Friday, November 3, 2017 – My Birthday, Arrived in Mesa AZ, Mission Release

I must start by saying “THANK YOU” to everyone that has given me birthday wishes in person and on Facebook. I appreciate each of you for your love and friendship. Thank you again.

We made it home to our other home in Mesa, Arizona this afternoon after 1500 miles of driving. We returned from our mission to our family and wonderful warm welcomes from those we love the most. They have all been such a strong support while we served our mission in Nauvoo. 

This evening we were invited to attend a grade school musical with our granddaughter Delaney. She played Peter Pan in the school musical, “Shrek.” The show was put on by the 5^th & 6^th graders and was very good and well performed. We enjoyed the show a lot. Delaney was great!

This evening we met with our Stake President, Pres. David Benson at his office in the Stake Center. He asked us to give a brief report on our service in the Illinois Nauvoo Mission. Then he read us the personal letter he had received from Pres. Hall expressing his love for us and our service in Nauvoo. President Hall’s words meant a great deal to us and were very touching and personalized. 

At the end of our interview with Pres. Benson he issued us our formal release from our missionary service. Then he asked us to do something that was very difficult for us to do. . . He asked us to take off our Missionary name tags. We took them off but they will never be forgotten. Our service in Nauvoo and in Carthage will be in our minds and in our hearts the rest of our lives.

We are not quite finished yet. There are still two things remaining to do. First is our mission report in Sacrament meeting in the Alma Ward. (I’ll let everyone know when that will be) And second, is our report to the Stake High Council in the Arizona, Mesa Alma Stake. We are looking forward to them both.