A New Missionary in the Family

 Back in April, Adam received the call to serve in the Portland, Oregon Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The ensuing months brought a lot of craziness to our lives and getting him ready to go was more stressful than I care to admit, but AFTER he completed his weeks as an FSY counselor and after my Dad's funeral, I finally had a little more time and brainpower to help him  get  ready to go.   Then, before we knew it, it was time to begin.   On August 14th, he gave his farewell talk at church and later that day he was set apart as a full-time missionary by our stake president.   We shared this invitation with friends and family on social media and by text beforehand.   

Because Adam's only real time living in Utah was his time down in Provo at BYU, then away from home most of the summer as an FSY counselor, we didn't really expect very many people to come.  Maybe a handful of friends (who were mostly away for the summer or already on missions) and some family.   We were pleasantly surprised, though, when we he had quite houseful!   

He had a big group of his FSY kids show up....something that definitely made his day!  

Glen had some aunts, uncles, and cousins show up from his side of the family.  I also had a handful (the Larsen's, my Mom, and siblings), but it wasn't as many and they didn't stay long enough for us to take pictures.  

We had everyone from our immediate family there, except Cami, Garrett, and Lucie.  

We were 100% delighted that the Richards family came.  They were our neighbors during our second year in PA and made us feel so loved--something we so desperately craved and needed after our first year there ended up being a bit of a fiasco.   It's a long story that I'll probably never share fully here on the blog, but suffice it to say, when we moved down the street from them (smack in the middle of the entire state being  shut down by COVID), we were quite lonely and had very tender feelings after gossip and misunderstandings tainted our first year there. 

 Their sweet conversations, spontaneous visits to see  Rocky, and their welcoming arms were healing to our hearts and helped us to feel loved again.  They will forever hold a special place in our hearts and we very much enjoyed the opportunity to see them again at Adam's farewell.    

 Everyone needs friends like the Moores.  Natalie is one of the most amazing people you'll ever meet in your life and I have felt blessed a million times over for her son's Scott's friendship with Adam.   Last August they were traipsing through Europe together and this year they're starting missionary life at the same time.  He's heading to the Philippines and started Provo MTC the same day Adam did.  

I don't consider myself much of a hostess and our house certainly isn't fancy...

but I love, love, love having a house with a  layout that allows us  to host people comfortably...

It made my heart happy to see our house so full..

of people who love us...

and wanted to show their support for Adam...

as he goes off to serve the Lord for the next two years...

Here are a couple of Glen's cousins' kids...💗💗💗

Glen with his Aunt Debbie 💗💗💗

A candid shot with Scott and a friend from FSY...

Catherine, Nicholas (two of Adam's cousins), Uncle Alex, and Glen's cousin, Stephanie and son, Cooper 💗💗💗

💗💗💗

💗💗💗

Here is the spread of food we had.  It got almost entirely consumed...

Sydney was the only one of Adam's freshman year friends that was able to come, but I think it meant a lot to him to have her there....

I somehow missed getting a photo of him with Rocky (who likely won't be around anymore when he gets home), but I did get this sweet one with Denali.  💗💗💗

Adam spent the next 1-1/2 weeks at home doing Home MTC.  We totally enjoyed having him home for that time and put him to work....

 We LOVED having the spirit in our home that having a missionary brings!  

Before he started at the MTC in Provo, we made sure he had the opportunity to say his goodbyes...

  

Then on August 24th, we dropped him off at the Provo MTC.

I have a lot of tender feelings about sending him off for two years, and there were quite a few tears shed {mostly after he left}, but we are happy he's doing what he's doing.    A "miserable joy" is what my good friend, Karen Harrison once told me it was like sending off a missionary and, third time around, I have to say that I agree with that description.  

He had a great two weeks in the MTC, but was ready to leave by the time departure day came around.   

We got a message that he'd arrived safely in Portland, but that's about all we've heard so far.  

In the meantime, a huge piece of my heart is living in Portland now and we miss him dearly already.  I'm sure you'll see some more Elder G updates on here in the coming months.

💖💗💞💖💗💞💖💗💞💖💗💞💖💗💞💖💗💞💖💗💞💖💗💞

Adam's Summer as an FSY Counselor

 JUNE - JULY 2022

When Adam told me that he wanted to be an FSY counselor this past summer, I was pretty skeptical for three big reasons. 

 #1--it would delay his availability for his mission,
 #2--it would mean that he'd spend the summer away from home in the weeks leading up to his mission
#3--the mandatory training session was scheduled for the week we were in Hawaii, meaning he'd have to miss all but a day or so of our family vacation.  

I thought that all of these reservations on my part (especially my stress about him mostly missing our trip to Hawaii--our first trip all together in years) might cause him to reconsider, but he felt strongly enough about it that I realized quickly that I needed to stop trying to dissuade him. I tried to embrace the idea of him only being in Hawaii with us for a day and a half, and then him being away from home for most of the summer.   I didn't like it, but who am I to argue when my son has a spiritual impression to do something good like this?   

 Instead I started encouraging him to petition the planners to create an alternate training week.  The planners left us hanging for a long time, but eventually they did add a second week of training.  This meant that instead of only being able to come for a day and a half, that he would be with us all week and just miss a day and a half.   It still wasn't my ideal, but it was a much better outcome than the original plan!  

 Here are a few facts from his time as a counselor: 

1.  He spent six weeks as a FSY counselor
2. The first two weeks were held at California State University at Fresno--the second week got decimated when a bunch of the counselors (including Adam's "Co") tested positive for COVID.  He ended up having to take a double group of kids and had ZERO breaks.  
3. The third week was at BYU in Provo
4.   He had a week in the middle off and spent it at home.  He slept A LOT that week! 
5.  He spent his last three weeks at Snow College in Ephraim.
6.  He preferred weeks when his kids were a little on the older side.
7.  Even when he had a "Co" and regular breaks, it was exhausting work.
8.  It was the best kind of mission prep he could have ever asked for--he learned how to work with his "Co" each week and they taught gospel principles all week long
9.  He was a very young counselor--the only pre-mission male counselor he knew of.  Some of his kids were leaving on their missions before he was.  
10.  He came home at the end of the six weeks totally exhausted, but beaming.  It was clearly a wonderful experience for him and I'm grateful that he followed the prompting to go forward with it.  

Adam is now on his mission and is not here to tell me about any of his pictures, so here is a completely random assortment of photos taken from the FSY photo album in our iPhotos.   When I say, they're random, I mean that I have no idea which locations these were taken at, nor which weeks they were.   Hopefully they'll be a fun memory for him to look back on someday though, which is why I'm blogging about it.   😃

I believe these were two of his "Cos"