Down by the Riverside: Turn, Turn, Turn

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Turn, Turn, Turn

If you think that we just posted pictures of the outgoing and incoming missionaries you're right! While there will be more posts between this new set and the next set, the closeness of the last outgoing/incoming missionary pictures and these pictures reflects how it feels to us. Didn't the last transfer happen just two weeks ago? It surely hasn't been six weeks! The days fly by. A mission flies by. No one can ever believe it is time to go home. We feel like Jacob in the Book of Mormon: ...our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream (Jacob 7:26). Here is some of what happened on outgoing night.

Weigh in -- the bags not the missionaries!

Bags collected in the garage for weighing. Some had to repack

to stay under 50 pounds per bag.

Lots of Elders in the house.

Jackets are hung on a rod in the laundry room during dinner.

Dinner --

Missionaries can eat a LOT of hot rolls!

Testimony meeting.

This picture was snapped just before testimony meeting.

Returning with honor, April 20, 2015

Elder Feist, Elder Franson, Elder Tchan, Elder Hughes, Elder Anderson

Sister Gates, Sister Staker, Sister Gatrell

Sister Greenwood, Sister Hansen, Sister Adame, Sister Matthews, Sister Dulong

(Elder Anderson slipped in at the piano but he doesn't go home yet!)

Tuesday morning bags are loaded in the truck for the trip to the airport.

Before heading home.

With their arms around each other it was time for one last picture before heading to

the airport. It's hard to imagine all that has happened, the lives these elders and

sisters have touched, the growth they've made themselves. To everything there is a

season and as these missionaries turn their faces toward their futures

we know they have been and will be blessed.

The Savior’s mission began at the River Jordan. Nephi saw it in vision: “And I looked and beheld the Redeemer of the world, of whom my father had spoken; and I also beheld the prophet who should prepare the way before him. And the Lamb of God went forth and was baptized of him…” (1 Nephi 11:27)

When missionaries come to the mission they are surprised to learn there is no river here. But as they invite others to come unto Christ they create a river, “…the pure river of water of life, clear as crystal…” (Revelations 22:1). Here in the desert they bring life, for the Savior said: “…whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. ( John 4:14)