Final Pday Phone Call Home: Monday, June 27, 2022

Our LAST Pday phone call!!

Holy crap it is here!!! Today is the day! It is our very LAST ever Pday phone call that we will have together. It is so freaking wild and I don't know how to even really feel. But it doesn't matter what I have going on inside my madness...what matters is how in the heck Sister Garcia is doing and how is she feeling with how this week played out?

First things first...she did get a copy of her itinerary that we received this last week and she realizes that it will be a long 2 days worth of travel to get home. She is good though and says that the layovers are long but she will make do. She is planning to work on her homecoming talk some and maybe do some scripture reading. Time will tell how it actually goes though. She is aware of a few others who will be traveling with her and one of them is headed to Utah too so he will probably be with her the entire time. I am grateful that she won't be alone. She can handle it but it just makes my heart sit a little more at ease knowing that she will have someone to visit with.

We talked a lot about 'home' this week. Things that Sister Garcia is really anticipating and how things look. She is excited to see Brooklyn, Brynlee, Bryson, go to their wedding, catch up on just life outside of being a missionary. But on the flip side she is always mourning the loss of being a missionary too. She is sad to think that this is over. She said that when she was leaving Boston to go to Brazil she wasn't sad. She knew that she would still be a missionary, still have work to do, plenty of things to still learn, and she was excited about being in her original mission call and getting the chance to serve. Now, she is leaving Brazil with feelings of sad because she knows the destination on the other end is home and not as a full time missionary anymore. She acknowledges that you can always be a missionary but also realizes it will be in a very different capacity. 

One thing she pointed out was that the entire length of her mission she has never been scared. Never. Not leaving home for Boston, not going from state to state back East, not even traveling alone to Brazil even though she had never been out of the country. Never not once while she has been in Brazil has she been afraid or scared. She has a firm testimony that the Lord does indeed take care of His missionaries. Yes, there were nerves and some apprehension. She even says some anxiety crept in here or there but overall, never scared. I love that she has been able to reflect on that much of her time as a missionary and to gain the testimony that her Heavenly Father has had her back this entire time. 

Life is coming quickly to an end and Sister Garcia is starting to feel the side effects of an anxiety filled mind and body. She has had an upset stomach and is having a hard time getting her mind to settle at the end of the day. This last week she had interviews with President Nordfelt and he of course is wonderful and assured her of a job well done. He is so proud of her and made sure to let her know of the successes that she has had both seen and unseen. Sister Nordfelt even made sure to snag her quickly at the end to give her a hug and to let her know how much she loves her and how much she will be missed. What a blessing to have these two in charge and in a parental spot while Sister Garcia has been away from home! 

Sister Garcia walked her final week out for me and this is how it will go:

    - Tuesday, June 28, 2022: Mission Conference. This will be the final one and Sister Garcia will have the opportunity to bear her testimony in front of all the missionaries. She is worried she will cry and even though it isn't something she loves to do in front of others, she knows it is inevitable and so she will just run with it.

    - Wednesday, June 29 and Thursday, June 30, 2022: Final Exchanges as an STL

    - Thursday, June 30 and Friday, July 1, 2022: Sister Garcia will start to take a look at her suitcases and make decisions on what she will bring home. She has plans to leave her clothes with Sister Feitosa and Sister Bradford and whatever they don't want, they will get to the mission home. She has other things (ie: bag, hygiene items, etc) that she will make the call on as well

    - Saturday, July 2, 2022: Her goal is to be 100% packed by end of day on Saturday. They will still have work to do as missionaries with appointments and what not but at the end of the day, 100% packed.

    - Sunday, July 3, 2022: Her final Sunday in Brazil. I imagine this day will be very bittersweet as she says goodbye to so many members who have embraced and loved her since her arrival. This will be a huge closing moment for her as well and I pray that the Holy Ghost will be with her to give her heart some peace and comfort

    - Monday, July 4, 2022: Sister Garcia will travel to the mission office where she will participate in a self reliance class/course that helps missionaries to acclimate as normally as possible to not being a missionary anymore. She will then head to a hotel and get herself cleaned up and ready to have one final dinner with President and Sister Nordfelt. After dinner, she will travel back to the hotel to have hopefully a good nights sleep before her long days of travel begin

    - Tuesday, July 5, 2022: Sister Garcia will have breakfast at the hotel and head directly to the airport. She will catch her first leg of a flight to Sao Paolo, have a layover there, travel overnight to Houston, have another layover, and then she will make her way to Salt Lake!

    - Wednesday, July 6, 2022: Sister Garcia is scheduled to arrive in Salt Lake at 1:08pm. We have the Millers and Avery  Parrish lined up to join us at the airport to welcome her home along with us. She doesn't know about them and I pray it will be a good surprise. We have a videographer scheduled to be there as well as a cardboard cutout of Christian too. After we gather her stuff we will head to lunch at a place still yet to be determined. We will let her make that call once we get into the car. From lunch we will head home and at 6pm President Johnson will make his way to our home to release Sister Garcia as a missionary. Just typing this makes my heart ache so much. This is going to be a hard moment for her and for me as her Mom. I KNOW how much she loves being a missionary and to have the moment that she is to take her tag off...I better make a note now to have boxes and boxes of tissues handy! She has agreed to have a small gathering of the Millers, the Rose family, and Brynlee and Bryson over for desserts and to hang out at the pool to swim and/or catch up and say hello from 7-9pm. She is sure to be exhausted after a long two days of travel and the emotions of all of it too so we want to be sure she can get to bed early. (The good news is that she can sleep in if her body will allow her to!)

It sounds like things will close out with a bang for her and she will stay busy clear through the end. I still cannot believe this day has come and that we will soon embrace her into our arms and she will be back home with us! I admit I am a little nervous myself as I don't know what that looks like but I am here for the ride and simply cannot wait! The next call I will receive will be hopefully from Sister Garcia as she readies herself to either head to the airport or after she has checked herself through security and gotten to a gate where she can sit and make a call. I am going to be on the edge of my seat rest assured! 

The countdown is on. I love you for forever and for always,

Mom