Gratitude, Goodbyes, and “The Place to Go Is Idaho!” - Week 52: Holms leaving the Potomac

These 26 people are a big part of our WHY!!

“Homeward bound—I wish I was homeward bound!” Simon and Garfunkel

“East, West, Home is best—welcome stranger!” William Saroyan

“Be it ever so humble—there’s no place like home!” 

Home Sweet Home, by John Howard Payne, 1823

“Country road, take me home. . .” John Denver

“The Place to go is Idaho!”

WHY did we come on a mission?

Because 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ blessed the poor, healed the brokenhearted and liberated the captives. He suffered for our sins and sealed His mission with His blood—thus continuing to bless, heal, and liberate us. He died and rose again, giving all mankind the promise of resurrection. 

Because 200 years ago, young Joseph Smith prayed to ask which church to join, and God the Father and Jesus Christ promised to restore Jesus’s gospel in its fulness.

Because we want our children and grandchildren (those masked marauders in the photo) to know of our joy in helping to share these truths with the world. 

Because we—two mild-mannered, boring people—actually love adventures. 

We visited the Kirtland Temple after we left the mission March 7. 

Was it easy? No. I was dogged by homesickness.  The MD / DC 495 Freeway freaked Norm out, and it paralyzed me. It is one of the eleven busiest roads in the United States. We scrambled to learn the names of 206 missionaries and struggled to learn new skills. Sometimes we felt tired and old. We were blessed with good friends who guided us, and inspiration from heaven. Our mission work was life-changing and 97 percent  FUN. On Saturday prep days we loved historic places that reminded us that “. . .It is for us the living [to] highly resolve .  . .that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” (from the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln.) We leave behind dear friends and a beautiful region, where cherry blossoms are popping out and the weather is warm. We travel West, where snow clouds pour out all the winter we missed!

Two great truths exist: 

1. We were richly blessed with our friends and our mission in Maryland. 

2.  We LOVE our family!!  Last May, Debbie’s sister Andrea, her husband Ross and their son Joe and family visited us at the Washington DC Temple Open House.  When we stopped in Ohio last week, Ross was dangerously ill with an infection. What a tender mercy it was for us to say goodbye to one we have loved for forty years! We spent Thursday there; Ross passed away Sunday. 

We were also blessed with a four and a half day visit with our son Spencer, his wife Rachel and their children, Sylvie and Freddie, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Tomorrow, we drive the last nine hours to Nampa where we will hug and kiss two daughters and their families. Sunday we will embrace other dear ones when we report our mission at 10:30 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time in the Nampa Second Ward, 2212 Amity Rd., Nampa. Truly, for this moment in our lives: 

 

“The Place to Go Is Idaho!” and

“There’s no place like home!” Dorothy of Oz

 

We worked with these elders and sisters for many months: Rodney and Susan Workman and Evan and Janette Connell.

Our new friends and replacements, Elder Nyall and Sister Candy London.

We love President Todd P. and Sister Heather Clarke, our mission leaders. 

After we left the mission March 7, we sat down with a dear friend at Gettysburg.

     

Near Rawlins, WY. on March 16.

Andrea and Ross came to the Temple Open House on May 31. 

Treat at the Winter Quarters Visitor Center: we saw Elder Gary and Sister Vicky Jenks from Nampa.