Wrap up

It's time to wrap this as we come to the close of our adventure. We are scheduled, but we know that schedules are uncertain like anything these days, to return to Utah on 13 January.

As mentioned in previous posts, a big part of the Poland mission has been the numbers of missionaries leaving and only recently arriving. The newly arrived young missionaries have more than doubled our ranks and it's been wonderful to see their joy and enthusiasm added to the joy and enthusiasm of those who had been serving here all along. It also gives us a lot more to do—a blessing. Knowing that senior missionaries have become more rare serving outside their home countries, there was no expectation in that regard. In November our president was surprised to learn that a couple was called to serve in the office, arriving in March. This put their assignment a month after our return date. Someone from the Area office called them in December and asked if they could be ready to serve sooner. They said yes. He then told them that the window for moving missionaries to Europe through the UK might close with Brexit becoming official on January 1, so could they be ready to leave for England on December 15. They again said yes. That put their arrival in Poland at December 29 with a 14-day quarantine at the England MTC. The new strain of Covid got all of Europe excited and Poland announced its borders would be closed to UK travelers starting December 22. Elder and Sister Rebeck and two young Elders and two young Sisters and we miraculously walked out of the Warsaw airport at 11:52 PM December 21, the Lord knowing was 8 minutes to spare.

With their earlier than planned arrival and quick learning, our presence is becoming redundant and thus we hope to fly out 3 weeks earlier than planned, already next week!

The week of Christmas was a different kind of busy, with vacating our apartment sooner and finding places for us to camp out, well, camp in. Now our tasks are trying to figure out how to say goodbye properly and what we will do once we're not missionaries.

It is still as if the end of our mission will never arrive, but here it comes, and packing these two years into two suitcases will be how we wrap it up.

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Thank you for reading and thank you for caring about us during this story. We have loved every challenge and blessing that came from it.

Merry Christmas from old Warsaw

One of Jean's favorite things, making a cold, empty space feel like Christmas

And getting Elders to do what they learned when they were 7

The resultant warm atmosphere for our Christmas Zone conference

Having a merry missionary Christmas.

Singing Polish carols with the Warsaw Elders and Sisters in old town.