Mauri again everyone!
I know I haven’t been the most reliable in writing these updates, especially in these recent months. But I thought I’d stick one more page in there before I shut the book.
So…here it is:
I’m home now.
Yep. As I typed that sentence just now I had to pause and stare at it for a minute or so (my family probably thinks that I’m just struggling with writing in English and really needed to think that one through). The truth is, however, that that sentence was pretty hard for me to come to grips with. Let me explain.
The past few weeks have literally been a dream come true. The best comparison I can come up with is a little kid having a surprise birthday party on a Disney cruise ship. I got to go back to one of my first areas! Not only that, it was one of my areas where I knew the people the best. I got to be companions with one of my good friends from Missouri, Elder Breckenridge, AND I got to work closely with one of my MTC companion, Elder Jubeck. I spent my last weeks wading in between islets, cooking fish for dinner, sleeping on a stick platform, and literally meeting every single person on the island. But that’s not what I’m supposed to be writing about right now…
We left our island on Sunday of last week after church was over. I gathered my stuff in my towel and jumped on a boat. The water in the lagoon was the smoothest I have ever seen it, like a liquid mirror on the ground. It was a pretty quiet ride. Nobody really had anything to say; we were just watching as we got farther and farther away from our island. We spent the last night in Tarawa with another one of my companions, Elder Gilmour. To tell the truth, though, it didn’t feel weird at all to pack up all my stuff. It just kind of felt like I was packing up for another transfer. All of that night and the day afterwards felt like a normal transfer. We got up and dressed nicely? Transfers. Had coconuts for breakfast? Transfers. The APs came to get our bags? Transfers. We got dropped off at the airport? Transfers. Everyone was telling us goodbye and good luck? Transfers. We boarded a huge Air Fiji 737? Well, that part was where things got a bit different.
It didn’t really hit me that I was actually leaving until I could see the last tiny stretch of island slipping out of sight through the airplane window. Then I sat back in my seat, took a big breath, and prepared for the long trip home.
I won’t go into all of the details, but it was a pretty smooth trip. We had a seven-hour layover in Fiji in which we met 18 different members of the church and an area seventy general authority. We had a nice long eleven-hours of flying to LA. I got lucky and sat next to this cool guy from Tonga that I talked to the whole time. The LAX airport was a pretty big sensory overload. There were SO many people and so much stuff. Everything was so clean! That place is huge! People don’t usually know this (or they’re just too nice to say anything about it), but I do NOT have a head for directions. I feel pretty lucky to be called to a mission where there is literally only one main road and you can usually see the ocean on both sides of you at all times. Navigating through LAX, however, was not what my brain is good at. That’s what companions are for, right? We were able to get our bags and recheck them in our new domestic terminals and get through security with plenty of time to spare. If I ever get a GPS, I’m naming it Elder Seffker. I slept for the entire next flight.
Getting on the connecting flight in Denver was fun. I originally had a 30-minute gap, but that was shortened to 15 minutes because our plane was delayed getting into Denver. I jumped off the plane as fast as I could, asked some lady where the flight to Springfield was (because it just said TBD on my boarding pass), and then took off running. I had to run for 31 gates – and I mean run – to get there. I didn’t get a good look, but I’m pretty sure I passed Bolt and Owens who were also on their way to their gates. I actually leaned too far into the finish and had to backtrack to get to my gate. I bet I looked silly sprinting through Denver in my church clothes carrying a grass fishing hat, but I don’t care. I ran out onto the tarmac (it was a smaller plane) and was the last one on. I would definitely recommend wearing some good fast shoes home and maybe even starting to run a few weeks before you leave if your mission is almost over. That elevation change will still be rough though.
Even though I hadn’t had a decent sleep for almost 30 hours, I couldn’t even doze on the last flight home. I was excited and depressed and happy and nervous and …well, there was a lot going through my head.
Meeting my family in the airport was a moment that had been on my mind for two years and two weeks. I didn’t really know how it was going to play out. It was a great feeling. I gave my mom two big hugs, then each of my brothers and my dad. I gave everyone else a good handshake and a hug too. My face hurt because I couldn’t stop smiling! Even though it was nearly midnight there was a pretty good group of people that came and welcomed me. I was so grateful to them for taking that time and driving all the way up to the airport. I kind of feel bad that I didn’t get to talk to all of them more…but I really wanted to talk to my family. And I think they were all okay with that.
Things have been pretty crazy since then. I keep patting my chest and panicking, wondering where my nametag is. I keep saying things in Kiribati to people and then feeling really stupid afterwards. Speaking English is kind of tricky because I think about it in Kiribati in my head and then try to translate it. It make doesn’t always sense…(okay, that one was on purpose). And it’s so COLD here! I went to Sam’s Club with Mom and couldn’t believe how much cargo there was! If I told people in Kiribati that we had these huge warehoused that were stacked to the ceiling with food, they wouldn’t believe me. We just have so much stuff in America! Why?!?!
I’ve also been feeling like I’m wasting time a lot. I don’t think I am, but I don’t have every minute of every day planned out like I did on my mission so it just feels so disorganized. I’m trying to work on school stuff, apply for a couple of jobs, take a few online classes before January, spend some time with my family, and work on my talk for this Sunday…
My talk for this Sunday! Instead of trying to decipher my scattered ramblings on the computer, come and listen to me speak about my experience this Sunday! I’ll be speaking at 11 AM at our church building, 2400 N 20 Street, Ozark, MO. It’s an hour-long service with hymns and a few speakers, one of which is myself. I’ll probably make a lot more sense while I’m talking, and if you have any other questions I can talk with you there! Most people will dress up, but if you don’t want to that is just fine. I would love to see you there so I can say hi in person!
Anyways, that’s about all I have to say (how’s that for a smooth conclusion?). I have pretty mixed feelings about leaving Kiribati, but one feeling is very clear: gratitude. I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven for this chance that he has entrusted me with to go and serve the wonderful people of Kiribati. I feel so humbled to be worthy of such an assignment. From the big picture, I didn’t do much. I didn’t change the world or solve world problems. It’s a big world. But I was able to meet thousands of God’s children that I had never met before and help them in some little way as best as I could. And you know what? I think that’s how God works too. He loves us individually and cares for us us individually. And he does that through individuals. That’s what a mission is all about, and that’s what I plan to keep doing.
“Wherefore, as ye are agents, ye are on the Lord’s errand; and whatever ye do according to the will of the Lord is the Lord’s business.
And he hath set you to provide for his saints in these last days, that they may obtain an inheritance in the land of Zion.
And behold, I, the Lord, declare unto you, and my words are sure and shall not fail, that they shall obtain it.
But all things must come to pass in their time.
Wherefore, be not weary in well doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And
Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and the obedient shall eat of the good of the land of Zion in these last days.”
