Tales of Trinidad: Tender Mercies

This will be the last tale I will be recording of our Trinidad Port of Spain Mission. I will begin with the 34 hour travel time to get back home. A week ago today, March 28th, we were dropped off to the Curacao airport by our wonderful remaining senior couple in the mission, the Lehmans. It has been sad to see all of the missionaries, except 11, leave and return home. We were hoping we could stay but when the dryness of the air started causing my throat to bleed, we knew it was time. I was praying and asking Heavenly Father if we should go and I went to the scriptures and it opened up to 3 Nephi 19:1 which reads"...and every man did take his wife and his children and did return to his own home." I knew it was time as much as I really didn't want it to be.
We were at the airport at noon in plenty of time to make the 3 pm flight to Toronto. As we were checking in we were informed that we would not be allowed to get on the plane because we were not Canadian citizens. We were very confused because we had just purchased our tickets online the previous day through Air Canada with American passports. They told us that a new policy had just been announced 12 hours earlier which created this restriction. We called embassies and tried to get other flights but nothing was working. I sent out a cry for prayers on Facebook! Finally, at 1:30 the desk attendant had mercy on us and checked us in because the flight would be locked at 2 pm. Filled with relief we went through security and got to the gate with a few minutes before boarding time. Tender mercy.
Then they called us to the desk and said we still could not get on the flight because we would be spending the night in Toronto, waiting for the next day's flight to Vancouver and we were not Canadians. It was determined if we could get a flight to Miami from Toronto they would let us on. Dave then scrambled and managed to do just that on his phone standing at the desk. Relief again and we started to board. Just as we were to get on the plane we were stopped again and asked to wait by the wall of the walkway. We waited and felt bad that everyone else was waiting on us. After about 10 minutes someone came and said we could get on! There was even cheering as we boarded the plane from the other passengers. Tender Mercy. Holy Cow!
We were wearing our masks and were praying constantly that I wouldn't cough or have my breathing get compromised. I'm happy to report that I was fine the whole way home. Tender Mercy. We got into Toronto around 9 pm and were whisked off to the international waiting area and booked another ticket to Denver for 2 pm the next day. We had brought my large humidifier so we set that up with some chairs and tried to get comfortable with sleeping there in the airport. They told us we had to be ready to be moved at 5 am to our waiting gates. We did get a few hours of sleep and really, I felt quite rested when it was time to get up. Tender Mercy.
Our flight to Denver didn't leave until 2 pm so we had many hours to wait. We found a table at a restaurant that was closed and set up our computers and we played a few games we had brought with us, like Kings in the Corner and Quirkle to make the time pass. We kept watching the flight board and were noticing many many flights getting cancelled. We were somewhat disturbed by that and asked the information people if we needed to be worried. They said no.The Toronto airport was completely empty and there were only six people flying to Denver. Finally, it was time to board the plane to Denver. We only had 1 hour to make our connecting flight to SLC when we arrived in Denver and we had to wait in the plane for 45 minutes because the stairs were having mechanical problems. I tried to calm myself and remember how many people were praying for us to get home safely. At last we were on our way and the pilot was able to make up 30 minutes of delay and we got to the gate to board for SLC with 18 minutes to spare. Tender Mercy.
We arrived in SLC thrilled to see the mountains, the Bountiful temple and Dave was happy to see snow. Megan and Colton picked us up, loaded our six bags of luggage in their truck and drove us home, stopping to get some food since we hadn't really eaten anything for some time. 34 hours of intense, stressful, tiresome, sorrowful and excited feelings.
We drove into our drive way and saw several cars park along side the house. The house had balloons, streamers, posters and cutout hearts with messages covering our front door. Every car had our children inside along with most of our grandchildren. Annie, living in Colorado was even there remotely! Of course there could be no hugs because of the virus restrictions but we saw and gave air hugs to all of them! We were so touched and felt so loved by these darling people of ours! They have been so supportive of us while we have been serving and we are filled with gratitude to be back home with them again! Tender Mercy.
Coming home this way and under these circumstances has been very difficult on us. There have been many tears of just releasing the stress of it all. It has caused us to grieve with having to be quarantined and not able to visit and embraced our children and grand children. I am still struggling to breathe as my airway heals from being completely dried out and damaged. We grieve at not having a purpose when every day and every hour for the last 17 months we have been engaged in serving the Lord and His children on our mission. So, we are so very happy to be home but it has been and will continue to take some time to adjust to the situation. Our children are careful and thoughtful to ask us what we need and they have gone shopping and picked up food for us. Ward members have dropped off meals and cookies and called and messaged. We are loved and supported in every way. Tender Mercy.

Conference has been especially tender and we feel to praise the Lord for allowing us this great opportunity to serve, to grow, to make mistakes, to repent and try again. How blessed we are to live in a time when the fullness of the gospel is on the earth and the Church of Jesus Christ is restored and established throughout the world and we got to help build the Kingdom in three other countries for a time. Tender Mercy. We will continue to strive to build the Kingdom where we are. We weren't perfect missionaries but we did give the Lord our best efforts.