We interrupt this regularly scheduled program...

 ...to bring you this special report on our departure. It's getting more real by the minute! We received our travel itinerary on our flight(s). We will leave next Monday April 3rd with a non-stop flight to Amsterdam. After an airport layover there, we'll proceed to New Delhi with another 5 hour layover there before we fly on to Bengaluru arriving on April 5th. Seriously, 2 days in transit.  Mercy! We'll have a couple of days of orientation with President Bushi, experience the joy of jet lag and brain fog while trying to make a great first impression with the mission office personnel. We'll get to see the construction of the temple, etc. and after that, one more flight will get us to Coimbatore, our assigned district which is in the far southern tip of the country. That is some extensive mileage! 

Last Sunday night we had a Zoom meeting at 10:00 PM (9:30AM the next morning for them. Ya. 11.5 hours difference ) with President Bushi and his wife, and the 3 other senior missionary couples serving in the Bengaluru Mission- The Robinaughs, the Gibsons and the Gerlachs. I imagine you'll be hearing their names often in the future as they will be our new best friends!

Speaking of friends, this is the very hardest part of this 4 month mission stay here in Church Headquarters; saying goodbye now to the many fellow missionary friends we have made while serving the Lord together. We stayed long enough to get very attached to people we saw daily and weekly. We will miss the camaraderie,  the good spiritual conversations and talks we shared, the VW dorm life, all the laughter and joy of working together to gather Israel.  The Spirit in the mission is strong and undeniable. We are so very grateful to the Lord this was a part of our mission, that we didn't go directly to India. in hindsight we would've missed out on so much spiritual growth and all of these great friendships with people we will love forever. I regretfully acknowledge I don't have pictures of everyone and some photos I have already shared in past blogs but for our own sake mostly, I want to share these photos of people who have become so very dear to us. 

The Best Zone Leaders ever-Brian and Amy!

             Sister Howell, our first rescuer & friend

The Deckers who reached out to us in the very early stages with friendship and fun.

Our last VW bunch! Garden Apts a la Eden?

Del and Lila

Lynda and Jan

Wee Karen and Statuesque Karen

Lynette and I in matching garb

My Hanguk Chingu, E Chamenim

 

Jennifah

Gwen 

Vicki, Karen and Larson's all in mourning? Not!

Oh there's so many more too! Perhaps I will need to blog one more time if I can but this weekend will be so busy with General Conference, work, (the library is open all day on Saturday and all hands are needed) packing, saying goodbye to local family plus the Friday night India Mission reunion. What a flurry!

 This will surely be the last time I send the link to our blog via text to many of you. I'm saying goodbye to this subpar phone of mine and my beloved phone number so full of 5s and easy to remember. We've been told that WhatsApp is our future. I will still post the blog link on Facebook and you can type our blog address into any browser anytime and it will bring it right up. Many of you have given Rob your email addresses and he will send out his own publications via that mode of correspondence. But in a way this seems like a real goodbye to many of you who I feel we'll lose contact with, with us going halfway around the world. Wah! Parting is such sweet sorrow! Please don't forget us and we promise not to forget you. The one assurance that makes this all bearable is knowing that the same sociality that exists among us here will continue with us into other realms in the future (post mission? the next life?) , only it will be coupled with eternal glory which means it's only going to get better!!

 All our love and appreciation for now-

 The Dunlaps