Farewell Talks

I gave three farewell talks. One in DeSoto, one in Mansfield and one in Rexburgh. Here is a part of my talk from Rexburg:

"Good afternoon Brothers and Sisters. I'd like to start my talk off by introducing myself. My name is Devin Romney and I have been called to serve in the Recife, Brazil mission and I report to the Sao Paulo MTC February 19th where I will learn to speak the Portuguese language. I am very excited and grateful for the opportunity I have to serve the Lord. Opening my mission call was a very special experience for me. I have always wanted to go on a mission but there were times in my life where I wasn't sure if I could. During my Senior year and that summer I felt the pressures of Satan more than any other time of my life and he was able to succeed in some areas. To all of those who haven't gone on a mission yet I would like to warn you that Satan will do all that is in his power to keep you from going on a mission because he knows of the great things you will accomplish if you do go on a mission........As I thought today about my talk I came up with five reasons why I wanted to go on a mission. 1) Serve the Lord 2) Help bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man 3) It will be a great growing experience 4) Most of the people in my family have gone on one 5) I don't want to be shunned the rest of my life for not going on one. I remember something my Uncle told me he said any reason was a good reason to go on a mission. If any of you do not feel worthy to serve a mission. I have been in that position and i know how it feels. To any of you who aren't sure if you can admit your sins to your bishop I want you to ask yourself why you shouldn't admit your sins. Your reason is probably that your embarrassed and afraid to tell him. Well, just suck it up and go tell him. There isn't a good reason not to and it's not worth going on a mission or being sent home."

I don't remember a lot about the talks I gave in the DeSoto and Mansfield wards. My family had moved to Mansfield while I was at BYU-Idaho and so I remember giving the talk but not knowing very many people from the ward. I remember feeling a lot of love for the people in the DeSoto ward when I gave my talk. After all I grew up in that ward and many of the DeSoto members contributed to getting me on a mission.

I do remember us having a little farewell party in which our friends that I grew up with came over. Mom made a Brazil cake and it was good to be there with my closest friends.

We also had a family over to our house and the wife was from Brazil. Here's the journal entry and a few impressions they gave me of Brazil.

February 3rd 2003:

"I will be leaving for my mission in 15 days. Last night we had the Tommy's over. They are a family from Natal, Brazil which is 150 miles north of Recife. They had videos and pictures and magazines. In a lot of ways it looked very similar to home. Its pretty green over there like it is here and they get a good amount of rain. Their year round weather is like our spring and summer, humid and warm. They also told me that i would be eating much more than beans and rice, thank goodness. they said I'd have lots of meat, fruit and potatoes, sounds good. There were some pretty poor neighborhoods but i didn't think it looked too terribly bad."

That was the last page of my pre-mission journal writing so on we go to the real deal. I wanted to record these pre-mission feelings so that one could have an idea of how I felt heading into the mission field.