MTC Tie Exchange

As you know, ties are a missionary mainstay. Missionaries usually leave home with about 10 to 12 conservative ties, but during the course of their two year service they rarely come home with the ties they left with. They pick up some at local thrift stores, they exchange some with other missionaries or they have a contest to see who can send the most outrageous ties from home. That's what Sean and Jared did. While in the MTC they asked their families to shop at DI and send them their favorite pick. Here's some of the entries from our family.

Jon gave Sean his favorite tie from his mission. (We've always questioned Jon's taste!)

Chelsea's entry...a clip on tie with pirate skulls.

Nick's...you can't see it, but it's a book shelf with the books of the New Testament on it!

Steele's - "007" and Bry's is the Lord's Prayer in Spanish!

Bre made the perfect t-shirt tie to wear on p-day!

This is the tie that Sean made Steele in Primary when he was 10 years old.

Blake and I forgot to get pictures of our tie entries. Blakes was a cool "Beatles" tie, and I picked out an assortment of holiday ties, including a Disney Christmas Tie. We had a lot of fun picking these out and sending them to Sean. I wish we could have been there to see his face when he opened them.

These are the ties that Sean and Jared exchanged before leaving the MTC!

It will be fun to see what he picks up in Mexico and what he comes home with!

The Bears

With heavy hearts we dropped Sean off at the MTC. It's a heart wrenching day, at best. Feeling pretty blue we walked into our home and there to greet us was our own Mexican Missionary Bear! My dear friend Tammy had gone to "Build A Bear" and made me my own missionary bear! (She also made one for herself because Jared left on his mission the following week.) When I squeezed the bear's hand, we heard Sean's voice saying..."I love you mom and dad, see you soon!" Steele and I just broke down and cried ...but my little "Mexican Missionary Bear" is my favorite thing!

I felt so sad as I started to think about all the places and trips Sean would miss in the next two years, but then I realized... this "Sean" could come! So for the next 2 years Tammy and I are going to take our bears all the places that boys would go if they were here and then document them all! Just thinking about the plethora of places we could take him made me smile. Now that Tammy's on board and we are taking our bears everywhere! (Much to Steele's dismay.) People look at us like we are crazy...but what else is new? At the end of two years we're going to put the pictures together in a book and give it to the boys. I know they will get a good laugh from it, but not near as many laughs as it will bring us along the way! So here's just a few of the early shots of Elder Larson and Elder Fadel...don't be surprised if one day they end up on your doorstep!

Elder Larson and Elder Fadel, along for the ride

The boys and the bears!Golfing with momPicking up their favorite...Mo Bettah

A day at the races!

Sean's Farewell

Now that families don't have to speak at missionary farewells, this day is a lot more fun! Sean of course was dreading it. He was looking forward to seeing all his friends and family, but he was not happy about having write a talk. I don't think he minded giving a talk, he just didn't want to write it. He finally finished it up at about 3 AM on Sunday morning. If he was nervous, you wouldn't have known it. He did a great job. Afterward family and friends gathered at the house.

The Call

Opening Sean's call via iChat

Sean and Jared turned their mission papers in on Sunday September 13th. Having already sent two other sons on missions I knew it took a minimum of two week to receive their call and most likely three weeks. So when "the girls" annual California roller blading trip hit on Sept 22nd, I wasn't worried because I knew the boys wouldn't get their calls until the next week at the earliest. Imagine our surprise when the calls came on September 23rd. Both Tammy and were 800 miles away in California and Blake was in Provo! Rather than have the boys wait until the 26th when we got back, we hooked up my laptop to video chat...the boys hooked up theirs and we opened the mission calls via the internet!

Jared opened his first...he was called to Guatemala, Guatemala North, leaving on February 10, 2010. Then Sean opened his...he was called to Mexico, Mexico City West, leaving February 3, 2010! It was so exciting! Both boys were thrilled with their calls and that they would be learning Spanish. They were also glad to be leaving within a week of each other. Needless to say, Tammy and I were elated that they boys would be going at the same time. ( Secretly we were hoping they would be called to the same mission, but knew that would never really happen. So we would settle for them to be serving in neighboring countries!)

The boys had so much support from both their family and their friends which meant the world to them. It was a great day filled with lots of emotion!

Off to Mexico City

Sean, Nick and Sofie

Caitlin and Chelsea

Happy Family...I think