful family at home. They supported us in every way possible. We couldn't have done what we did without them. In fact, they are the reason we did what we did. We know the gospel of Jesus Christ is the foundation of our family and the foundation of our JOY! We know every blessing comes from him and from the covenants he has so generously given to us. We wanted to share that message with others so they could have the same joy on their journey as we have had. This journey through life is a blessing and a joy when we are linked to our Savior and our family through the covenants of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Grateful we are to have been a small part of His redeeming work. And grateful we are to be HOME! It is true that there really is NO PLACE LIKE HOME!