Week 77  Home

Well its kinda funny that I ended up writing this email on a Monday, which used to be my Pdays. As most of you already know I am officially home. It came very unexpectedly. On pday I got the call from my president that they were sending me and my coming home group home. Talk about a life-changing phone call. Well basically the rest of the day I tried to get a bunch of souvenirs and I packed. My flight was thought to leave the next day, but that was a mistake and we didn't know that til we showed up to the airport...so that was fun at 5 am in the morning. That day we chilled because our whole mission was officially on quarantine. Amazing thing was that it snowed that day. Tbilisi never snows! Small miracle. Again a late night for me. Isani sisters joined us. We heard that more missionaries from our mission (the Georgia side) were leaving. The senior missionaries, and two elders who have a chronic asthma were leaving for their safety. So, in one day basically we lost 3 missionaries and they were down to 12. Well, luckily I got a flight buddy, Elder Layton, for my flight. 

Leaving Georgia was a lot harder then I expected. I mean it was probably even harder since I wasn't able to see people before I left. I didn't believe I was leaving until I took off on the airplane from Tbilisi to Istanbul, Turkey. Its weird because I realized then just how short a mission is. Being on the plane reminded me when I left and it almost felt like yesterday when I left home, yet I know that there were many months in between that. It's funny because I feel the same I did then, but still remembering the old me seems so foreign. Hard to explain really. After crying basically the whole flight from Tbilisi we landed in Istanbul. We both had a layover of about 5 hours. Talk about boring, I couldn't sleep either. Once I boarded my next flight it was straight to San Francisco which was a 13-hour flight. Man that was the worst flight ever. Squished and exhausted but I couldn't fall asleep. I didn't eat anything too just because when I eat plane food on my first flight, I do not feel good afterwards. Well, after a super long flight I finally landed. I got to see my mom and sister in a person for the first time in a long time. One, Amy is taller which is not OK. She was smaller when I left. Second, America is huge! But, buildings are so short! I am so used to tall buildings and apartments. One thing that I won't miss is smoking, no one smokes here which is amazing!  I also, won't miss that smell. I got to see my dad later on in the week when he finally got back from his business trip.

Well, its been almost a week and it has taken a little time adjusting. I still wake up at like 5AM and I get bored pretty easily, but its getting better with each day. Sad news is that they sent 5 more missionaries home from Georgia. which means there is only 6 left. The only reason why the sisters are still there is because they couldn't get a flight to Tonga for Sister Mafi and she needs a companion. The Georgia mission is basically gone and that's so sad. Good news is that the Doctrine and Covenants, in Georgian, came out online! So there still are miracles happening!

Well I am beyond grateful for my time in Georgia as a missionary. I miss it a lot already. I grew a lot there and it truly became my second home. I am going to miss the members, the people I met and especially the missionaries, they became such a family to me. I am grateful for the all experiences I had, good and bad. I learned so much about life and the gospel and my testimony grew so much in that short span of time. My missionary time I will forever cherish.

I am currently on quarantine for 14 days, so I can not go see people at the moment but afterwards I can and would love to see anyone that would like to meet.

Well Georgia til' next time.❤🇬🇪

- და ჯენსენი