Category: Missionary

Catching up

Mark was honored as an Eastmont Patriot of the Month for citizenship, leadership, scholarship, and extra-curricular activities. Woot!

I helped make this quilt for a new baby in the neighborhood.

Every conversation at our house includes a status update on my massive painting project and Richard’s apple harvest. I stopped counting gallons of paint, but Richard knows exactly how many pounds of apples were produced.

Court of Honor

Missionary

BYU Homecoming Spectacular 3rd row seats. Awesome!

It’s Inktober for Paige on Instagram.

ONE page of a piece Timothy is working on. Legit!

Did I mention I am painting a lot? It feels like our house is finally becoming our own. I waited a long time to paint because I knew what a big job it would be and I didn’t have the time. So far, I have spent about 17 full days on it. I have not had this kind of time…ever in my life to devote to such a project. Someday I might post “after” pictures, but you could also come and visit.

Watching paint dry

This week’s big project is goodbye, yellow paint, icky ceiling paint, unpainted baseboards, and fifty nail holes. The first part of this song keeps going through my head:

Here are a few pictures of Chile in honor of the birthday boy today.

surprise birthday party for Elder Ross
his house

Daniel’s last letter from the MTC

Elder Ross leaves for Chile on Monday. Usually in his letters, he shares funny quotes that he hears in his district and some spiritual thoughts. This was a fun letter. -A

Week 6 missionaries get colored dots for their nametags. We think it’s to show people that they hypothetically (on paper) should potentially-if they’ve been working hard-know enough Spanish to be somewhat competent in conversation. It’s actually impressive how much we’ve all learned.

This was taken in SLC on the day he left with MANY missionaries.
We’re getting all our travel plans now. Monday’s gonna be a long day but I’m so excited!
Not much time this week, so a few quotes and then some Spiritual things. It’s kind of my job.
“In my free time from now on, I’m drawing mancaves.”
“No WAY you’re getting ME in the water with a catfish!”
Elder who mistakenly memorized 3 Nephi 3:7 [It’s worth your time to look this one up.] instead of 1 Nephi for the district goal:
“So, uh, I memorized that scripture, but I don’t feel like it’s the best approach. Are you sure we should tell people that?”
Goofiness aside, we really are having an incredible experience here. I’m learning so much about better study and how the spirit works.
This week I was rereading the story of Nephi and the ship and found it interesting that his brothers saw that “It was good.” This is the same language we see used in the creation as well regarding the works of the Lord. Nephi’s ship was built after the manner of the Lord. I remembered some verses in Moroni 7 (Worth a read) that explain what Good things are and how to recognize them. Ever since, I’ve noticed how that word is used to describe things in the scriptures and it’s been interesting. Not every case works, but it seems like quite frequently it could be used for things that are of God. Kind of cool.
I was reading in Matthew and 1 Nephi about Lehi’s vision and had a thought about the rod of iron, or the scriptures/word of God. The Savior was able to refute every challenge of the adversary with scripture. Satan even tried to use scriptures in some of his challenges, but mingled with garbage. It didn’t work. Satan cannot use the iron rod against us. Hold on to it, guys!
We also see in that scripture in Matthew that Satan’s main/recurring temptation or challenge was for the Savior to do ___ IF he was who he was and is today. This is exactly the same thing we see with Moses in the Pearl of Great Price. He attacks our divine nature and infinite potential as sons and daughters of God, and heirs to all He has if we so choose to live. Remember who you are! If you’re not sure, start studying the scriptures with that question in mind. Or if not that question, any question. You’ll get answers. I promise.
Ask for God’s help. Alma, Nephi, and Lehi (And lots of others) show us that it’s not enough to be called, set apart, righteous, and doing what the Lord asks. PROPHETS that got the strength or guidance or instruction they needed only when they humbled themselves and asked God for what they needed.
Out of time, unfortunately. Love you guys! Praying for you always. Keep doing those good things, and write questions for general conference!!!
Elder Ross

 

 

Two happy things


I found him. Can you? This image is from the Mexico MTC Facebook page. Let me be clear: I am NOT going to be a Facebook mother, offering opinions about what’s going on in his mission with other mothers. I guess this is a thing (smh). It is fun to see this huge group that entered the MTC with him, though.

There was a knock on the door during my Relief Society presidency meeting this week, and it was two members of the Elders Quorum presidency coming to update me on a few ministering changes and to talk to Richard. I invited them to join my presidency meeting and we addressed a lot of issues. I can’t tell you what a blessing this was. This conversation lifted a handful of burdens. Ministering takes a lot of coordination and teamwork, and I am grateful for the new direction in the Church, but also for an Elders Quorum president who shows us over and over that he wants us to be a team.

Unthinkable resilience

Unthinkable resilience! Why should I want to feel better? Is it okay to miss Daniel even though he is doing good things?

“Time will make it better,” they say, but what is time? It’s usually the enemy. Wasn’t it time that got us to the place that time must now heal? I think time is neither enemy nor healer. Relative, temporary, illusive, speeding, slowing, stalled: time is our least dependable marker. To God, time is not as we experience it here. So why is time a cornerstone for us? Perhaps time is just a name for something we can’t name, but surely makes us change.

For almost nineteen years, I set my clock by many of Daniel’s sounds. Lately, I slept after the ratcheting of the lock on the door at night and woke to the close of his basement bathroom door. I timed my days for dinner at 6:30 and the late night talks. And then time seemed to leave as I watched him move away from his youth, not just at obvious milestones, but late one night, sitting in silence with him in the dark after he said a final goodbye to someone. I felt it as he made requests for the care of keepsakes and friends and siblings. Time was not there in these moments, but there was something else. Reality? Presence? Arrival?

It’s always been a balance beam, this relationship. Don’t cling, let him fly, stay centered, don’t react, but never, until recently, be perfectly still. Be still, and realize that it was always God who was holding us up, (not I!) and that this support will continue. For God deals in the realities of people and relationships. How inconsequential is time compared to love!

I begin to understand that my Father in Heaven, not time, is the source of a resilience I can accept.

Consolation

Kindness is the most difficult thing to take right now because it brings out emotions I think I have already dealt with, but kindness also reminds me that I am understood. I may not be answering the door, but I am doing well. I am out each day doing Relief Society work. I have taken the kids to the mall and Costco and up the canyon for driving practice. I am preparing meals and cleaning the house. I am not crying all the time, but I am not yet myself. I am thankful for friends, whose gestures cannot all be pictured here. From eighty-five year-old neighbor Stanford called to check on me, to sixteen-year-old friend Lillie who decorated a cake for us, they represent many ages. Another special friend has left a succession of packages throughout the week. We were invited to dinner and received many flower deliveries. We have felt love from many states. There are friends from Texas and Arizona and high school who have taken time to write words of excitement for us. These gifts of consolation add up to quite a celebration, which is appropriate, considering we have a son who is worthy and willing to be a light.

D&C 31:3

We sent our missionary out today with a mass of other young elders at the airport. The empathy tears for other mothers and my own calm were surprises to me. I felt God was there, too. That was no surprise.

New lenses

At 2:15 on Monday, I captured the kids doing these things and asked them to pretend I wasn’t taking pictures.

Richard dreads the idea of having to wear glasses, but I have worn them since I was nine or ten years old and know how great it is to have vision restored. Like Richard, though, I sometimes fight the different lenses I need to take on with time: the lens of experience in saying goodbye at college or a mission, the lens of what it’s like to sit with someone who is in pain, and the lens to look outward when my own troubles want to dominate my view. The lenses of experience with disappointment, repentance, and wisdom after stupidity are particularly difficult to assume sometimes.

I think the most difficult thing I ever did was say goodbye to my friends who went on missions. Three best friends left within a year and I was shaken emotionally and physically. For this reason, I worried what it would be like to send Daniel, who is more dear to me, on a mission. I have my moments, of course, but I have something I didn’t have when I said goodbye to my friends when I was 18 and 19 years old. The lenses I have acquired over time teach me that a mission is not just a goodbye. It is everything good. I have seen it again and again. I am really as peaceful about this as I have ever felt over a big transition. I felt it when he read his call to me. I feel it now, even though we have less than a week left together. It is peace not earned by personal experience, since I have never sent a son before, but it’s evidence of a generous God.

The Things I Want to Remember

 

There are many things that I could write about today: a week full of challenges and adventures, sweet moments, and goodness. I think will share my gratitude list from last week.

July 16-22, 2018

Kind woman who helped Daniel select temple clothing

Nice woman at the health department

We toured each boy’s bedroom (each showed something they were working on) for family night and ended the evening watching funny YouTube videos together on Mark’s bed.

The Pickwick Papers miniseries

I was given the right words to say to a sister who needed some help.

A sweet birthday visit to my dad

My presidency, especially my secretary who is moving this week. Her service has been immense.

The polka dot skirt

The boys were protected on their trip to Fish Creek.

Two-year-old Layton’s prayer for me during his mom’s visit to my home

Paige had a great week in New York.

We found a coat for the mission.

The mission shopping is nearly complete.

Daniel’s hug in the celestial room of the temple