Shari here. Ben-Daniel arrived home to Seatac International Airport on Wednesday, August 26, 2015. We had a welcoming committee of eleven: Mom, Dad, Catriel, both sets of grandparents, Aunt Christi, Uncle Brett, and two of his longtime friends, Devin and Spencer.
He was late getting off the plane because he was helping another missionary solve a luggage problem. He surprised us by coming in from another direction, so we had kind of confused photos and videos!
Here are some pictures (and a few little video clips) of our meeting at the airport and at the house.
Waiting at the airport!
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| Spencer, Catriel and Grandma Duffin |
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| Grandpa Duffin and Grandad |
And then Ben-Daniel shows up!
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| Phone selfie with Mom |
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| Hugs for grandparents! |
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| Mom, Ben-Daniel, and Catriel |
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| Trying to kiss his sister |
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| Siblings back together after two years! |
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| A kiss for Mom! |
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| This friendship has not changed |
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| With Uncle Brett and Catriel |
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| With Grandpa Duffin after lunch |
After all the excitement at the airport, we went out to lunch. Then it was time to greet the pets!
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| One very excited Shih Tzu! |
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| On the deck in the evening |
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| All of our kids together (you can't see Jon and Hillary on the screen! It was something like 4:30am there). |
Serving a
mission was the best thing I could have done at this point in my life, for
myself and for the world. I’m so grateful that I had that opportunity.
It’s kind of
weird being home now; two years is a long time. During the mission I was stuck
in a state of constant amazement that I was on the mission, and now that I’m
done, it’s reversed; I can’t really believe that it’s over and that I’m home, ha
ha!
The mission
was fun! I made a ton of friends, did a lot of cool things, and visited neat
places. My first area was in the city of Dickinson near Houston, Texas and my
last was in the bairro (city secion) of Serraria, off the coast of
Florianopolis, Brazil. The time in between was quite the adventure.
I learned a
lot during that time. I think the most important thing I learned was the
importance of taking time out of our lives
to know God.
Some of life’s
deepest questions are: What is the purpose of my life? What will happen once it’s
over? Is there anything afterward? So much of what we pass through in our day-to-day
lives won’t matter to us when our time here is ending; though I can imagine
that these questions may be among the foremost thoughts on our minds.
The answers
to these questions come when one gains an understanding of Who and What God is.
The answers to those questions bring true peace and happiness into our lives. But
in order to gain that knowledge we must take
time out of our lives to learn it.
A quote from
Elder Richard G. Scott summarizes what I’m trying to say here:
“Don’t yield
to Satan’s lie that you don’t have time to study the scriptures. Choose to take
time to study them. Feasting on the word of God each day is more important than
sleep, school, work, television shows, video games, or social media. You may
need to reorganize your priorities to provide time for the study of the word of
God. If so, do it!”- Make the Exercise of
Faith Your First Priority, October 2014 General Conference.
A missionary’s
purpose is to help others find out for themselves who and what God is, through
prayer and study. I’m thankful I had the opportunity to do that on my mission,
serving the people in Houston and in Brazil.
Thank you
for reading this missionary blog and I hope you continue to take time to know
God throughout your daily life!
Ben-Daniel
Duffin
And here ends the blog, folks, two years, two continents, 97 posts and 6,402 page views later. Thank you so much for your readership, prayers, and support for Ben-Daniel! You can find him on social media if you'd like to stay in touch with him.
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| One last picture of us with our returned missionary! |
