We’ll be staying with our daughter Heather and her husband Ty for the next while to give us some time to unwind from the missionary life and decide what to do next. We sold our house in Pocatello. Do we buy another house? If so, where? We want to serve another mission. When should that be? Should we rent something and then put everything back in storage again? And those are just the major questions we’ll be considering and discussing.
I picked up a heavy chest cold last Tuesday. I was able to get in to see my doctor in Honolulu on Wednesday morning who prescribed the necessary medications to control the cough. I was pretty much in a daze the last few days we were there.
Our replacements arrived, fresh and naive, Wednesday evening. They spent some time with us on shift on Thursday morning, worked the tram tour buses in the afternoon, spent Friday afternoon with us on shift, and that was it. They got a much more thorough turnover than we did! We arrived on a Wednesday afternoon and twenty minutes later, Elder and Sister Rose drove away to the airport.
We got up at 3am Honolulu time on Saturday morning and finished packing. We drove away from our apartment at 4:45am. Stopped at McDonalds for breakfast on the way, turned in the car, and then waited a half-hour for the agricultural inspection station to open. All checked bags have to go through this inspection machine (hint: if you’re taking something illegal, put it in your carryon. That isn’t checked). By 7am we were through security and waiting at the gate. That was about the time it started feeling real for me. Our missionary service was ending.
On Tuesday we’ll go to Pocatello and hopefully resurrect two automobiles that have been in covered storage for the past 23 months. I’m really hoping that jumper cables and a good air pump to inflate the tires is all that we’ll need to get them running again. At 7pm we’ll meet with our Stake President Kim Smith and be released. That’ll be the formal completion date. Wonder if I can sleep another twelve hours tonight??