There have been many friends in my life, but the ones that seem to have come into a clearer picture of that statement are those I have met and worked with on my Mission. Jay and I served the first Mission together, but the one I think about now are from the second Mission I served. The one where I met other widows who were filling their empty lives with something pretty wonderful. Not only the chance to serve the Lord, but to enjoy the company of some pretty neat ladies as well.
I went into the Missionfield just a few months after becoming a widow. Something I would advise all LDS widows to do. The loneliness that comes with widowhood is quickly swollowed up in the changes a Mission brings. Different living conditions and daily exposure to new challenges. Those surrounding you are pretty much in the same boat. It doesn't take long to find companionship with any number of those you work with everyday. There are shopping tours and trips to the Temple that keep the days full and the adveture one of great enjoyment.
What is even better - when the Mission ends, those friendships carry on, if you allow them to, that is.
In my case, it has been a great joy to keep in touch with a number of those I have met and worked with. In fact I planned a pretty neat trip for three others and myself shortly after the Mission ended and we had a great time together. Phone, e-mails and other visits have kept those friendships alive and vital ever since. None of us are spring chickens, but we still have enough get up and go that we enjoy doing things, and doing them together even makes them better.
I am sure a good many friends we made on our first Mission will be forever friends as well. After all, we did spend a great deal of time with those people, we have just lost touch over the years, but when once again we meet up, I am sure the friendships will blossom again, and the time we have spent will only make the time we find much more enjoyable. For now however, I look upon these friendships as lasting forever. Times will come when all will be rewarded with more things to enjoy and experience together. For one thing I believe we will enjoy meeting the husbands of our dear friends who were widowed before we became acquainted. That in itself is something to look forward to. So much has been shared about these men, it will be nice to finally meet them and share the love we have for their wives.
Forever, as I see it, is a time and a space when much will be learned and even much more shared with those we have grown to know and love in this mortal existance. I'm not sure we won't have opportunity to see an enemy in a better light than we have had here. Just another reason for looking forward to that time when change will make us able to see and know far better than ever we could in this mortal life.
Friends and loved ones are forever - because that is the way it was planned. We are fortunate to have been given the insight into the possiblilty of such a wonder as enjoying such things beyond the vail of mortality. What a shame to think such lovely things have an end. How pitiful to believe life has no other purpose. Family and Friends are such a vital part of everyday life, it is great to KNOW that such things last eternally. I am happy to have such a witness and to share it with those I love so much.
Written this 10 day of April 2010
by: Eileen C. Rosenberg
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