My LAST Letter

November 17, 2014

Well....where has the time gone?!!

This is the last letter that I will ever be writing!

Oh my, where to even start? My last full week as a full-time missionary. Oh was it great!

This week was one of those weeks where nothing turns out the way you expect it to!! (But it always is for the good!)

On Monday after I had emailed, we were planning to go to DC. Well, unfortunately we had a series of unfortunate events that prevented us from going. But the great thing is that we hung in there and still had a good time!!  I don't know if any of you saw my Facebook post about Staples, but that is where it comes from. Monday afternoon.  We ended up right next to a Staples and I got to get my little visual laminated. It might seem like a trivial thing, but it made the day that much better!!

I'm really grateful for laughter as well. I know God gave us a sense of humor because we would NEED it desperately if we were going to go through these crazy times!

Tuesday was a regular Tuesday.  Nothing too out of the ordinary.  We went to District Meetings and the usual.

Wednesday...oh my!!! It was the departing temple trip for the missionaries going home.  There are 14 sisters going home. It's crazy!! I LOVE THE TEMPLE!!!! It was such a peaceful and amazing experience to go to the temple and just feel the peace that God brings. 

People have asked me what I'm feeling at the end of my mission. Honestly, it's GRATITUDE. Every effort that I have given on my mission has been returned to me x10,000,000!!  I'm grateful God knew exactly where I needed to be. I've felt it again and again over my mission. I know Heavenly Father needed me to learn from these people. 

So I get home from the temple and we are walking upstairs to our apartment to have dinner.  We were all wondering who had the keys...no one did!!! So we called a management person to get us in. $20 later we were in. We searched EVERYWHERE for the keys in the apartment.  They were nowhere to be found.  After dinner, we realized they had just been in the car the whole time. haha  Oh boy!!! But we had fun sitting outside of our apartment waiting for the man to come let us in!

Thursday was again...crazy! We had a great day! We went and visited some people at the very end of the night, Brother and Sister Murray.  Well, when I got home I realized that I had left my iPad at their house.  The biggest dilemma was that I needed to turn it into President Riggs the next day at my departing interview. The story continues on Friday...

So Friday morning we drive 20 minutes away to get my iPad. Sister  Murray wasn't home because she had to take her car in to get it repaired. Well, we knocked really loudly and no one was answering!! The problem was that Brother Murray is a really heavy sleeper, and sleeps ALL DAY LONG!!! I prayed and prayed that Heavenly Father would wake him up!! We kept knocking. We even knocked on his bedroom window. (We've done that in the past to get him up for church.)  The problem was that Sister Cordner and I were too short to reach the glass part of the window, so we double-teamed it and I climbed on her back!! It was hilarious!!!!  Well, that still wasn't working.  I went around to another part of the house to knock and said out loud, "I know God will wake Brother Murray up. I know he can do that!"  And two minutes later, Brother Murray pops his head out of the front door!!! Prayers are answered. And I turned in my iPad :) 

Saturday was also eventful. We had a sister call us because she needed help moving.  We went over to help. At the end, she said that we HAD to take the money she was giving us so that we could go to her favorite pizza place.  We were blessed with free dinner. :) 

We also got a text from a man who had met the missionaries two years ago. It was really out of the blue! But he texted us and wanted to come to church! There are prepared people out there that want to learn more. That was such a testimony builder to me that God is preparing the hearts of so many people.

And Sunday, oh my!!  Church was AMAZING!! And then, we got to go to what is called a New and Returning Member Fireside. That is basically a fancy way to say that new members of the church come and tell their story and how it has blessed their life!!! And guess who spoke!? Brian!!! The craziest part is that he had Facebook messaged me and let me know that he was speaking, but I never got the message because I hadn't looked at Facebook.  Well, the Lord got me there anyways! It was so neat to see how he was still SO HAPPY! I was so happy as well.  There is nothing more wonderful than seeing others embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ and become happier as they change!!! I couldn't wipe off the smile all night long!!!

And one thing I've learned this last week is that after a mission, we don't ever stop being missionaries!! I can still be a missionary. :) And I'm grateful that that never has to change.

Love you all!!
Sister Udall