Final words

Last email from Connecticut, February 8, 2010:

3 John 1:13-14
I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen
write unto thee:
But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face
to face. Peace be to thee.

Sister Brenda Darrington completes her time in the Connecticut Hartford Mission and returns home February 10, 2010! She leaves behind a place and many people she has come to love with all her heart.

Blessed with Love!

From Feb. 1, 2010, email:

Susan's baptism is still on for Sunday! She's super excited for it and looks forward to this new beginning for her. The Gospel Principles class just happened to be on baptism and she answered all of the questions. It's funny how lessons turn out like that. Dean, her husband, will follow soon behind. He's still trying to overcome smoking, but I know that he can do it.

We had an awesome lesson with Josh at the Preneveau's home. It was one of the most spiritual lessons that I've been in on my mission. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom & Bro. Preneveau bore such a powerful testimony. I wish you all could have felt that Spirit! He's got a smoking habit, but he wants to kick it.

Yale was pretty cool! But it would have been more enjoyable if it hadn't been raining so hard. We toured around the libraries and I had to go to the gym. I haven't changed much, have I?! Yale is a neat school, but there's something missing there: the Spirit. It seemed so cold & lifeless with all of the stone buildings. It made me appreciate my education at church schools because the Spirit is there. Being on campus got me excited to head back to school.

Yesterday in Relief Society I realized that I was going home. It was Ward Conference so the stake Relief Society President was teaching the lesson. She talked of how we can "Come Unto Christ" as it says in Moroni 10. One way that we can come unto Christ is by sharing the gospel. All of a sudden I had tears streaming down my face & I couldn't stop. I was pretty much sobbing through the closing song. I didn't expect it to hit me like this. I have grown to love the people & the area SO MUCH that I'm having a hard time saying goodbye. I'm sure there will be a few more tears shed this week. I can attribute it all to the charity & love that the Savior has for all of us. I prayed to love these people and I was blessed with that love. It makes it so hard to leave!

I'm excited to see you all soon!

More good news!

From email of Jan. 25, 2010: This will be short because we're heading off to Yale University in New Haven for p-day with the Trumball Sisters. It's a super rainy day today, but it's in the 50s so we're happy about that. Hopefully things will clear up in the next few hours so we can enjoy our visit to Yale.

We found out last night that Dean wants to be baptized! He has seen the change that the Church has made in Susan's life and he wants to be a part of it. We haven't set a specific date for him, but Susan is still on for February 7th. Dean has a few Word of Wisdom issues he needs to work through, but he has made amazing progress already. And he's done it all on his own! It looks like we're bringing a family into the gospel because of three car crashes! The Lord works in mysterious ways! We helped Susan paint one of her bedrooms for a foster kid that she is getting soon and we had a blast! She took us over to Home Depot to pick out the colors: teal, dark gray, and white. It looks pretty cool! Good thing I've had all that experience painting up in Almo!

Can you believe that I'll be seeing you all in a little over two weeks? I sure can't! Time flies by when you're having fun. But you have to make the most the time that we're given. Remember the words of President Monson: "You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays." Live the gospel, love others, be happy!