So a year and a half later, my sister will finally be home from her mission on Temple Square. She gets home Wednesday and boy has it been a blessing. I can't believe that 18 months ago I was saying goodbye to her at the MTC in Provo. Crazy to think. So much has happened since that has blessed my life greatly.
Now of course a rare thing happened for me where I was able to visit her while she was on her mission. Last June, I remember it like it was yesterday. We had parked in the parking structure and we might've gone to the mall first. Anyway we walked over, knowing we were seconds from seeing her and then walked into the visitors center. From there we walked out the other side and peeked around the corner. And bravo!!! I see her. Now we quietly walked over there and she finally saw us and kind of motioned for us to keep walking because she was talking to someone. However she finished and I ran up to her and whispered an inside joke into her ear. Now we were supposed to spend two hours with her but with the tour and lunch, it ended up being about two and half hours. It was a great moment to see her. But we had to say our goodbyes and see her later.
But wait!!! She invited us to see Music and the Spoken word the following morning, Sunday. So we did. We arrived and parked in the parking garage where no one else was and decided to take the stairs up. Well, we ended up walking into the CLOSED mall and were like awkward and quickly (before security saw us) walked back down and went another way. We got to spend another hour and a half with her. It was joyous. So its been now 8 months since I've seen her and I can't wait until Wednesday.
So let's flashback to the day we said goodbye. We woke up Wednesday morning and left our cousins house. We stopped to eat at Cafe Rio and that's where a thousand other missionaries were (exaggerating). Then we went to the Provo temple to take pictures where of course another thousand missionaries were. Her drop off time was I think 1:30. So after the pictures we went to drop her off. We had about two minutes to say goodbye. I was a wreck along with my mom and dad. My brother wasn't however. We dropped her off then went to Rita's where my mom was just uncontrollably crying. We drove by the MTC and couldn't help but cry because that's where our sister was. The next few days were rough, too, because she was so close yet so far away. When we were on the freeway driving home you could barely see the MTC but we just thought to ourselves, there's Jennifer.
Fast forward to the day we saw her. I went to EFY the following week in Salt Lake at the University of Utah. It was weird because I was with some amazing new friends but my sister was so close to me. Her presence, just a few miles away, was comforting and helped me feel at peace. I don't think I could've survived EFY without that feeling.
Anyway, it's Wednesday now and we're leaving soon to go get my sister. We're about 3 hours out and I couldn't be more excited. This was a very exciting journey for our family and we're sad but happy that it's coming to an end. Her mission has helped strengthen my testimony and know the gospel is true. The next journey may begin in September if I decide to leave on my mission at that time. I'm excited for my journey and know it will be a great one.
Michael Skaggs
