Sydney!

 The next day, Tuesday, was one of the most memorable and fun days of my life.  We all went to a morning endowment session at the Sydney Temple.  Sis. Colburne, one of my MTC roommates, serving in the north mission was there as well, which was cool.  It was a great session.












Then the Bott's picked us up and we caught a ferry to the Opera House where we were able to see a lot of the Sydney sites and go beneath the Harbour Bridge.  I love Sydney!  It reminds me so much of NYC.  We grabbed lunch at Macca's (McDonalds), then walked to the Opera House and took great pictures with it, the Harbour Bridge, and surrounding scenes.  It was so fun!













Finally, after training back to Oatly, we walked back to the mission home and chilled for a bit.  I finished writing letters to my fellow mission sisters I served around.  Then we had a dinner together with the Leota's and the Mansell's and the Adam's.



It was fun hearing about how great conference was from the Leota's, and just getting to talk to them.  They are the best.  After dinner was our testimony meeting.  It was so tender hearing everyone's greatest lessons learned.  I think for all of us, now looking back to our first day, it feels like just the blink of an eye, except we have all grown and changed a lot.  The senior couples and Leota's gave us advice which included:  Remember, remember, remember the experiences on your mission because they will help us later in life; Before marrying someone, think about if that is the man that you want to be the father of your children; and we have had experiences that have prepared us for marriage, so we are ready for it now.  Sister Aloua brought us all candy and flower leis that her Auntie made for us, we took pictures, finished packing and getting rid of things, then went to bed.




  Those of us who slept only got about 3 hours in before having to wake up at 3:30 am to get Elder Joseph to the airport.  We sang 'I Am a Child of God' before sending him off.  The rest of us had time to get breakfast at a yogurt place in the airport.  Sister Howard was killing me; she was trying to finish a big bowl of yogurt and saying she was drowning in yogurt.  Then we sang, 'The Spirit of God' before dropping the rest of the American sisters to their terminal.  After, I was standing next to Sis. Ockey, and we hugged and cried, then said 'good-bye'for a short time.  It's crazy that it's all finished now and we started together and supported each other with letters throughout.

Later, Sister Yuen and I, and Sis. Nilsson were the only Sisters left and we got to greet the incoming missionaries.  The two sisters I met were from Utah and they asked if I had any advice.  I just said to enjoy it and do all you can because in the blink of an eye, they too will be going home again.
















Then, Mom and Dad got here!!!  Mom and I cried (Dad did a little, too).  Sister Nilsson took pictures and we said our final goodbyes.  It was surreal being with Mom and Dad again for the first few hours.  I have rarely ever felt so happy.  I am so grateful they made it safely as well, because I had a dream last week that the plane crashed and they died, which made me scared and pray extra for safe travels.








Then we headed to the mission home to pick up my bags.  We ended up having lunch their with Pres. and Sister Leota and Sis. Yuen.  Mom and Dad love the Leota's now.  They are just so cool.