El Fin

Querida Familia,

Now I, Hermana Klaus, after having made an end of abridging the account of my mission, I had supposed not to have written more, but I have not as yet perished; ... Wherefore, I write a few more things, contrary to that which I had supposed; for I had supposed not to have written any more; but I write a few more things, that perhaps they may be of worth unto my brethren, in some future day.  (1 Book of Hermana Klaus 1:1,4)

Hehehe oh I'm so witty...and humble ;)  Well even missionaries aren't perfect when they are leaving the field.  We still have our whole lives to keep working on those areas that still need some improvement.

Ok I can't believe I am writing my last missionary letter.  Where has the time gone.  It was just yesterday that I was being born in the south and excited to start my mission adventure. And now look at me.  I'm an old and dying missionary.  Elders really like to tell me that "Wo, You're dead!"  To which Hna Budge always replies "Some say that she is dead and that she stinketh, and that she ought to be placed in the sepulchre for dying missionaries; but as for myself, to me she doth not stink." (Book of Hermana Klaus 19:5)  So thanks to my good companion I'm not dead yet!

We had a super bien week last week!  I just love being a missionary!  So we were walking in old town and we saw this man sitting on a bench and we just started talking to him.  We ended up having a whole lesson right there on the bench outside.  His knowledge of the Bible was really good and he was very excited about the Book of Mormon.  It was one of those moments where I was like "NOOOOOO I can't leave this behind!"

Although I know I can go home happy because I crossed one of the last things off my missionary bucket list which was to wear a yellow "mormon helping hands" shirt.

Missionaries from our ward at Clean-up ABQ

Required protection during the epic tumbleweed battle

We participated in this clean-up Albuquerque day, so we got to wear the yellow shirts.  I think the saddest part was having to give the shirts back.  We all wanted to keep them.  Hmmm how much repenting would I have to have done in order to sneak off with a yellow shirt?  hehe Don't worry I was a good missionary and I gave it back.  We painted, picked up garbage, pulled weeds, a whole bunch of other stuff and had epic battles with huge tumbleweeds.  As we worked in the park we were talking about placas and I told about how I had lost this placa 3-4 times on my mission, but I always managed to find it.  Well as part of our uniform we also wore these safety vests that we then put our placas on the outside.  Someone collected the vests and I gave him mine as well.  Probably 15 minutes later Hna Budge asked me "Hermana where is your placa?!"  You have got to be kidding me?!  Yep not an hour after telling people how I lost my placa a lot it was missing again.  They had already begun picking up some things, but luckily the 100's of green vests were still there and we started digging through the box.  It's a good thing that placa and I are like magnets and we are once again reunited.  Ok I have 2 days left can I please not lose it again...although knowing me it's a definite possibility.

We also celebrated a birthday of one of my favorite little ward girls down here.  She turned 12 and we stopped by to eat some cheesecake.  It turns out that there were no candles in the house, but we weren't going to let that stop us.  As we were looking through the drawers we saw a  these corn on the cob figures and I just couldn't resist putting 3 little piggy rears on her birthday cake.  Then we broke a kabob stick in half and we tried to light them on fire, but that didn't work too well.  It was seriously one of the funniest birthday cakes i have seen.

Piggy "cheeks" on the birthday cake

We had dinner with Crystal's family last night.  It was super yummy!  After dinner we had a lesson and hermana budge was holding the kitty.  Apparently she held the kitty too long or maybe gave it too tight of a squeeze because it peed on her skirt.  Oh dear!  We don't carry perfume in the car, but we do have a bottle of fabreeze so she used that to help her skirt smell a little better.  Good thing today was p-day and wash the clothes day.  I would not have wanted that sitting in our bedroom for a week waiting to be washed!  I am going to miss them sooo much.  When we left Ivy the 13 year old daughter gave the prayer and she said "thank you for bringing the missionaries over for dinner and heavenly father I don't know why you are taking Hermana Klaus from us."  Talk about hitting below the skirt line!  How would you not want to burst into tears for that prayer?

Well this week has been full of goodbyes.  It's hard to say goodbye to people that you have grown to love so much.  They always say the nicest things and it makes you all gooey inside and it hurts that much more to leave.  The biggest blessings are when people just say thank you for helping them learn how to pray together and telling you what a blessing it is in their lives.  My life has been so richly blessed and I can't imagine what my life would have been like without my mission.  This really isn't the end.  In fact this is just the beginning.  The lessons I have learned on my mission will now go with me as I enter into this new phase of my life.  The things that will never change are my love for the Lord.  I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World.  I know that this is his Church and that he stands at the head of this great work.  I know that he is my redeemer.  I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored through a latter-day prophet, Joseph Smith.  I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that through its pages I have grown so close to my Savior.  I have seen this gospel change so many lives, but the one that has changed the most is me.   I know that I am a daughter of God and that he loves me and I love him.

Con Amor,
Hermana Klaus