Farewell, So long!

      Ahhhh.......hadfvbchaksdflauhseofuiawehfjnasmxcnioaüsd......I don't want to write this email. I don't want to admit that it will be my last one. I just don't know what to say. It still doesn't feel like I will be home soon. Here in Vienna...being a missionary, that is what "real" life is to me.....everything else is just a distant memory. Trying to imagine me coming home is something that I just don't think is possible for me. Everyone keeps asking me how I feel or if I am sad, but to me it has just been another fantastic week of missionary week just complete with a lot more questions and weird sympathetic looks being sent my way. I guess I will just be one of those that it doesn't hit me until a few days after I am home.
      Enough with that, I am still a missionary as of yet and I have had a fantastic week! So I am going to tell you a little about it :). This week was all about the Loh family! We had lots of appointments with them and it was all leading up to the baptism that happened yesterday. It was seriously the sweetest baptism ever! Gina, the mother, spoke about her inactivity a little bit and how it was the baby blessing that Bella had 9 years ago that got her to come back. This blessing talked all about how Bella would be raised in the church and how her parents would play a big role in that. She said that she remembers at the time of this blessing she was confused as she really hadn't been to church in a very long time and this blessing for Bella as a baby was to appease the grandma. However, as we missionaries reached out, the words of this blessing came back to Gina's memory with an unexpected force of peace. She knew she needed to start coming back to church after years of inactivity. So the Loh family started coming every week and we got the pleasure of teaching them!
      Then Lars, the father spoke. He got up and said the he knew he wasn't a member but he did know a few things. Holy Cow, I won't be ever able to completely repeat what he said but everyone there was crying. He just promised Bella that she had found the right path. That through his lifelong journey of him searching, he had never felt so much peace and love then he had in the last few months in our church. He was so sweet about everything and you could tell that they both were so proud of her. My companion and I also gave talks. It was such an incredible day! Bella is such an example to her family and I know that the rest of her family will also one day be baptized! Our other investigators continue to do so well! They are all at big points in deciding when to be baptized. It is so fun to be working with so many families.....it brings such a deeper dimension to this work.
      The ward here.....I know, I know......you hear so much about them! But this is the last time so bear with me! This past week has been a lot of goodbyes. I have been stuffed full of food every second as we run from one to another sharing our last memories together. They have been so so soooo good to me here. Yesterday they kept me busy as I had to give this huge goodbye thing in Relief Society as well as saying BOTH prayers ha, then I gave the Sunday school lesson with my companion, then I gave a talk and said a prayer in Sacrament meeting, THEN I gave a talk at the baptism. I was talked out to say the least......but everyone was so sweet to me. They just kept saying, "You will never be forgotten!" Which is all any missionary hopes to hear. Man I will miss it all so much......
      I leave for Munich, Germany on Wednesday morning. And then it is off to America Friday morning. Whooo what a trippy week ahead of me. I hope to see you all shortly! As sad as I am to leave here, I am sooo excited to see everyone again! Just a reminder my flight comes in July 26th at 7:25pm. I will be on a Delta flight coming from Atlanta, Georgia. I would love to see you all there!
      Spiritual Thought: D&C 10:4 "Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you to translate; but be diligent unto the end."
Love you all, KEEP THE FAITH!
Sister Jessie Linford