Today we went to a sacrament meeting service where the missionary's good friend Jordan was speaking. Jordan is going on a mission for our church to New Hampshire. He leaves for the Missionary Training Center on January 9th. He will stay for 2 weeks then off he goes. (Brian is staying for 9 weeks because he is learning Spanish since he is going to Chile.) Whenever a young man, young woman or older couple gets close to their missionary departure date they usually speak in sacrament meeting services. Besides the sacredness of partaking in the sacrament (the most important thing,) it is a very special time for a missionary & his family- you can read about my missionary's "farewell speaking day" here if you missed it.
{Brian & Jordan graduation June 2007- Jordan= valedictorian}
There are two good things that immediately come to my mind when I think of Jordan leaving for the MTC. First- Brian will be so happy to see him there. Second- Brian is leaving for Chile one week after Jordan gets there, so time is flying.
It was great to go today. We saw many of the missionary's high school buddies whom I love & hearing Jordan speak of his testimony was inspirational. This is truly an amazing generation. I cannot help but reflect on my own testimony & the sacrifice it has been to send my son off on a mission to teach others of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am absolutely sure I didn't have the courage or conviction to do such a thing at their age. Today I am back to feeling that it isn't a sacrifice after all but a privilege. (However I will make sure that if Jack goes on a mission he WILL NOT leave just before the holidays- that wasn't a very good idea for this mother.)
Tonight for our Sunday devotional we are writing Christmas thank you notes as a family.
* do you go to church?
* do you make your kids write thank you notes after Christmas or other times?
3 comments:
I'm so glad you're back to feeling like sending Brian was a privilege and not a sacrifice, the difference in those feelings is rather huge.
Jordan sounds like an amazing guy. I love listening to farewell talks at church. We have a ton of senior couple missionaries in our ward, so that's who we hear from the most (we did today), but I love it when the young people talk and then how changed they are when they come home. It's a literal transformation.
Writing Christmas thank you notes is a great idea. Regrettably we're still working on Whitney's birthday thank you notes from October! We should just suck it up and write those today.
I don't make my kids send thank you notes but they do have to tell each person thank you that they received a gift from.
we do go to church. We don't have many missionaries leaving from our ward so we don't get to hear many farewells. Actually I can probably count on both hands how many I've heard in my lifetime!
I don't think I ever received a thank-you card in my lifetime until you started sending them to us. Being the hick I am, that wasn't something we even thought about. No one sent us presents that didn't live in our house so it was a thank you when we received it. No grandma's no aunts or uncles to send to us. It was a different world I was raised in. I can see the value of them now. It's hard to send out Christmas presents to grand children who you never hear from and when you do send them something you still never hear from them. So, I think it's great that you take the time to teach your children. Hopefully they'll keep it up when they leave home.
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