Home coming

 Tuesday, the week before we left, the Bolivar branch invited us for a farewell.  Brother Rio had made us a photo of ourselves in front of the temple and we had dinner and a concert.  All of our student were there, even those who hadn't finished, except Albis. 

 The students each played, and Hattie Pinto and Michelle Rios played a duet of "Testimonio".  It was gratifying to say the least.  They had worked hard to make it special.

 Here we all are together.  Mixela (far left) played "If the Savior Stood Beside Me".  She told me after that she was thinking of Elder Packer's saying that as musicians we need to inspire, not impress.  She did a lovely job.

 I told Sister Miranda that she was our favorite restaurant in David.  We spent 4 hours teaching at her house each Wednesday, and she always prepared wonderful food for us. (We only went to a restaurant once in our 6 months in David -- with the mission president)

 The day we left we finally had Teo over and showed him how to make and use a stomp rocket. 

 We followed this fruit filled pickup for quite a ways as we left David.  The colors were pretty impressive--real Panama in my mind.

Mihaly, our wondrous student from Chitre, painted this picture for us.  Pretty talented.

President Ward is a positive person.  Here is his summary of our mission.


Ray Johnson, Edyn's husband, took a video of the homecoming at the airport.  What a finale for the mission.  It is SOOO good to be home with our family.  It was nice to come to our apartment and feel immediately right at home -- except where do we keep the mixing bowls or ...

The posters that we found hanging in our apartment and that were the welcome at the airport.

 Home with our granddaughter, Ellie, and my kindergarten bears.  We've spent lots of time with grandchildren.

Rod and Ellie, just relaxing in our apartment.  It's nice to have an easy chair again.

We got our first phone call from a friend in Panama today.  Berta Savedra called and reported on her mom's health.  It will be interesting to see how long we keep those ties.

We had an interview with Bishop Rogers today.  His parents are serving their 11th mission.  He says he'll hook us up so they can enthuse us on their type of membership support and we can see if we can enthuse them on ours.   This could be fun.  If every missionary could come home as happy as we have, it would be a great blessing.
We're grateful to have had the opportunity to serve.