My Grandma Lorna

Well I guess it's time to start updating my blog again and keeping you all up-to-date with what's new and what I'm doing or my random thoughts. I've now been home for a transfer's worth of time (6weeks) and I can't believe how fast the time has flown. Life is Wonderful, as usual, and so much has happened already, but post by post I'll get ya up to where I am now.

Before jumping into my time here at home I'm going to take you back in time to the end of my second to last transfer on my mission. To a night when a life changing phone call was made by my mission president to me. My companion and I were sitting on my bed after a hard, exhausting work day, talking and laughing before we woud turn out our lights and sink into the deepest sleep that only a missionary could understand :). It was only a few minutes before our curfew when our telephone began to ring. We'd usually think it was a distressed investigator or drunk man we'd met on the street earlier that day that we'd given our number to (hey everyone needs the gospel) since no one else ever called so close to our curfew, but this ring was the ring tone we had set for our mission president's number or his wife's. So we both looked at each other in shock, again at our clock, and then back at the phone. "Why was our mission president calling us? What happened?" we both silently thought to ourselves. We answered it together on speaker phone and soon found out it was our mission president and his wife who were only looking to talk to me. My stomach dropped knowing I was awaiting news that I probably didn't want to hear.

I was informed that my grandmother Davis's health had taken a sudden sharp turn and she was only expected to live for another 3 weeks. Wow!!! Talk about a sudden and shocking phone call to receive and especially to hear that she only was given 3 weeks when I only had like 8 weeks left of my mission anyways. oh my! But for those of you who didn't know, I had actually contemplated coming home a transfer earlier to be able to start school, but then ended up choosing to come home in January, obviously, but I could have been returning home in 2 weeks istead of 8 and be holding on to a hope that I would be able to see her. During that time of praying and asking my Heavenly Father which transfer I should return home on, I had a distinct feeling that if I did stay out until January I wouldn't see my grandmother before her passing to the next life. I felt very strongly about this but when the decision was made to stay until January the thought had been lost and forgotten. From the little blurps my mother would write in her faithful weekly letters to me she'd usually state, "Grandma's health isn't too good, but she's doing a little better". They seemed positive and I took that to believe she'd be home when I returned, until I received that phone call. My companion wrapped her arms around me with such love when I hung up the phone and though it broke my heart to know that I wouldn't be able to see one of my greatest and closest friends when I returned home, I felt so much peace and even more love encircled around me than just my companion's.

Through my mission I felt the decreasing health of my grandmother. In the beginning of my mission I would receive enthusiastic letters from her, expressing her love and pride of how proud she was of me serving a mission, about twice a month. Then it went to about once a month. And then suddenly the legibility of her handwritting was getting harder to read with each letter, until finally the letters just stopped all together. She expressed in her last letter how hard it was for her to see and write to me. I never ceased praying for you grams!!

In my setting apart blessing as a missionary I was told not to worry about my family and that my Heavenly Father would always be with them and that they would be taken care of. As much as I want to say I worried about my family at this hard time, I really didn't because I had so much confidence in that blessing that I was given and the knowledge that those words came straight from my Heavenly Father. I was always praying for them though!! I received permission from my mission president's wife to call my grandma and say goodbye too. I won't say it was the easiest call, but it was nice to tell her "Thanks" and "I love you".

The day of her passing fell on a P-day. I woke up that morning feeling in my heart that it was going to be the day. When I went emailing my dad and sister Julie were online with me telling me that Gram's had had the worst night yet and that my mom was right by her side. Leaving the library that day it was confirmed to me that she had passed on. I knew she stepped out of this life and had joined her family in the next. I didn't need to read the email that my sister Julie had sent me 30 seconds after I had logged off the computer, and didn't receive until the next email session, that she'd received a call that our grandmother had left her mortal body, I was given my own witness. I testify and bear testimony that I know this life is not the end and I know that we can live and be with our families forever and into the eternities!!


I woke up the next day feeling an extra hop in my step. I was running faster than usual during our morning run, as if there were someone literally pushing me faster from behind. My companion felt a little confused since I had received the phone call from my mission president the night before. "You can cry Hermana Cope, it's okay." she said to me. But I replied with, "I just gained another guardian angel and helper in this work Hermana Holland. We have another companion helping us to prepare the hearts of our brother's and sisters here and an extra person pushing us to work harder and faster to find those who are ready." and it truly did make me want to work even harder and do just a little bit more. The gospel truly is the greatest message we can share and what hope it brings. Everyone should know it's possible to live as a family forever and that this life is not the end!!

I was sad to miss the funeral and not be here to give each family member a hug. I would have loved to have sung at Grandma's funeral with Julie, but I knew and felt that I was exactly where I should have been. It was amazing how many investigators we found in the next couple of weeks too that had experienced a death in their family. Coincidence?? Not at all!! I don't believe in coincidences, at least Not in the Lord's work anyways!!! It really brought strength and power to my testimony -I could truly testify and it was always reassured and confirmed to me as well that eternal families are part of our Heavenly Father's plan (and that death is part of the eternal plan too).

Coming home scared me because I knew it was then that I would enter Grandma's house and really realize she wasn't there anymore. But I think the biggest shock of all that happened was when mom informed me we're selling our house and buying grandma's to live in. What??? It was a lot to chew on, and sometimes still is, but if there's one thing I learned on my mission that is that change happens all the time, especially when you least expect it, but if you choose and have the Lord with you, it can become one of the greatest blessings you receive! So I'm trying to keep a very positive outlook on it. Grandma's house doesn't feel like grandma's house anymore since she is gone. It' just an empty. . . . well any ordinary house feeling -not the candy filled, fresh baking bread, food cooking, game playing, non stop laughing house that Grandma's was!

It's been easier missing her since I've been home, but I know she's close by! I know she is one of my guardian angels cheering me on and helping me in those times of need! She left a great name and legacy that I hope to continue. Grandma endured more than I hope to endure, but if called to it, I know I too can get through it as strong as my Grandma did! She's an example to look to and how grateful I am to be a part of her posterity!!!