the end of the line or is it the middle of the next?

Some closing thoughts for this mission.

This mission was vastly different than the first mission I served over 40 years ago.  When I first served, I had only been a member of the church for 5 years and 6 months.  Three years and six months of that was spent at Church College of Hawaii.  In total, I served 23 out of the 24 months assigned to me to serve in Japan.  I have found that over the past 40 years, I have been processing what I learned during the first mission and I expect that I will spend a lot of time processing what happened during this mission.  Eternal principles always take a long time to internalize and make them an intrinsic part of our lives.

One of the guiding scriptures in this mission comes from Mosiah 5:13 which says “How knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?”  I have made it a priority to read the scriptures more than I did at home in Arizona and to do what I could to draw close to my Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ.  By serving a mission as a records preservationist, I have been given the opportunity to do as Jesus did, and that is to serve my fellow man and the records preservation is the way I have done it.  People from all over the world research here in Maine and our efforts will become available to them on the internet free of charge. 

It is hard to say goodbye.  It seems strange to  just get up and leave – seems like I am in the middle of a story and leaving is not like just turning a page.  You cannot just get up and leave because thoughts and memories follow you along the new path.  When I left Australia in 1966, I left my room as if I was going to come back that night and go to bed in my own bed.  When I left the Language Training Mission to fly to Japan, I walked out of the building and got in a bus but the memories of the LTM experience were packed in my suitcase along with my clothes.  We babysat for Sara and Jacob when they went on their cruise and I brought home a bunch of memories with me of my grandchildren.  So, as I prepare to leave Augusta, my memories are all stuffed into my memory bank and I can take them out from time to time to remember what this experience meant to me.

Our first Sunday they welcomed us from the Pulpit and said “The Markhams will be with us for 3 years”.  I looked up and was wondering why they said that and the speaker said, “I was just trying to see if Sr. Markham was listening or not.”  On my first Sunday in Maine I met Meredith – she is very special to me and I spent 2 hours with her today.  We also re-connected with Alan Barker who had been a missionary in Johnstown when we lived there.  That was a really good surprise to meet him again after all these years.

We struggled with the Cradle and digitizing.  We froze in the winter and marveled at the beauty of the snow and the diamonds that it produced in the morning sun.  I fell in love with a River and took many pictures of it – when it was calm, when it was turbulent, when it was in full tide and when the tide was out.  I watched it when fish were jumping in it, and noted the effect of people doing yoga on its banks in the early morning sunshine.  I have seen it frozen over and watched it when the wind whipped up whitecaps on its surface.  I saw some people lazily paddling canoes on a hot afternoon and heard the put-put of an inboard motor boat making its way up stream.  I have felt its power in flood stage and gained respect for what it can do.  Still cannot for the life of me see the advantage of having a hole in the ice and sitting in an ice shack fishing……………..what self respecting fish would take a lure on such a cold day?

I have explored the archives and seen the earliest record that they have.  I have seen Red Paint People artifacts and worked with humidified records.  I have had the privilege of serving this mission and am not saying goodbye to it but rather storing the memories so that I can take them out over and over and over and re-experience this time in Maine.  I have fallen in love with Maine and its people, just like I fell in love with Japan and its people.  What a great blessing this has been in my life.

This is the end of my blog for my mission in Maine.  Today is the 19^th of September and this mission began 12 months ago on the 19^th September with us entering the Missionary Training Center.  It ended today with a party for us at the Archives – one with a cake that had written on it  “G’day Mate”.  We have had a really good year together here with the staff and I wish I could take them all home with me but our house is too small to accommodate them but the memories can come and stay….and they will.

I am truly grateful that my Heavenly Father trusted me enough with the obligation of serving a mission one more time.  This is a period of time that has become precious, a time of growing and learning.