An Unexpected Visit

On Saturday morning Heather started to tidy up around the house.  I thought that was a great idea and turned my attention to the clutter of the bookshelves and the family room.  Even the kids got involved (not voluntarily) in the big cleanup.  

At one point the phone rang and Heather stepped out of the room to talk.  I was so caught up in how productive we were being, I forgot to ask her about the call.  An hour later the doorbell rang and Heather came down and told me that the door was for me.  I asked her who it was and she got a weird look on her face and just said "it's someone for you".  I walked upstairs feeling a little frustrated with her answer and turned the corner and stopped....

Stopped even thinking for a second.  Because standing in my living room was Matt and Stacie Gruwell, whom I had served my mission with in Thailand.  Matt and I had lived together in the office Elders' house in Bangkok and I had not seen either of these amazing people since my mission over 18 years ago.

In fact, the last time I saw Matt was when I saw him off at the airport at the conclusion of his mission.  After returning home Matt and Stacie had started dating and eventually got married (both very lucky people).  At some point they moved to Pennsylvania where Matt has recently received tenure at Penn State University.  From here in Canada that seems like a world away, or at least that's my excuse for why I couldn't immediately grasp the reality of them both standing in front of me.  Instead, I stood there with a dumb look on my face and just repeated the word "what?" over and over.

It turns out that that they were on a family vacation, visiting different National Parks with their four children.  They were also in this neck of the woods to visit Stacie's sister who had married a Canadian boy and is now living in Calgary (what?).  Obviously, surprising-the-heck-out-of-Rausch was also on their list of things to do.   

We visited for a while but all too soon it was time for them to get back on the road.  I was sad that we weren't better prepared to entertain them and I wish we had known sooner so we could have spent more time together.  But on the other hand, I wouldn't have changed anything because it was such an awesome surprise!  Once we are finished our trip to Thailand this year we will have to start planning a trip to visit the Gruwells and some of the Church history sites in their area.  

I'm just not sure if we'll tell them we're coming...             

- C