Goodbye and Hello

 9 August - 15 August 2021

I did it! I packed up all my belongings, fit them in my lil Honda Fit, drove over 10 hours home, and then unpacked and settled in! What a week. On Monday, I drove to Springville to drop off a bday gift to Shelly and went to see Whitney one last time and give her a hug before I leave. Then I visited with MJ and her babies. I was an exhausted mess, but that Rosalee is sure a cutie! That evening, we had a ward talent show. I performed some fiddle songs. I kept messing up Orange Blossom Springs (the simplified version I've been teaching myself for months) but everyone was still really impressed. Everything is feeling a bit bitter-sweet as I realize just how much I love those in my ward and am going to miss them.

On Tuesday, I spent the morning cleaning for my last cleaning check. My ministering sister Emma came over to help. It was such a blessing because it cut the work in half (well, I feel like she did more than half the work since I needed to finish eating my breakfast). I was so grateful! My other ministering sister, Brittany, stopped by to drop off a note and give me a hug goodbye. I went out to lunch with Mira and Alyssa Baker to Costa Vida. After a nap, Mira painted my toes. I met with my friend Mason at Aubergine's for an acai bowl because he wanted to say goodbye before I left. That evening, I drove to the Nixon's to say goodbye to the kids. The oldest girl was gone with her mom, and the two oldest boys were swimming, but I got a good farewell hug from lil Jack. He gave me the biggest hug (with his dad's encouragement) and a kiss on my cheek. As I was about to leave, the dad called Jack out for one last hug, and Jack ran up and I scooped down and swung him up for a big hug and kiss on the cheek. That little dude is too cute!! I caught the tail end of institute in the evening.

Wednesday morning, I finalized everything, ate my leftover Costa for breakfast, and Vivian came over for a quick goodbye. She stayed to wave me off. I stopped by Sam's to fill up on gas, and then I was off! I stopped once to go to the bathroom, and then once to fill up on gas. The closer I got to AZ, the cheaper the gas prices became, going down from 3.95 to 3.30 and then finally here in AZ at Sam's club, 2.95. I listened to audiobooks and had car snacks to eat. At one point along the drive in AZ, it was getting so hot in my car even with the AZ on full blast, and I saw some dark clouds in the distance and prayed for rain or cloud coverage. Shortly thereafter, it was cloudy and pouring rain! It was a bit scary because it was hard to see and my car hydroplaned once, but the air was blessedly cool. When I got home, I was an exhausted hot mess, but I gave everyone a hug, including Briesa, Aaron's fiancé, who I met for the first time. It was so nice to have a home cooked meal and then to go to bed.

Over the next couple of days, I unpacked and settled in, and also was on the job hunt. I scheduled a lot of interviews for next week, some of the jobs I'm actually really excited about, which is an answer to prayer. I've been cleaning upstairs and rearranging things so I feel like I have my own little space. Some of my things are in the middle room, but I am able to fit a lot in Lucy's room (once I cleaned out some of her junk). I've been going to fitness classes at the gym with my mom, trying to get back in shape as well.

Sunday was a bit hard because it made me miss the 9th ward so much. Bishop Osborn and the counsellor's are SO caring and loving and concerned and welcoming. The members are so tight nit and welcoming. There is definitely a different vibe in this ward, and I feel like it'll be a challenge to find my own friends with two siblings already in the ward (I don't just want to be known as "Aaron or Val's sister") but I am striving to be outgoing and talking to others and getting to know them, and I know Heavenly Father will answer my prayer and bring some great friends into my life. We did have a cool object lesson in Sunday School where we all had to close our eyes and select a rock. After feeling it for a bit, we all put our rocks back and then finally we could open our eyes. We then had to select which rock was ours. It was actually easy once I touched my rock and felt it. I knew immediately it was my rock. We tied that in to how the Savior felt everything we felt when He suffered for us, and because of that, He knows us intimately. Sunday evening, Doug and Heidi and their boys came over. We played games while they talked politics. 

Much love,

Emily Burnham