Farewell to Elder L. Tom Perry; the Work Goes On

We mourn with the rest of you the passing of our beloved Elder L. Tom Perry.  Just four weeks ago today as we drove out of town to come here to Florida we stopped to say good-bye to him.  Since we first went to Boston, then Brazil, and now Orlando he teased us and said, "How many missions are you going to squeeze out of that one call?"  We are so grateful for our association with him through the years, and are grateful for all he did for our family.  We will miss him and his inspiring Conference Talks.

It is hard to believe that this was taken less than two months ago as we walked with my daughter
and her husband with the Perrys to  Conference.  Elder Perry never liked to stop for pictures, so I ran
ahead and got the shot so as not to slow him down.  He was still walking VERY fast!!!

This week was spent driving all over the ward trying to find those who perhaps would rather not be found!  One day while out in the boondocks our normally-trusty GPS suddenly acted like the address we were looking for in the FAR reaches of the ward didn't really exist.  We had to admit defeat and drove back into civilization feeling like "Well, we tried..."  As the day wore on, we started feeling like we should try again.  We came back to the apartment and consulted with a sturdier version of Mapquest, got more information, and tried a different GPS.  By the time we got out to the correct address it was almost 9:00 p.m.  As we drove past the barely-discernable driveway we contemplated just coming back another day, but decided to be nervy and go to the door.  Fortunately, the woman answered the door (trust me, they usually don't...) and talked to us on the porch for a while.  Eventually she invited us in, then started opening up about her life.  Before we left she confided that she was going to have cancer surgery this Monday, and by the end of our visit acted like she was very glad we came.  We don't know if we were able to give her any comfort, but we hope so; and hope that we will be able to keep in contact with her.  In any event, we were glad we persevered.

The Church is True!  We love being missionaries!  Our Love to All!