Final Farewell

June 9, 2013

Waddoups' side of the family

We spoke in Sacrament Meeting in the Westland 9th Ward.  I talked about "Being the best you can bee" since that will be the theme of our mission.  Michael talked about being prepared to be a missionary.

We were overwhelmed with the support from friends, family, business and legislative associates.  All Michael's siblings were there.  All but one of my brothers were there.  We had lots of nieces and nephews and their children there as well.  Michael commented on how nice it was that we had legislators and lobbyists and inactives all in the same church and the walls didn't fall down.  The chapel and both overflow areas were packed.  I doubt we could have gotten anyone else in the room.  We had parents of missionaries who are currently serving in Rome and parents of future missionaries who will be serving in Rome soon.  It was great.

We decided to serve pizza at our house after church.  After all, we are going to ITALY.  We ordered pizza from Little Ceasars and put it in the fridge to be warmed up the next day.

I put the pizza in the oven and set the timer so it would be hot right when we got home from church.  I told the girls to hurry right home and take it out of the oven.  I should have known better.  Everyone wanted to talk to friends and family we hadn't seen in a long time.

I should have known better.  By the time Heather got home, one of the boxes of pizza was on fire in the oven and the house was full of smoke.  That was a near fiasco.  I don't recommend trying this unless you are going to be standing right there in the kitchen to keep an eye on things.  It really smelled like smoke.  Yuck!  My tutor said I should just tell everyone it was because of my burning testimony.

We have ordered cookies from the "Cookie Lady" for birthdays, mission farewells and baptisms and loved them.  It seemed only fitting that we should have them for our own farewell.  We've never had any problems before.  This time however, we were a little panicky because we were supposed to pick them up on Saturday night.  They called and said they wouldn't be ready until the next day.  Oops.  That was scary.  They told us they would personally deliver them to our house by 11:00 am since we had to leave by 11:30 to meet with the Stake High Council.  At 11:02 am he finally showed up.  I'm the one who is always super prepared so it was a bit nerve wracking.  In the end it all turned out fine.  (I loved the bee cookies.  Obviously, everybody else loved them, too, because they were the first to disappear.

We were walking through a store one day and Michael noticed some beautiful girl's dresses and decided we needed to buy them for all the granddaughters.

Mission Open House

May 31, 2013


The Relief Society organized a Mission Open House for us.  (We were a little uneasy about it because it's never been done in our ward before.  I was concerned the other missionaries would feel bad because they didn't get one.  The Bishop said this ward had never had a Mission President before and they wanted to do it.  We said okay.)

The Open House was held in Barlow's backyard.  By Barlows I mean the combined backyards of Farrell and Mark Barlow.  It was a beautiful evening and the yard was gorgeous.

Lots of the ward members came to wish us well.  Wendi brought her kids.  We felt very loved.

Michael is in the suit.  The young man in the black t-shirt is Bro. Kelly who is going to the Rome, Italy mission.  he goes into the MTC on June 12.

Italian Dinner

May 24, 2013


Elder Cardon, who is a member of the Quorum of Seventy, and Michael both served their missions in Italy at the same time.  At one point Craig was the assistant to the President and Michael was the mission finance clerk and both were serving in the mission office at the same time.

Michael has been associated with Lew Cramer because he is the CEO of the Utah World Trade Center and Michael served on their board for a while.  Lew and Craig are neighbors in the same condominium complex.  Lew arranged for us to all get together and have dinner before we leave for Italy.  Craig Cardon and his wife Debbie, served as Mission President and wife in the Rome Italy Mission a few years ago.  Both the Cardon's son and the Cramer's daughter served in the Rome, Italy Mission at the same time.

We ate dinner at the Cardon's home.  We had wonderful Italian food and Michael and I bought Italian gelato to take for dessert.

It was fun to talk and reminisce.

Elder Craig Cardon, Michael Waddoups, Lew Cramer

Craig Cardon, Michael Waddoups

Debbie and Craig Cardon, Michael and Anna Kay Waddoups