The First Couple of Lovely Days Back Home

So for those of you who do not know on a mission you live by a pretty strict schedule with really strict rules. You don't date, you wake up at 6:30 every morning, you study the scriptures for 2 hours every day, you don't watch any movies or tv or anything like that, and your entire purpose is to teach about the gospel of Jesus Christ which you do from sun up to sun down. So anything that doesn't coincide with that is kicked to the curb. It's actually pretty nice after a while. But can you imagine coming home from that!!! This is where the phrase "awkward return missionary" comes from!! You have just learned a completely new lifestyle and then they drop kick you into the real world and badda bing badda boom, swim!!

I found this on pinterest and I was dying it is so funny and so true!!

http://utahvalley360.com/2014/01/21/18-awkward-moments-every-recently-returned-missionary-experiences/

While we were in the airport my mom made a funny comment making fun of something or someone and I looked at her and gasped thinking she was going straight to hell.... I know, ridiculous right! She looked back at me like what has happened to my daughter and I begin to laugh and explain she will just have to be patient with me for a bit and secretly thinking what in the world happened to my family!

I have heard coming home be compared to post traumatic stress disorder, it is like a little mini version of that for the first couple days when you are home, at least it was for me. It was so weird being back. I got home home, like stepped foot in the house I grew up in and seriously just started sobbing. So much so that my dad had to hold me up. I felt like my life was over!! Dramatic huh! The next day didn't seem real I set my alarm to wake up at 6:30 so I could study my scriptures and exercise and keep that schedule, but my mom swiped my phone, which was actually her phone, in the middle of the night so that I would sleep. Ha talk about waking up in a panic, well played mom, well played.

Later that week I went to see my Bishop, he is a local church leader that volunteers his time and services to help out the congregation, and he asked me if I had sat down my parents and chewed them out yet, he said when he got home he chastised his parents for drinking diet coke. Funny huh!!! He then looked at me and said, "Please don't be like that" :) I replied, "I'll do my best, but I am not making any promises"

SOOOO I don't know if you will be able to relate or not to this. I hope so, at least you know that you were not alone in feeling like a lost child in a Christmas store. The first couple of days were rough. Oh my, my brother's first basketball game, we won't even get into that. But it gets better I promise it gets better.

Coming Home

It's hard to believe that a little over a year and a half ago I was embarking on one big adventure. I was called to serve as a missionary in the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission and it truly was the greatest year and a half I could have asked for. I've included a couple of Wisconsin adventure pictures, I will be straight up honest I am horrible at taking pictures but I found these from the old email

Teaching some steller guys with sweet staches

The wonderful Hannah!

I had no idea what was in store for me. Holy cow, I had no idea. The tears of happiness the tears of despair and sadness, the tiredness, oh for sure the tiredness, the blisters, how big my hair actually ended up getting in humidity, the incomprehensible joy, and the complete peace in knowing that the Lord is aware of you and loves you more than you thought possible. I could not have asked for a better year and a half.

But I am back to the real world baby!

You know how when you decide to go on a mish, everyone tells you it's going to be the best thing in the world and the hardest. You can kinda prep yourself for it, like when you watch people do work out videos you think you know absolutely everything, until you actually do it yourself and then those girls in the yoga pants whip you right into shape, yeah kinda the same right? That's probably a bad analogy but I have done that more often than what I am proud of. Well, I am here to tell you they don't really do that for when you get back!! My older sister Kammi mentioned to her two return missionary friends that I was coming home, and they cringed and said, "Oh man, we are so sorry!" I laughed pretty hard at that and realized I was not alone in this almost as awkward as middle school phase of life I am now in. This is a blog about all the craziness that happens when you are home. How do I get back into the swing of things? Well, I am still figuring it out so I will keep you up to date on all the good things about that and test run it for you, don't you even worry!

I have been home one month now and you get ready for some good stories. It has been quite the adventure month if I say so myself.

I'll just give you one awkward story of the road. So I get back, it's great. Hug the fam and race them to the car so that we can go get some Cafe Rio, which I may have missed more than my younger brother! Ha kidding! We get our food and my family starts to eat and I fold my arms to pray over the food and just stare at them. One by one they look at me and slowly put down their fork along with their head and say, "No, we're really going to do this?" I don't know about you, but my family is not used to praying in public. I just smile and say, "Ah yeah!" I think that was the fastest prayer I have ever heard.