Sydney - July 23, 2013

It was my last day in the South Pacific.  Tomorrow I begin the journey home.  It will be one of the longest days of my life, literally.  Only one other can match it and that would be August 4, 1999, the day I flew home from the Philippines and that was honestly an amazing day.  One of the best of my life, but it had nothing to do with leaving a third world country or anything like that.  But it was something like this:

I had traveled for at least 24 hours.  I was exhausted and so jet-lagged.  I was traveling with a large group of missionaries who were all returning home after 18 months or 2 years.  This was pre-9/11 so family and friends could meet you at your arrival gate.  I remember walking through the tunnel from the plane to the terminal and I could hear cheers and shouts for the Elders who had exited before me.    And when I came out of the tunnel, there was a huge crowd of people and there were banners and balloons and cheering.  All of sudden I heard some one shout, “There she is!!”  It was the voice of my mother and then I saw her push through the crowd of people and next thing I knew I was engulfed in her embrace.  She was SO happy to see me.  I thought, “This is what it is going to be like when we return to our heavenly home.”  There will be crowds of people we know and love waiting for us to come through the “tunnel” and our Heavenly Father and Mother will be so anxious to embrace us.  It will be an awesome day.  And for me that was the best moment of my mission.  I had worked really hard, sacrificed, loved and given everything and it was all worth it for that one moment of feeling so loved and wanted, safe and finally at home.  I imagine that we will have very similar feelings when we return home from our mortal missions.

Anyway, that was quite a tangent.  But it was an experience that happened before I was consistent at journaling and I wanted to make sure it was recorded somewhere.  So thank you for indulging me.  

What you really want to know is what happened today.  I started out at the Harbor Bridge.   I climbed to the top of the Pylon and saw the view of the Sydney Harbor.  I also learned a bit about the history of the bridge.  It was quite interesting.

An interesting thing about today is that ironically, on my last day, I took one picture and then was notified that my card was full.  It was a brand new 4G card a month ago.  It only has pictures from this trip on it.  I have taken over a thousand pictures and I just thought is was funny, that it couldn’t hold one more day’s worth of pictures.  I switched it out with the card from my little video camera and took a few more pictures and then got the message that it too was full.  Thankfully, in tourist’s areas there is usually some kind of camera shop.  I soon found a new card and was taking as many pictures as I wanted.

Once I remedied the SD card problem I got on a ferry that took me south of Sydney to a place called Manly.  There is a large beach there.  It was a very lovely beach.  I happily spent the afternoon there.

I returned to Sydney and had desert at the Belgian Chocolate Restaurant on the wharf .  It was my little farewell party.  

It was a great day and a great way to end this epic journey. Australia put on a gorgeous sunset, as you can, see for my farewell and as I was walking to my hotel I saw that it was also a glorious full moon.  A perfect ending!

I just have to note, as a follow up from yesterday’s post, that I have been working on focusing on the things that I want rather than worrying about what could be.  And it is truly amazing.  All of the things that I wanted and truly believed were possible today came to pass.  I even asked that it not be so windy today and it was the most wind free day, I have had in a coastal town this whole trip.  Harbors are beautiful and generally windy…but not today, in Sydney.  So, if you don’t like the way things are going starting putting your energy into thinking, imagining and creating how you want things to go and watch how amazingly it comes to pass.  One of the leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints put it this way:

“We do have a choice.  We get what we focus on consistently.”

(Elder Pearson, Ensign, May 2009)

Now I am back in my hotel room exhausted, cold (because it is winter here), and yet with a full and warm heart because I am so grateful for this opportunity.  Thank you so much to the Penn State School of Theater and to my parents for helping to make this trip possible.  It has been amazing!  I really can't express enough gratitude for the experiences that this grad program has provided me with.  Thank you! Thank you!  Thank you!