Monday, March 23, was our official last day working at the
Archives. It was a picture day, for
sure. Marvin got a shot of taking the
image of the last document we had. Other
pictures were of the couples and companionships. They were a wonderful group of people to work
with and we surely have lots of love for them.
We were asked to publish our “15 in 15” (4 generation groupsheets) so
here is a picture for that.
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| Lurae and Delbert Dillingham |
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| Jim and Marilyn Freeman |
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| Lupe Pulu and Delayne Madden |
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| Marvin taking his last image |
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| The fabulous Melbourne Eight |
Tuesday we spent the morning in the Melbourne Temple with
all of the elders and sisters and their companions who were going home. Then we attended the transfer meeting, where
new companionships are created. Each of
the leaving missionaries bore their testimonies and plenty of tears were shed. The afternoon was spent finishing packing and
cleaning our flat.
That evening we had
dinner at the mission home with all the elders and sisters who were going home
and another testimony time and lots of pictures.
Our mission president, Pres. Cory Maxwell and
his wife, Karen, were the greatest. They
had so much love and caring for the missionaries. Karen sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
so we had opportunities during our mission to sing for different events with
either her conducting or playing the piano.
She is quite a talented lady.
Wednesday was our departure day. Elder and Sister Hullinger (from Roosevelt,
Utah) picked us up at the mission office after we turned in our car, and drove
us to the airport, after a quick stop at the archive to say our last good-byes
and shed more tears. Our trip took 14
hours to fly from Melbourne to Los Angeles, one hour to go through customs
(after Marvin realized that he left his ipad on the plane, which was
retrieved), then a trip to Salt Lake City, arriving about 8:30 that
evening. What a fun welcoming committee
we had.
Our son Keith and his family and
Marvin’s brother Joseph and brother Dilworth and his wife Pat and our friend
Bob were all there to greet us. It was
so fun. Bob drove us home, arriving
about 10:30, and the neighbors had created a sign for us which was lit and had
balloons attached.
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| Sign on our driveway, but our neighbor's house. |
The neighbors came
running out of the house when we drove into the driveway. What a welcome home! Jeanne, Bob’s wife, had staged our home like
it was on HGTV, with flowers in almost every room. It was quite spectacular!
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| An Easter decor |
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| The candy eggs didn't last long once the grandchildren found them. They left the bunnies for us. |
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| Beautiful flowers. Can I keep them alive? |
One of Marvin’s first “to do”s was grocery shopping. He excitedly brought home 12 boxes of
cereal. No more Wheat Bix, Crunchy Nut,
or Sultana Bran cereal!
Thursday morning, President Sargent come to the house for our official release. What a bitter-sweet event that was! Kay (and others) cried all most the whole time he was there.
Our family began
arriving on Friday and we had warm weather and lots of fun through the weekend. Sunday we reported our mission at Church, had
24 for dinner, and then relaxed.
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| The family playing "Scene It". Notice who is asleep in the chair! |
I realized that we did not have a picture of Mark Kelly who
was our supervisor from Sydney. This one
we took in December when Marilyn presented to him his embroidered name.
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She also gave one to each of us (our own
names) and to many of the senior missionaries and important people who have
come into our lives during this remarkable experience. How grateful we are to have had the
opportunity to serve the Lord through this Australia Melbourne Mission.
