Our mission is officially over. We arrived home December 18. We have been released by our stake
president. We spoke in church today and
greeted many old friends.
We had our goodbye interview with President Millar after the
mission temple session and Christmas dinner on December 12 and spent that weekend
in Geneva, Switzerland with Connie’s sister and Paul’s brother (married to each
other), who had serve a mission there a few years ago. In Geneva we witnessed the Escalade
celebration commemorating the defeat of a French duke’s invasion in 1602. We returned to Southampton and spent a day
orienting our replacements, the Nielsons from Mesa, Arizona, and said goodbye
to our dear young single adults one final time.
Connie was in tears as we left.
As she put it, when we left home we knew we would return and see our
family again, but when we left England we couldn’t be sure we would be able to
see all our beloved English friends again.
For English driving aficionados, we are pleased to report we
spent the night before departure at a Heathrow hotel near the Hatton Cross
roundabout, which consists of five small roundabouts surrounding a large
one. We negotiated two of the small ones
a couple of times but decided not to try all six and risk our driving record
this close to the end.
The mission has been a wonderfully rewarding experience, one
of the best decisions of our life.
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| Hatton Cross Roundabout |
