And Then It Was Over

Wow it's definitely taken me a lot longer to get to these final posts up than I thought it would.  I'm gonna try to do three different ones, this one being your typical weekly summary (I guess it'll be a fortnight one by now haha), the next being things I learned, and the last one will be a funny one, but we'll keep that a surprise for now.  Just a forewarning, I have a feeling these three could be a bit long.  Sorry if you get bored and fall asleep between reading.

So.  We last left off Monday night after the RSL dinner with the Gollan's.  Did some last minute laundry before finalizing my bags.  And if you're wondering why I waited until Monday night to finish packing, the answer is OCD.  Honestly at this point it still hadn't hit me.  

Tuesday morning of Week 1 is always transfer day, and that's pretty much how it felt.  It was real, but still not all the way there.  The boys (Penrith flat members, see picture below) dropped me off at the station and the Sisters came to say goodbye too.  Sister Fuller made me one last round of crepes.  See those below as well.  And that was it.  Caught public transport to the temple and P-Day part two had begun.  

I had the opportunity to attend the temple three times before that (so all in all four times in two years, not a bad stat at all) so it really just felt like Temple P-Day had started.  When we hopped on the ferry in Sydney, it started becoming more real.  I had seen the pictures of these farewell trips for the longest time, and now I was the one in them.  The Habour was beautiful and the views were incredible.  

Final interviews were pretty quick, President Checketts also dropped the "m-word".  That was probably the first time in two years that we had an interviews not super focused on missionary work.  Dinner and testimony meeting were great and then we hit up temple accommodations, the place where it all began.  At that point, we were all so stoked, I don't think any of us got more than five hours of sleep haha.  The stoked feeling became bittersweet really quickly as we drove into the airport and saw planes on planes on planes.  Realest moment ever was hugging Sister Checketts.  Didn't think we'd get to hug her until some day after we got released, but we did and that's when it hit.  I guess that's us.  This is really it.  

And so my twenty four hour journey began.  Arrived in LA roughly three hours before we had "left" Sydney (playing that Back to the Future game again, you know).  Going through customs, the dude said "welcome back sir" and that was pretty dope.  Proud to be an American.  At that point, said goodbyes to the three other American Elders that I was traveling with and went lone ranger without a cell phone trying to find where Grandma Muh was.  We actually spent two hours looking for each other in opposite terminals.  Thank goodness for the four hour layover.  After those two hours, I eventually decided to just start making my way through TSA check and that's when they came running up hahaha so I did get to meet with them after all.  That was way cool too.  

Another six hours of flying and I was back in the GREAT 808 STATE.  Side note: the lady I sat next to was from Arkansas and it was her first time flying in over 60 years.  We had some funny convos and man does the Southern accent crack me up.  Okay now here's where I formally apologize for walking down the wrong flight of stairs and ruining that perfect missionary homecoming video hahaha my bad fam that one's on me.  But let me just say how freaking awesome it was to see them in real life again. It's really hard to describe the joy I felt that afternoon.  Especially you Jaren, that FaceTime call was dank.  Also shoutout to the squad who turned up too, thanks for the support!  And putting up with my first meal request of Taco Bell.  

Okay now for the speed version.  I'm back.  It feels like I've been back ages already, but when I started writing this, it was about the two week mark of me being released.  Yes, some things are a bit weird still but we adjusting.  Yes, my first college football Saturday was great.  Yes, balling up has been legit as well.  Spoken three times in two Sundays and I'll probably add a few more to that tally in the coming months.  The whole "RM attention" thing is still interesting for me.  I feel like a celebrity sometimes.  Or it could just be that they all want to hear my supposed "accent".  Which btw you should probably hear soon before it hops back down under haha.  As for the plans, I'm currently taking a couple of online classes from BYU-Hawai'i before I attend there full-time in January.  My goal is to eventually transfer to Provo, and as for the major, I'm thinking of some kind of communications, specifically a sports media or marketing type of thing.  If that even exists.  And no, marriage isn't necessarily number one on the priority list as of yet.  Lol.  

Love y'all heaps!

(Man I wish I could sign this off as Elder Muh...)

Cameron 

P.S. After attaching all these pictures, I realized that I put up HEAPS.  Sorry not sorry haha.  

Miss these dudes (Elder Tusa, Elder Afa, & Elder Metcalf)

Sister Fuller should be in the Hall of Fame 

Up close and personal 

Got all three in the same shot #dope

Mandatory selfie with the Opera House just making it above my ear 

Sister Ellison, my OCD best friend from the mission office 

Elder Taufa.  The two "sons" of Elder Laimpeti (our trainer/"dad") 

Best mission mum ever, Sister Checketts

The man, the miracle.  President Checketts.  

Goodbye Sydney 

Visited with Grandma Muh, Grandpa Mike, & Uncle Victor during my four hour layover in LA

Not sure if I grew or if the legroom on Delta planes got smaller 

Got the West side treatment ft. Wet n' Wild instead of your OG fly through Waikiki 

Wheels down in a place that I know very well #HNL

The FAAAMMM

See you soon uce.  Alofa atu! 

Uncle Darrell with that selfie game strong 

And then he was called Cameron again #badgeless

Shoutout to Mrs. Chun, my first grade teacher for coming to my homecoming talk!

Back to back LDS ASMHS Recording Secretaries (me '14-'15, Kiley '15-'16) and Mrs. Ward, our advisor.  She was also my Freshman English teacher.  Thanks for coming!

   

SQUUUAAAD

Damien (member in the Gosford Ward) was here visiting his uncle, so we got to hook up for a feed last Sunday!