Welcome Home, Sister Rietz

L - R -  Grandma and Grandpa Rietz, myself, Kristin, John, Amber, Grandma Sollenbarger and 1/2 of Trevor. (Sorry Trev)    And do you see the pink poster?  The Utah clan sent their good wishes!!  And yes, we left MANY sparkles in the airport. Luckily, we got out of there before anyone really noticed!! :)

There is a LOT to catch up on here on my blog, (nothing new there).   There is a trip to Scotland and England to report on, our Thanksgiving holiday in Utah, a shingles breakout, a broken wrist, and who knows what else. Despite being behind, I had to do a quick post about our newly returned sister missionary!!

Monday, the 30th of November, 7:40ish pm, Amber's plane (finally) came in to our little airport!  We got there early, (I demanded it!  What would be worse than getting home from your mission and not having anyone at the airport to meet you??), and of course, her plane was late!  But finally, it came, she was one of the first ones off the plane, and she's here!

She loved her mission in the California Rancho Cucamonga Mission.  She cried when she was released.  She is getting used to not having a schedule, praying for investigators and less-actives, and wearing regular clothes.  She misses her companions.  Although she hasn't said as much, I'm guessing she would love to be back in California, planning the day, spending her time sharing the gospel, and testifying of the Savior and His atonement.

But as all good things do, her time as a missionary came to an end, and its time to move on to bigger (maybe not better) things.  BYU-I is just around the corner.  Classes, dates and other social activities will soon replace the things she has been doing for the past 18 months.  It will all be good.  For now, she is enjoying spending time with her family, decorating for Christmas and catching up with all the happenings from the past 18 months that we forgot to write her about!!

We're so happy to welcome home our returned missionary!!