Ted spent last week giving final interviews to nineteen amazing missionaries who left this past Tuesday for their homes. Each interview lasts nearly an hour so Ted spread out the interviews over several days. The Elders and Sisters returned to Florida, Idaho, Utah, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio and Texas. They will bless their home wards and will continue to build the Church wherever they go. One Sister didn’t even need to leave our mission boundaries to return home, her parents moved to Compton, California while she was serving here in Long Beach . . . so they picked her up at the Mission Home and drove twenty minutes to Compton! It was fun to see their reunion after eighteen months.
While we were having our farewell dinner Monday night with our departing missionaries we received word that Ted’s Mom had passed away. We were able to keep the information quiet, just the Blakes (our departing office couple) who were sitting at our table heard the news. We really wanted to keep the evening centered on the missionaries we were celebrating. We were able to finish our dinner and testimony meeting which as always was amazing. A wise friend said,” we are sure you will be able to testify with even more power and authority about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the importance of families.” We have already found this to be the case. We still didn’t get a chance to let the news settle in because Tuesday morning we sent off the departing missionaries and picked up two new missionaries at the Long Beach Airport. Our two new missionaries, a Sister and a Spanish speaking Elder are going to be incredible missionaries. They arrived ready to get to work.
Wednesday was the day of Grandma Camille’s funeral service in New Orleans. Remarkably it was a very quiet day here in the mission. Ted and I were both home most of the day and were able to spend a few hours thinking about his Mom, reminiscing and talking about all of the many attributes that make Camille Richardson Bubert so special. We have heard wonderful reports from our children who were able to be in Louisiana for their Grandma’s funeral. Her send off was just as she had hoped, she passed very peacefully, the gathering was for her family only, the service was held in the beautiful outdoors (graveside) just as she had requested. Her children and many of her grandchildren read tributes they had written and Gospel music was sung by two women hired for the occasion.
We are happy for Grandma and know she is free from her body which was holding her back for some time now. She is with loved ones and in a very beautiful place. We will miss her, oh how we will miss her! But we know we will see her again and when we do she will still be the wonderful, unique, joyful person we love.
I know I have mentioned that I love to envision our missionaries arriving home to the loving arms of the family and friends. I was also imagining the past few days the reunion that awaited Grandma Camille in the Spirit World. We have spent many hours rocking on Grandma’s front porch talking about her many wonderful Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Parents, etc. who were such an important part of her life. They were surely there to welcome her home.
Ted’s favorite words to share with our departing missionaries are “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”. This week we said farewell to our special missionaries and farewell to our amazing Grandma Camille and to each we say, “Well done”.
This has always been a favorite poem of mine:
A ship sails and I stand watching till she fades on the horizon
and someone at my side says
She is gone.
Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all.
She is just as large now as when I last saw her.
Her diminished size and total loss from my sight is in me, not in her.
And just at that moment, when someone at my side says she is gone,
there are others who are watching her coming over their horizon
and other voices take up a glad shout -
There she comes!
We love you all and thank you for your prayers – we feel them!
The Long Beach Buberts
P.S. Thank you to everyone who made it possible for our kids to get to the funeral and to all who took great care of them while they were in Louisiana! (they are still talking about the delicious food, the limo-bus, rides to and from the airport and the joy of being with family)
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