This has been our month of missionaries. We've welcomed them home, and we've sent them off! And it's been awesome.
Our first set of missionaries was Danny's Uncle Stanton and Aunt Janet. They returned home in July from serving as mission presidents in Mexico. We were able to attend their sacrament meeting in Sandy, and it was awesome to see all the elders and sisters that had been their missionaries come to hear them speak. They both gave awesome talks (obviously), and had some very cool stories to tell. After sacrament meeting, we were able to go back to their home and enjoy a wonderful lunch. The kids loved playing with their cousins. We're so proud of Uncle Stanton and Aunt Janet, and appreciate their example of sacrifice and service.
We welcomed our next missionary home just a couple of weeks later. Elder Jacob White returned home from serving faithfully in the Albuquerque, New Mexico mission. We couldn't believe it had been two years since he left! The Whites are good friends of ours from Lancaster, so we didn't think we'd be able to hear Jacob report on his mission...since he'd be going home to Lancaster. But as it turned out, Jacob had spent his senior year of high school in Lehi, UT, and had really become part of his ward there. The Bishop of that ward wanted Jacob to speak there, and since we were just an hour away we decided we couldn't miss it. It was so wonderful to catch up with Bishop Bo and Jackie, as well as Jason and Jacob. What a fun family! Jacob served a wonderful mission, and really became a man of God. And now I have someone else that will miss New Mexican food just as much as me! ;)
Just a couple of weeks after that, we welcomed yet another missionary home. Elder Michael Kim returned home from serving his mission in Korea. Micheal was a young man in the Sharon Park 9th Ward during our years there. In fact, he was the only young man we had! Danny got to know him pretty well while he served in the bishopric, and we didn't want to miss the chance to say hello. So we packed the kids in the car bright and early and made it to 9:00 am church in Orem! We didn't tell anyone we were coming, so it was fun to just show up. And while the ward changed quite a bit, with it being mostly a student family ward, there were still a handful of familiar faces. We loved catching up with Bishop Carrier, and realized that we really need to make it to Orem more often. What an amazing friend he is to us! And we loved seeing the Hulberts again, and look forward to some Alton Brown get-togethers!
And finally, just last week we met up with Elder Alex Hirtle as he prepared to enter the MTC and serve his mission in Columbia. Alex was a convert to the church while Danny served as Young Men's President in Lancaster, and he spent quite a few evenings in our home. Alex has such an awesome spirit, and from the beginning of his conversion process had a zeal for the gospel and an obvious love for his Heavenly Father and fellow men. We are so proud of Alex and the difficult, but right, decisions he's had to make. He is a great example to us and our children, and we know that he'll be an awesome missionary.
We met up with Alex and his escorts for the week, the Hilton Family, at City Creek Center in Salt Lake. We had a yummy dinner at Kneaders, caught up, talked mission talk, and then said goodbye for a couple short years. We know we'll catch up with Alex soon after he gets home, and look forward to updates of his time among the Columbian people. Return with Honor, Elder Hirtle!
It has been so fun to show expose our children to missionaries over the last month. We know we have a lot of room to grow in being Member Missionaries ourselves. But we do have a commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and Danny and I look forward to when we will serve together. I can't say I'm as anxious to send my boys out, as their doting mother, but I know they will and I know I'll be proud of them every minute. Now it's my job to prepare them for their time to serve. I hope I'm doing it right.
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