The Final Blog that (almost) refused to be written

 

Here we are home from our mission for nearly two weeks now. It's time to share our final thoughts, impressions, and photos of this post-mission time to finalize this blog. We have tried every possible means to share the photos taken on another device onto this now defunct phone that only houses my Blogger account to get them so I can complete this undertaking. We've stumped the panel as they say. Even my tech savvy daughter, the Baker's son in law, and my own brilliant brother- in- law hollered uncle. So here's the plan. This will be an incomplete record and once I finish this 100th blog I'm going to take this cracked shell of a phone and hurl it against the nearest wall. 

We said good-bye to our last friend we made in Indonesia--Ian, the owner of Lucky Chins and we ate our last supper at his place. 

         Bye Mr. Chin, we were lucky to meet you!

                      It was er... awesome!

Our last act of missionary work in Jakarta was sharing a Book of Mormon with our Christian Bluebird driver Andre who drove us to the airport. He spoke good English and so we used him on many excursions to visit members and we had had many good previous discussions on the subject of religion. He accepted it graciously.

   

The Book of Mormon is the best tip he'll ever get

We flew from Jakarta to Seoul to Atlanta via Korea Airlines. What an experience! I was glad to use the minimal Korean I remembered from my first mission to tell them how yummy the Korean food was. Mashi Seyo!

        Even the Acorn Jelly Soup was delish

The flight attendants outfits were from another planet. Their funny scarfs and hair bows were bizarre but their customer service was incomparable. On our long 13.5 hour flight, they controlled our biorhythms and behavior by masterminding the lighting system. The windows to the outside world were locked. At every meal they would light up the "sky" making it feel like daytime and after clean up, the lights were dimmed to simulate bed time. Although the dark was conducive to sleepiness,  we once again slept only in small unrestorative snippets. We were so discombobulated by the end of the 36 hour 4 stop flight which switched from Korea Air to Delta for the Salt Lake and St George legs, that our bodies had no clue what time it really was. 

On one layover we met Kelly, who came by boat as a 15 year old refugee from Viet Nam to America. He was adopted by a family in N. Carolina. The strangest accent we've ever heard was his, an undergirding Asian accent with overarching Southern components. Completely unique and what a life story to go with it! We simply love meeting people from all over the world.

  When you think about it, we're all refugees on                                      this Earth.

Our dear friend Grant who took us to the airport to begin this adventure was there to pick us up at the St George Municipal twenty two months later. He had made us an Asian Chicken Salad and homemade bread that we ate for two solid days before we could get our car running, insured, and to the store to fill up our fridge. What a friend in our time of need! Though the ground was swelling like it does when you get off a cruise,  we managed over the next couple of days to make visits to our closest neighbors- Barb and Tim, Linda, Marjie, Cindy, Jerry, in our quasi-comatose condition. What a joy to come back to our neighborhood family and pick up almost where we left off! Sadly missing was Neighbor Dee. We were able to watch a recording of her funeral to have some closure. We had made temple appointments nearly a month before leaving Jakarta at both St. George temples that were dedicated and completed during our time spent in India and Indonesia. That was the best thing we could've done to get our spirits back in tune and transitioned to our new life. Another amazing and wonderful event was going back to Green Valley 3rd Ward on Sunday where we were showered with love and met with open arms. These are the sacred places the Lord has given to us to shelter us from the storm. Our homes. The temple. Our churches. Each one offered us the respite we needed. We were very eager to hear from the Rastgoos, our Iranian family that had left Indonesia for Houston at the exact same time we had. How were they surviving jet lag and transitioning to a brand new life? We still haven't had any face time but they sent us a picture that looked like a ward party setting and we were so relieved to know they were being nurtured by a ward family like we were. All will be well.

After a week I still was only getting 3 hours of sleep a night despite staying awake all day. The ground continued to swell and I was experiencing vertigo and dizziness. Nonetheless, we took off on The Grandsons Tour the day after Labor Day to avoid the traffic. First off, to see Silas and his parents in Vancouver, WA.  No sooner did we arrive than I felt a sore throat/ cough/sinus congestion combo settle upon me. What horrible timing to have to mask up and keep my distance! But in the same time, a blessing in disguise because the NyQuil knocked me out good every night and the jet lag was finally over and done.

 In my dreams I wanted to smother my grandson with hugs and kisses but the reality was, it took a few days for him to even be okay with us muggin' on him. By the end, he was letting us nearer and he stole our hearts when we got the opportunity to take him on a 2 hour walk-about away from Mom and Dad. That was the ticket to have some good bonding time. We had a wonderful visit with delicious meals, a trip to the waterfront for Salt and Straw Ice cream and many good talks.

                  Not thrilled to see us at first.

           Slowly, he accepted us hanging around

                             The Lake Family

Enjoying ice cream near the Columbia River

                        Silas loves storytime

                              Almost lap time

                      Finally...sittin' with Pop

                           Walkin' with Ajji

                       Bye Silas! We love you! 

We had to forego the Seattle leg of our journey to see Cassy and Will this time. We will have more time and more exciting reasons to see them in the near future. You can read into that statement whatever you want. It is pregnant with possible interpretations....

Next stop- Burley Idaho! Kinzi, Tom and Tom's kids Seth, Gabe, Enoch, Eve, and Benj greeted us to their home. And Luke took to us readily as just being one of the crowd! We proceeded to have another whirlwind few days of meals, games, church, and outings. We watched President Nelson's birthday party at the Burley Family History center, got a power point presentation from the Construction missionaries at the Burley temple site among other fun times.

               Three generations of Dunlaps

                       The Kunzler Family

                 Playing with Uncle Steve's truck

                       Luke has a killer grip

                   Finally his go go go stopped

          Pop fixed Benj's basketball standard

          The Old Gray Mare playing HORSE

        Pop and Luke exploring the truck stops

           The nearly completed Burley temple

      Big brother Seth and his fiance Hailey

We backtracked to Boise to see Rob's brother and sister in law Steve and Penny. We had the rare opportunity to sit down as adults and have the BEST visit, without distraction. That's what boring old people can do! And we loved it.

 Talk over huckleberry pancakes and sausage

We caught up with cousin Ann, husband Chris and 10 year-old Coco too

Last stop- Salt Lake! A quick stop at our old stomping grounds- the Family History Library- to surprise my sister Lolly who faithfully wrote me nearly every week.

 A quick revisit with Ambika, our first ever Indian contact and just for old times sake, a jaunt across the street to see Temple Square. We looked for Sister Lourdu from Bengaluru but no luck. 

                 Still a work in progress

Lolly and Tom had us over for a burger barbeque and invited Maddy and Franklin to join us. Sadly, we missed our photo op with them. What was I thinking? It was so good to catch up with them! They are thick in school. Maddy just needs to get through statistics and it's all downhill from there to graduation. 

Tom saved the day by figuring out Quick Share and so yes, the photos were accessed. And this blog was able to be composed. Thanks Tom! 

We were able to distribute out Indian and Indonesian clothing and trinkets to everyone we visited. These mere tokens can't convey our love and appreciation to our family for the undying support, both moral and financial during our mission. It is both awesome and hard to be home. We miss being missionaries so much! Taking off the badge with the name of our Savior was poignant. We felt literally naked for a few days without it. But if one could look into our hearts, they would see His name written in the "fleshy tables of our hearts". We have had a mighty change of heart and we hope  that people can see His image in our very countenance. We hope to never lose that "glow", that "aura" that a life centered on Jesus Christ can give a person. We love our Savior Jesus Christ with our whole hearts, might, mind, and strength. We still have so much to learn and grow into. But we know that this mission was tailor-made to give us a once in a lifetime experience and to meet so many people from all over the world. We experienced so many spiritial paradigm shifts in our learning and insights that are impossible to be conveyed or measured. We simply can't sum it all up. But we're glad that we could share a small part of it through this blog that has served as a way for us to keep the memories, (that are already fading) bear testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and this work, and share our personal observations of our incredible missions to Bengaluru India and Jakarta, Indonesia. We will be forever grateful. 

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose...Who can separate us from the love of Christ?... For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

Romans 8: 28, 35, 38-39

 

       We hope someday to hear from Him- 

       "Well done, good and faithful servants" 

The Takeaway

 Indonesia gave us a BIG going away present! We originally were scheduled to leave on August 23rd but then we started hearing advertising months earlier for a huge Stake Cultural Event held on August 24th. Knowing how much we love that sort of thing, we requested if our release could be delayed just a few days more so we could attend it as our last hurrah. When I think how much we might have missed with our original date, I'm so grateful for these extra bonus days. Timing is everything!

President and Sister Mak had us to their home for a farewell dinner along with 3 elders who were also completing their missions. Ask any senior missionary and they will tell you how working with the young missionaries is one of the most rewarding aspects of it all. They are so earnest, so dedicated to the cause of bringing souls to Christ. It truly is an honor to work with them and call them lifelong friends. They inspire us.

     Young and exceedingly valiant for courage!

                       We love the merry Maks 

          The Indonesian Jakarta Mission Home

Friendships with fellow senior missionaries is another blessing of our service. Sister Levesque had us over for so many delicious meals, we cannot thank them enough for their generosity towards us! She has a very giving heart! 

     Having a last minute chat with E. Midgely

             The ceremonial snipping of the tie

         Our time in Indonesia was cut short! 

In the 4 months we were in Jakarta, we watched Elder Albert go from struggling with the language to being our assigned translator. It's remarkable to witness all their growth! 

The Stake Cultural Night also did not disappoint! We made a point to arrange rides for our refugee friends, so we could enjoy this last time together. Many of them made it on their own too and it was a treat for us to be surrounded by so many of our Jakarta 3rd ward friends. 

Hiresh and Mahdi

Reza and Rani currently studying w/ the Elders

Rebecca and friend Dheka. They rhyme!

Fellow ward members Destiny and Nancy

Fatimah, Kimya and Keren from Iran

Waiting for the show to begin

It was absolutely thrilling to see the talent and efforts of the Jakarta Stake. There were some true professional dancers in the mix but we loved how they involved everyone to be a part of it, no matter their skill level. The hours they had put into practicing their numbers were so evident. There was such a rich variety of styles and costuming that although it went on for 2.5 hours, we were never once bored (yeah, except maybe through the beginning speeches that we couldn't understand).

This dance was our very favorite and you'll soon see why! 

I don't have a video, but only a picture of all the Primary children (there must've been a legion of them!) singing happy 100th birthday to President Russel M. Nelson, our beloved Prophet. I hope he gets a video of it sent to him. He is loved by the Saints all over the world!

                         

The colors, the music, the drumbeat rhythms all made it exciting and memorable. I got so choked up listening to them sing their national anthem. Each place we have lived has had their  national pride in their culture. Yet, being united in the Culture of Christ gave us this feeling of a universal unity of heart and mind, no matter where we have lived.

 

Well, the party didn't end there. We invited our Iranian friends to come home for dinner. Hiresh had to decline. But Rob and Mahdi took a final dip in our pool while I cooked some Tom Kha and rice. (Me cooking!)  

Ahh... We have so loved and relished the serenity of our pool area. Either early in the morning or early evening, I would walk around its perimeter for exercise, Vitamin D, and meditation. 200 steps per rotation. It was peaceful and profoundly beautiful, surrounded by the lights of the early rays of sun by day and the lights of the skyscrapers by night.

                        Worlds largest hot tub

                          Goodbye Shangri La

We were surprised when we got a text from a brand new friend we made during our last week here. We stumbled across Ian as an owner of a booth in the food court in our nearby mall. He is a Yankee from Connecticut, born of Chinese-American parents, living here on his own for the last 8 years. He asked us what do two crazy kids like us do for fun on a Saturday night? We invited him over for dinner and games and he took us up on it! We had such fun playing "golf". He and Mahdi both were completely fluent in their secret language of Bahasa Indonesian, something we ashamedly made little effort to learn in our 4 months here. We shall stay in touch with Ian via Whatsapp since our overlap time was way too short. 

Ian played the part of Bloody Mary in South Pacific at his all-boys military school. We share a love of musicals and word games. Wish we had had more time with Mr. Lucky Chin! 

And then our last farewells on Sunday at church. How dear these people have become to us!! How can we bear to say goodbye?? After sacrament meeting Sister Lee asked if we could share a prayer together. We held hands and bowed our heads together at the back of the chapel, asking Father to bless us both and thank Him for the blessings of our friendship. She promised to send us pictures of her baptism when it happens. 

           Ahnyunghi ka/ke shipshio, chamenim! 

           Go in peace/ stay in peace, dear Sister!

Next, my dear Iranian friend, Sister Nahid. I cannot hug her enough!! She is so very dear to me too. She has given us far more than we could have ever given her and her little family. She is a skilled leather craftswomen along with many other talents, and she made me a custom-made leather wallet and Elder a coin purse. 

         A great place for rupee and rupiah!

                       Isn't she a marvel?

And speaking of the Lord's perfect timing, did I mention before that the Rastgoos finally got their tickets to immigrate to America?! Such a miracle! Though we are going to different cities via different airlines, our flights overlap at the airport. Incredible! We could never have planned that, ever in a million tries. Thank you Heavenly Father, for that tender mercy. 

Last of all...our Scarecrow. (the one you'll miss, most of all)  Dear Mahdi...the most humble, patient, happy, earnest, friendly, hard working man you'll ever find. We finished the complicated WelcomeCorp application with a small group of our wonderfully supportive American friends with only days to spare on August 23rd to sponsor this good brother to come to America to begin a new life as a free man. We now can only wait and pray daily for his deliverance. We know we will see him again but still, parting is such sweet, sweet sorrow! 

         God be with you, 'til we meet again.

And thus concludes the 99th blog of our incredible mission. How could we have possibly planned that number? I believe I'll have to do one more post-mission just to make it an even 100, coinciding with the 100th birthday of a Prophet of God which happens next week. The timing is personally mind-blowing and symbolic for us. 

 ..."Behold my brethren I say unto you, could we have supposed when we started from the land of (America) that God would have granted unto us such great blessings? Behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God! Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold I cannot say the smallest part which I feel. 

Alma 26: 1, 11, 16