"Every great success is an accumulation of thousands of ordinary efforts that no one else sees or appreciates"
--- Brian Tracy (Canadian-American motivational public speaker and self-development author)
I am incredibly lucky that before I ended my two-year missionary service and went home, I got to see all my old friends who were still around. Talk about nostalgia! To be able to see old companions and enjoy their company one last time, basking in a well-deserved celebration was beyond anything that I could ever have asked for. It was like my life as a missionary was flashing before my eyes all at once.
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PRESIDENT MORALES
President and Hermana Morales came to Valle Hermoso one last time. In the impending July, the new Mission President, President Regalado, and his wife would be coming in their place since they’d conclude their three years of service. (See "Mission Administration")
There was a missionary-themed Stake Youth Conference on Saturday, June 11, 2016, which we were asked to attend (See "Church Organization"). Afterward, we crossed the street to President's car where he pulled out a special gift. He gave all of us missionaries special personalized leather scripture covers with our name and Mission logo branded on the back. It was very thoughtful. In addition, he pulled out my last package that my family had sent which contained a new pair of shoes and socks, both of which I was wearing thin on and which I could use after I got home since I'd only be in Valle Hermoso for one more month.
About a week later, we had another Zone Conference with President Morales. Although I would be gone, the others would keep working and still had things to learn and improve. There always are. I on the other hand admittedly kind of felt like I was just in attendance for the sake of being there for Elder Torres, not as much that the instruction applied to my soon to be concluded full-time missionary efforts. But at the same time, I guess the message itself had relevance to my life. We learned about the Ten Virgins and the importance of preparing for the future (See "Power Outage"). At the end of the meeting, I was able to catch President Morales before he left to get a one-on-one picture with him at the end of our Missions together. During that whole time that we'd served in the Mexico, Reynosa Mission, nearly 2 years together, I hadn't yet gotten a picture of just him and me until then.
PETER PIPER'S PIZZA
It wasn't the last time I'd see President Morales. Soon after, we celebrated together. The whole Mission met up in Reynosa to go to Peter Piper’s Pizza at the mall called “Plaza Periférico” (Peh-ree-feh-ree-coh) which was just West of the Bugambilias Area, where we used to do our grocery shopping, as a treat for reaching our Mission goal in May in the blog post, "Great Harvest". Peter Piper’s Pizza is an all-you-can-eat pizza venue that we weren’t allowed to go to for most of the Mission because President Morales didn’t want us spending all our money (our sacred mission funds) there, either on the food or on the arcade games (See "Temperance"). The Mission Offices arranged two or three buses to take the couple hundred of us on a sort of field trip. As always, we were shoulder to shoulder and it was obviously hot as it was being summer but it was worth it. Even if we were uncomfortably crammed, it would only be for a few minutes, not hours. To hype the nostalgia, I was lucky to find a seat by one of my original Mission pals, Elder Martinez. (See "Intercambios")
The pizza was nothing spectacular. And the restaurant itself was more like a Chuck E. Cheese than a high-class place, but seeing the entire restaurant flooded with missionaries was something else; I can only imagine what the few other customers thought. The restaurant itself was never so packed on any given day.
By now, I’d gotten to know most of the missionaries personally. We’d been through so much together, I truly felt like I was part of one big family. I was so grateful we were able to come together one last time, to see old friends from Rio Bravo, or Matamoros, or Reynosa, and to embrace one another for what would be the last time in Mexico—some of which I would likely not see ever again, brought together by the Mission from diverse nations like Mexico, the Dominican Republic (See "5th Area: The Lord's High Ways"), Canada (See "One"), Ecuador (See "Intercambios"), Guatemala (See "7th Area: Bugambilias, Reynosa"), Brazil (See "3rd Area: Riveras, Reynosa") and so forth. Of all of them, of the whole herd of white shirts, I was the old man. So many of my seniors had been long gone by now like Elders Harvey (See "Two A-Maori-Cans in Mexico"), Adams (See "1st Area: Monterreal, Rio Bravo"), Rawle (See "Happy Birthdays"), Yagual (See "4th Area: Las Torres, Matamoros"), Howard (See "Testimonies and Trainers"), and Rangel (See "Christ-like Attributes"). I took the opportunity to say goodbye to as many familiar friends as I could. That was also the last time I saw President Morales in person.
To be honest, seeing everyone there in one place, experiencing a wave of flashbacks at the glance of one old companion or another person who was in my Zone or so forth, was similar to the experience I have when I go to the temple (See "Temples -- Holy Houses of the Lord"). In the temple, everyone is the same. You can't help but really see each other the way that Heavenly Father sees us as brothers and sisters one to another.
Of all the experiences that I've shared with you in this blog, think of how many people I mentioned by name who shared those experiences with me and are partially responsible for them playing out as they did. Just look at the photos below and see them as I see them, as the literal culmination of many moments, like the build-up to Avengers: Endgame, an event whose emotional significance is maximized by realizing the thousands of small moments that contributed to it. In every which direction, there were no strangers among us. Only friends. Only family. I get choked up a little just looking at these photos because of how much I grew to love these people and how blessed I feel to have gotten to work with them. Seeing them all together in one place was like traveling through time and re-experiencing all our shared memories all over again. Truthfully, I feel like heaven is something just like this. A joyful reunion with loved ones. (See "Redeeming the Dead")
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