THE FIRST DAYS OF THE REST OF OUR LIVES

I sit here on the 24th of October with just over 2 weeks left of our mission. What a strange time it is to know that in just a couple of weeks I will no longer be "Sister Jenkins" and be expected, or allowed, to wear my missionary tag. It seems every day there is a "last" experience, many of which bring me to tears.

What a journey this has been. What a great blessing it has been to serve on this mission. I am sure there will be blessings, seen and unseen, that will follow. We have packed and weighed 3 of our 4 large check-through suitcases. It will be interesting to see how much weight we will actually have with all of the souvenirs we have accumulated. We just hope that the recipients will enjoy them as we have chosen them with great care.

But it is strange to consider going home- to no home- since we sold our house in Blaine. And even though our new home is being built in Pleasant Grove, Utah it will not be completed for 3 months so we will be "homeless vagabonds". It is nice that we have friends and children who will host us but still it is a strange feeling to not belong anywhere.

We went to the Dr. today and learned that, despite the fears of the physio, the doctor does not feel Steve has Parkinson's Disease although he did suggest Steve see a neurologist when we get home. 

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And now I sit here on 18th of November almost a month later and our mission is complete and we have returned to the USA. It was so nice to see the American flag flying again. We love it and have missed it.

Our friends have been so kind to allow us to stay in their great room over their garage with an en suite. We have had plenty of space to spread out while we organized our things and have been fed lovely meals.

We bought a car. A Honda CRV AWL EXL which will serve us well and we think we will love it. Right now the challenge is to pack our large suitcases and the 10 big boxes of family photos, left for us by our daughter before she moved, which we need to transport to Utah.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated to doctor, eye doctor and dentist visits, TB tests and a chest xray since I am always a positive reactor. There have been a few things to purchase and people to visit and a visit to the Vancouver Temple. We have driven by our old house and it seems strange to see it vacant. I guess there will be some remodeling happening. It feels strange to realize we spent over 15 years of our lives in that house and now we no longer have any connection to it other than memories - and there are a lot of great memories. But it is no longer a part of our lives.

Tomorrow we will attempt to pack everything inside the car so we don't have to put anything up top. Tuesday we will finish up a few more errands and go to the airport to greet a young man who has been in Poland on his mission. Then Wednesday morning we will hit the road. We will stop for a quick visit with good friends in Lacey and then be on our way to Portland where we will finally  see some of our dear family. We will spend Thanksgiving with our daughter, her husband and two of our sweet grandchildren.

A visit to the Vancouver British Columbia temple. So nice to be there again
and to see many of our friends we had not seen in a long while. We are not sure
if we will back this way again since we are moving to Utah. But we have loved our time in this beautiful  temple.