It all goes back to the mission...

Before leaving Kansas, I had made the comment on more than one occasion that I was in the same state of denial I had been on when my mission ended. In fact, the similarities are quite comparable.

I served a 19 month mission. (Yes,I was one of "those"). A fun fact....After spending the first 4 1/2 weeks in the Provo MTC (Aug 29-Sept 26, 2001), I spent exactly 18 months in Spain-to the day (Sept 27, 2001-March 27, 2003). So, if you take away the time I was in the MTC/CCM (Spain MTC) and then also remove the amount of time it took me to figure out what I was doing, what language I was speaking, and just all around the ins and outs of becoming comfortable in Spain, I would say I had probably 13 solid months of feeling like a true Spaniard!

Is it any coincidence that 13 months is also the exact amount of time I was home in Kansas? It's interesting to me, that so often in my life things go back to the mission.

The following are situations that apply to both my life as a missionary in Madrid, as well as my time living in Lawrence;

1. I had become a "native." (I own multiple items of KU apparel, and wear it with pride, yet I was never a student at KU-explain that one).

2.I loved my surroundings, (Mass St. actually often reminded me of my favorite area on my mission and nothing beats the site of the fall colors in Lawrence, Kansas).

3.I had grown to love so many of the quirky things about the people (White Owl-need I say more?!) and the culture ("ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK..KKKKKKUUUU!")

4.The streets had become as familiar to me as my own hometown. (Numbered streets run East & West. State streets run North & South according to their order of entrance into the Union- OK, got it!)

5. Wow! So many learning experiences compacted into 13 months and so many people I had grown to love in ways I never thought possible, thus a HUGE strengthening of my testimony and the reality of the fact that we truly are all brothers & sisters in an amazing eternal family with a Heavenly Father who loves us all so much that He lets us cross paths for a short time with one another here on Earth.

So, just like my mission, (and the fact that I knew it would inevitably come to an end)-I definitely lived in denial during the days & weeks prior to my departure from Kansas. I thought if I didn't talk or think about it, maybe somehow it would just go away and not happen. I was super sensitive to other people even bringing it up, (just like when I was a departing missionary).. and I always kept myself super busy to somehow disguise my denial. But as we all know, I DID eventually get on the plane to leave Madrid (poor Spaniard guy who sat next to me that day...he said he'd never seen an American cry so much about leaving his country- ha ha) and I DID get on the plane to leave Kansas City.
At one point prior to leaving, my Dad asked me how I was feeling about everything. I simply summed it up by saying, "Dad, it's just like the mission.-You never get over it or forget it, but you just have to move on." So I guess this time going back to Utah, the RM stands for "Returned Midwesterner?" ha ha ha ha