Final Chapter

Here we are in the final days of our mission. Hard to believe the time has come for us to finish. We had our final interview with our Mission President on Friday, had to speak in church at our Temple Square Sacrament Meeting this morning, which makes us realize it is about over. We truly have loved serving here.

I have not posted for so long that I never posted our change of assignment that came mid-October. We were sent "Outbound" to the South Salt Lake Mission. At the time, we were quite disappointed with the change of assignment, but as with most things, they turn out to be a blessing. We learned and grew from this experience, met many new friends, our own testimonies were strengthened, and we saw the hand of the Lord in our own lives at work. What a blessing it has been for us to serve. We have met wonderful people from all over the world and have formed new and lasting friendships.

Our home for the past 18 months. We have loved our view
of the Temple from our Seventh floor balcony.

After Music and the Spoken Word today, the departing missionaries on Temple Square were honored by Lloyd Newell. Here we are as we were asked to stand. Eighteen Sisters and five couples are returning home.





The departing missionaries attend a Temple session at the Salt Lake Temple before going home.These are a some of the missionaries leaving this transfer.

These are some of the great Elders at our last zone conference in the South Salt Lake Mission.

Our District in the Kearns area. The Sisters are Sister Tan and Sister Smith that we worked with for three of the months we were "Outbound"

Our little Grandson "Landon Kirk Johnson". Kirk and Jennifer brought Landon to Salt Lake to bless him, which was wonderful for us since we were not able to travel to Boise. This was the day he was blessed.

"Jace Ramsey Johnson" with Grandpa Johnson. Jace was just six days old and Wayne had just come home from the hospital after having been hosptalized with pancreatitis. Wayne ended up having his gall bladder removed --- after four days of no food or water.

Top of Ensign Peak
After Natalie and I climbed Ensign Peak, Wayne decided it would be something he could attempt. Here we are with our friends, The Binghams , and Natalie and Justin

911

We had been asked to serve as Directors of the Beehive House which is mainly just to make sure the supplies are stocked, do the daily report, the monthly report, and if any other senior couples had concerns,we were the ones they were suppose to talk to. After our week in Park City, we were concerned the supplies might be a little short so rather than walk from our condo to the Beehive House there is a driveway right behind the Beehive House we had discovered we could park for a short time when we had to run short errands there. We decided I would run them in while Wayne waited in the car. As it is a service driveway, he backed in, in case someone came while I was there, so he was facing the road. What we didn't realize, was that some of the supplies were running low and I needed to run some copies and I couldn't find the masters. Between that and talking to the Sisters and the other senior couple, I was much longer than anticipated and Wayne tipped his head back and dozed. Apparently someone from the condos across the street looked over and saw him sitting with his head tipped back in the seat and called 911. When I came out of the Beehive house, I saw the fire engine parked on the street, but didn't think anything about it. When I got to the car, Wayne told me an AMBULANCE, a FIRETRUCK, and EIGHT PARAMEDICS had come to the car to see if he was alright because someone reported an "Old, incapacitated, gentleman was in a tan car behind the Beehive House and had not moved for a long time!"

If I want a good chuckle, all I have to do is think about it.................the funniest story of our mission yet!

August-September

We got in one last trip to Park City. We love the Family Tree Center there. Of course we love the sister missionaries. We served with two different companionships during the week

We took Sister Rodriguez and Sister Stephen to Olympic Park on their P-Day

The other two sisters we served with at the Family Tree Center and the AP's. The AP's came to visit and inform the sisters of all the changes taking place in the mission at the transfer. WOW! BIG changes for our mission!!! We loved these sisters. We had so much fun with them in Park City.

We served at the Family Tree Center one last time. These are two of the Sisters we served with while we were there. Sister DaCosta returned home to Brazil last week. We were so sad to see her leave.

We have been serving as Directors of the Beehive House for the past couple of months.

One of my goals while we have been on our mission has been to climb Ensign peak. A few weeks

ago Natalie helped me reach that goal. It was a gorgeous day and it was not that bad a climb.

We even passed David Archuletta on the trail!

We Made it to the Top!

Our last Zone conference was held in the tabernacle. We met in the tabernacle choir seats.

The actual meeting was underneath the tabernacle. After our zone conference, we were given a backstage tour of the dressing rooms of the choir members and their recording room.

A close-up view of the pipes in the tabernacle!

These are the sister missionaries that are leaving to go home - they make up a farewell song to sing to the mission. This is always a sad day in our lives!

These are the sisters receiving their calls to go "outbound". You can see from the picture it was a Hawaiian theme. During the time they serve on Temple square, they receive another call to serve a proselyting mission somewhere in the continental United States for about four months to have that experience as well. It is always an exciting time to see where their calls will be to and then it is always fun to see them return to the Square.

Mitch and Cari spent a weekend with us and took a tour of the Beehive house.

Our Cute Alexa and Tanner

July

July passed all too quickly. It was not as hot as we had anticipated it would be. Our Mission President did allow the Elders to take off their suit coats if they were wearing long sleeve white shirts. That made such a difference for Wayne. I was working in Guest Services, which is the mission office on many of the hot summer days, so I had it very easy. So, our summer has been very tolerable.

Here are just a few " Off-the-square" pictures of our July activities:

We had a fun cookout up the canyon with Natalie and Justin on a beautiful summer afternoon.

The sisters enjoying a delicious barbecue lunch after an exhausting morning of fun and games

We had a mission activity up Big Cottonwood Canyon. A day filled with games, food, a lot of fun and relaxation. There are not many of these kinds of days for the sisters, so it was a wonderful day to get away from the Square. It was also fun for us to see the Sisters in a more casual atmosphere. It was such a fun day!

June

There is not a lot of variation to our days on the Square as far as our assignments. Our venues change with each transfer and, of course, each new day brings new people, new challenges, new questions, new encounters. The months continue to pass far too quickly. We are amazed with the visitors who come from around the world. Most with great respect; some with a real desire to learn, some with absolutely NO interest whatsoever, some anti's, and our role is to invite, and then to reinvite and then it may be to reinvite again. Sometimes that is a real challenge.

This is at a dinner with some missionary friends and Wayne's second cousin. He had not seen his cousin for 45 years, so it was a fun reunion.

Elder Johnson pondering in the Beehive house at Brigham Young's desk

Cari and her sister came down and we had a watch party. Now we all have these fancy watches that we love!

The mission gave us special permisssion to travel to Manti to attend the Manti pageant. Here we are with our good friends Elder and Sister Bingham

Waiting for the pageant to begin..............

Brett and Tiffany were in charge of our family reunion this year. Since we couldn't go home, they planned the reunion here in Salt Lake. This was part of the family swimming on Friday while we had to work.

On Saturday, we toured Welfare Square

The family playing games

Making a poster for Parker - Ryan's family ended up coming late because Parker was playing in a championship baseball game. His team ended up winning, so the grandkids wanted to make a special poster for him" THE JOHNSON FAMILY"

April & May

Richard and Elaine Holloway brought a group of youth from their ward to a special "Called to Serve" Program. It was so fun to see them.

Having dinner at the Garden in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

One of our last "Called To Serve" groups of sisters. This was a special program that we worked with for most of the year. Each week we would invite a Stake of youth to Temple Square. The Sisters would take them on a tour and then we would have a special program on the importance of missions. It was an amazing program and we loved working with the Sisters!












Some of the family at Sicily's dance competition held in Utah.

" Our cute Sicily"

Sierra had a clogging competition held at Lagoon. She is the cute one, second from left - a very talented clogger.

We have been fortunate to attend the Tabernacle Choir Broadcast almost every week while we have been here. We sit in the balcony by the women, so we almost feel like we are part of the choir. It is one of our favorite things here.

Girls Weekend

We had our annual Girls weekend the end of July. I have been blessed with wonderful daughter in laws and such a sweet daughter and we have such a fun time together. We just laugh and laugh. It was good for me to have them come and spend the weekend. Natalie furnished the accommodations, as they all stayed at her apartment. I even left my mission companion for the night and spent Friday night with them since Saturday is our P-Day. We did have a GREAT time. However, we did miss Sheri this year, as she was on the Oregon coast with her family. It just wasn't quite the same without her.......................