The Sweetest Thing

Tyler and I took a whirlwind trip this past weekend—we flew out to Cali to hear my brother give his farewell talk and to be there with him and my family as he was set apart as a full time missionary for the LDS church. Eric will be serving in the Chile Concepción mission. He reports to the MTC tomorrow and will be gone for two years—my heart is aching.

I have always been very proud of my baby brother—all of us have—but I was never so proud of him than I was on Sunday as I sat with my husband, mom, gramma, and sisters listening to him speak. Suddenly I understood why the Lord calls 19 year old boys to serve and teach the gospel. I sat there and it occurred to me that Eric was no longer a baby or a goofy, moody, teenager—no, he had become a polished, refined young man.

Since it was Father’s Day Eric spoke about his Dad and his Heavenly Father. It was a touching and well planned address. As Eric spoke I watched my Dad seated on the stand and thought ‘what better Father’s Day gift could he have gotten?’ What a compliment to my Dad and Mom to have raised such an amazing kid.

And so now comes the hard part—the goodbyes—how do you say goodbye for two whole years? I am sure some heart ache will be involved and a lot of crying—my family is genetically incapable of not crying. It is a bittersweet feeling—so much happiness and sadness at the same time.

Eric, we are so proud of you and love you so much! You will be in all of our thoughts and prayers.

Elder Kuykendall, there is no doubt in my mind that you will be an amazing missionary!

Oh Summer Where Have You Gone?

I love the summer. I have endured months of snow and cold and anxiously waited for the best season of the year.

Now that it’s finally here, it seems as if something is missing. Perhaps it is that Tyler is in his 10^th consecutive month of school—with 6 months still to go. Perhaps it is that I will not be going home for a visit this year. Or maybe it’s because the weather is still confused about which month it is—I really don’t know.

Whatever it is, I am sad to say, instead of my days being packed to the bursting point with fun activities in the warm sun I find the days slowly creeping by, one day just as boring as the last.

This is going to be a long, strange summer. There is something different this year—don’t know quite what it is yet. All I can do is just continuing hoping and praying that the real summer will start soon. I dream of summers past—no responsibilities, nothing to do but lay out and soak up the sun. Will summer ever be like that again?