All Good Things Come to an End

Hi Everyone! How's it going? I hope you're all healthy, wealthy, and wise. I'm doing pretty good...actually I'm home. I'm not Sister Smiley anymore, I'm just Anna, and quite honestly it happened really fast. I've been here for about a week now and it is still incredibly weird for me to think that my whole mission is just an insane memory now. 

Anyways, I'll catch you all up on what happened so I'm not leaving anyone in the dark. My last blog post (for those of you who are not regulars) was about all the crazy train rides we were going to have to take that week, and how we were going to Singen and Munich and through Switzerland and all of that crazy stuff. Well, shortly after I sent that email off to my Dad to be posted on this blog I found out there would be a train strike that whole week. You have no idea how annoying that was. Train strikes are the worst. It makes you pretty unproductive as a missionary, in that mission. After we found out, we went to see if there was anything AT ALL that could get us to where we were going. Train strikes are weird because they do have some random trains that go every now and then, but you never really know what is actually going to happen. We already knew it would be impossible to do the exchange that we had planned that week which was a real bummer, but it could be moved to another week. The next problem though was Mission Leadership Conference (MLC) all the way in Munich. It was going to take us five different trains to get there and there was no way those were all going to go through so we got in touch with the office Elders pretty fast. 

Aside from that, it was a pretty quiet week. We talked to a bunch of people, had some cool appointments and it was just a good week. As we got closer and closer to MLC though, we really needed to figure out a way to get there. Trains would just be impossible, so we moved to the next option...bus. That's right. There is a bus that goes directly from Freiburg to Munich and it takes five hours. Not gonna lie, I wasn't too excited to sit on a bus for five hours, but it was literally the only way to do it. So it was a new kind of adventure for us. 

The morning we had to leave for MLC, our Mission President called me. It's hard not to freak out just a little bit when the phone is ringing and you see President Kohler's name on it. I always think "I didn't do anything wrong, what does he want?" Well, he told me that my Dad needed to talk to me at some point in the day. Nothing urgent, but he was going to call me and talk to me. Wow. No big deal. My Dad was just going to call me up on my missionary phone and chat about something. It was actually fine though. For some reason, I wasn't too nervous about it. 

Anyways, we got on our bus and just as we pulled out our phone rang. It was an unknown number and because I didn't think that one through, I answered it the way I would always answer an unknown number "Hallo, Kirche Jesu Christi. Hier spricht Sister Smiley." Then my Dad says, "Hi Sister Smiley." It is so weird to have your Dad call you Sister Smiley. I don't know why it just is. 

Well, my Dad talked to me about things at home and with my Mom. How he is doing and how my sisters are doing and what kind of progress my Mom is making. I would really rather not get into the details, but by the end of that call, I knew it was time for me to go home. I cannot tell you how hard it is to decide to end your mission early, even when it's just three months from your assigned return date. I had about four more hours on the bus to think about it, but there are a lot of reasons that it was right for me to be home. One of the biggest things that you teach as a missionary is "Die Familie steht im mittel punkt im plan Gottes," or, the family lies in the center of God's plan. I had been teaching that principle for thirteen months, and my time to act on that came. Also, I felt like my mindset was where I wanted it to be when I reached the point of going home from my mission. No matter when you leave your mission, it is so so so so sad. I loved being a full time missionary so much, but the fact that it was hard for me to decide to leave lets me know that I really did love doing that work and I wanted to make sure that was the case by the time I left. I hope that makes sense. Anyways, there was a lot of prayer and fasting before that went into my decision, but I knew and still do know, that it is what Heavenly Father wanted me to do at that time. I do not and will never regret that decision. It was hard and sad, but it was right.

I talked to my Mission President shortly after talking to my Dad, and he agreed that it was the right decision for me. We talked about logistics and things like that, but before he hung up, he let me know that I had served my whole mission. My whole mission was not the 18 months that we all expect. Apparently, mine was thirteen, and that is just how it was supposed to be. Sometimes, rolling with Heavenly Father's plan is hard, but you know what? If His plan is different than mine, it must be so much better because my plan was pretty good too. 

So, it was weird going to MLC knowing that I wouldn't even be at the next Zone training, but it was still good. I learned a lot that I needed to hear. We got on our bus home afterwards, and I started to run around packing all of my stuff. I got back to Freiburg on Friday, and I would leave Freiburg on Sunday after church, spend the night in Munich, and fly home on Monday morning. The last 48 hours were INSANE. I had a goodbye lunch with my District on Saturday and one last teaching appointment. Not gonna lie, I'm a beast at packing. I managed to get both of my suitcases to be under the limit even though there was loads of chocolate in both of them. Church on Sunday was the worst. I basically started crying when I walked through the doors. Freiburg was a really great ward. Saying goodbye to all of them was awful. The worst part was when we sang "Gott Sei Mit Euch" in sacrament meeting (God Be With You 'til We Meet Again); not fun. My last Sacrament meeting in German. I remember my first German Sacrament meeting thinking I would never understand this language. 

Well, the journey home started literally right after church. The Zone Leaders picked me up from my apartment. They threw my suitcases in the trunk and drove me to the bus station. The strike was still going on so I had to take the bus AGAIN to Munich. I hopped on the bus alone (no companion) and waved goodbye as we drove off. I got to Munich five hours later and the Office Elders picked me up from the bus station. They took me to the mission office where two of my best friends from the mission just happened to be there. Sister Arnold and Sister Mehr (my MTC comp and Sister Mehr who I trained) both ran over and I think we set a record for world's longest hug. I talked to them for a bit, and then I had my exit interview with President Kohler. Having your exit interview is so surreal. President Kohler is such a great mission president and I am so grateful for the advice and council he has given me throughout my mission. 

After that, I got driven to the Kohler's house, spent the night there, ate some food, talked to their kids, and then got driven to the airport so I could take the 18 hour journey back to Chicago. The last goodbye to my mission president was kind of soul crushing, but it was how it was supposed to be. I had a super fast layover in Atlanta and was literally running through the airport to make my connection. I made it and then came that moment where you get on the escalator to go down and see if your family is there to pick you up. In that moment, I felt like I was going to cry, pass out, and throw up all at the same time. I went down and saw this strange looking group of people in matching shirts and a GIANT poster. They were my people :) I don't know how they did it, but my whole family was there along with some aunts, an uncle, and cousins. Most importantly though, my mom was there. It was in that moment that I knew being home was exactly what I was supposed to do. I'm home now trying to figure out this normal life thing. Technology is pretty hard, but it feels 100% right to be here. 
 

I am so glad that I got to serve a full time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint in the Alpine German-Speaking Mission. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that our Heavenly Father loves us so much. I hope you all know that too. If not, I would like to invite you to find out. 

Have a fantastic week and MAKE GOOD CHOICES!

Love,
Sister Smiley
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