Farewell

When a missionary leaves, it is customary for them to give a farewell talk in church.

Once upon a time, it was a huge to-do.  Friends and family come from near and far.  Almost like a funeral of sorts.  Special musical numbers.  The missionary to-be talked.  Siblings talked.  Moms talked.  We sang the soon-to-be missionary's praises and elaborated to the whole congregation as to why they were going to be a wonderful missionary.  Every little story from their childhood that could be used to illustrate this point would be.   They were always my favorite meetings. So fun.  But I think they probably got a little out of hand and might have even bordered on the ridiculous. I think the powers-that-be probably thought so to, and at some point things were toned down.  Way down.  Like the missionary-to-be was handed a topic to talk on, and he talked on it, the end.  Maybe a musical number.  Maybe.

Friends and family may still come from near and far, but it's not quite the spectacle it once was.   Since the 4th of July was just around the corner, Nick was given the topic of  "One Nation Under God"  to speak on.  Uh... okay....  Nick had a bit of trouble writing it, and coming up with material to reference, and relating it to his upcoming mission, but in the end I think he pulled it off.  You can read it on his mission blog, or just click on this link if you so desire.

Friends and family did come from near and far to see him.

And Nick felt very loved and supported.  Overwhelmingly so.  Words fail.  But needless to say, we were all very humbled at the outpouring of love and support shown to us.

I didn't get very many pictures.  I was too busy talking to friends and family and neighbors, and making sure the platters of desserts and such that I spent days making were being filled.  In fact, I had to ask John's sister Corrine, who made the trek out here with Nick's cousin Josh, to text me some pictures that she took that weekend.  Thank heavens for aunts.

Lasts

The last days of Nick's childhood here in Arizona  (cause really, after two years on a mission, and the fact that he will be over 20 when he returns, he won't be a child anymore)  were pretty busy.  

He spent his days spending time with family and friends.

He played with his brothers

And tormented them a little bit. (Sadly Madison was at summer school all month, he didn't get to see her much.)

And hung out with his friends

He ate the foods he loves and might not see for two years.

It's not quite the same as dying, but kinda sorta.

What are the things you would do if your time here was limited?

Would you spend your day playing video games?

Maybe.  If someone you loved asked you to.

In the end it all came down to the people.

It didn't really matter to Nick WHAT he was doing,

just mostly WHO he was doing it with.

 

Preparations.

So many things to do to get ready for your child to leave you for two years.  First the focus was on graduating, and once that was over, it was mission prep time.  (Not to be confused with the classes he had been attending every Sunday for the last year.)  There were purchases to be made, and forms to be filled out, and alterations to be made, and lists to be checked off.  It was never ending.

But there were two pretty big moments in all that chaos.  When he was ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood, and when he went through the temple for the first time.

One cool moment was that his best friend was ordained the same day, and Nick went first, so then he got to help and be in the circle for his best friend.

Going through the temple with Nick was pretty awesome.  The last time we were in the temple together, he was just a baby being sealed to us, and he was trying to eat the lace on the altar

4th year camp

Maddie got to take a break from summer school to attend 4th year camp.  This is the camp that all the young women look forward to.  All the high adventure stuff.  The canyoneering and rappelling and archery and other such fun stuff.  

Since she decided to take choir as well her sophomore year of high school (in addition to orchestra, drama, and seminary) she needed to figure out how to take care of one of those pesky "required" classes.  So she spent the entire month of June taking History in summer school.  (which she actually enjoyed because the teacher was awesome and only assigned homework like "go watch Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure")

Anyways, she had to miss a day of school to head off for some high adventure fun.

Except they got rained out and missed out on most of the fun stuff.  Except archery and skeet shooting.  She was pretty good at the skeet shooting but really annoyed with the archery because the guy in charge asked her if  "she was sure she'd done any archery before".   Which she had, in fact, last year at girls' camp she won an award for having one of the best scores.  She said her bow was messed up.

And that was pretty much all she got to do before they had to come home.

However, they promised to make it up to the girls in a couple of months (Spoiler alert!  I get to come too!)