And He's Off!

Yesterday Nicky officially left home to serve his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He did ten days of training from home, and now he is safe and secure in the Mexico City Missionary Training Center for the next five weeks. He'll be having a rigorous education in the Spanish language, and then in August he will head to Puerto Rico!

(That's the first time I've written his mission location on the blog). 

We spent all day Wednesday getting him packed and ready to go. We bought him two pairs of mission shoes a few weeks ago, and the stinker never tried on the black pair (we bought them online), so when he finally put them on, he was shocked that they didn't fit. That left us scrambling for another pair of shoes at the last minute. 

Then I kept thinking of things like, "Oh! I better put tweezers in his luggage!" (he stepped on a cactus two weeks ago and still has some spines in his foot - which makes me nervous). And "Oh! He might need a Sharpie to write his name on stuff!" Early yesterday morning I was worried that his apartments might not have a can opener. Is my son smart enough to buy a can opener if he needs one? I'm not so sure. What about scissors? I made sure to get him some toenail clippers because I know he won't buy any! He'll just gnaw his toenails off or wait for them to break off on their own. 

I packed him a bunch of stuff I know he'll never use - like an umbrella and an apron. We packed one large suitcase and one small suitcase, which is less luggage than he is allowed (two large suitcases and one carryon), and he still had a bit of space. I hope we didn't forget anything. If Nicky had his way, he'd just have a backpack with one change of clothes and maybe a toothbrush, and that's it. 

I had no idea how I would feel sending him off. I was okay until it was time to say goodbye, and he got teary eyed and a little emotional, which made me get teary eyed and a little emotional. Truth be told, two years is dang long. 

Dang.

Long.

I know I'm not the first mother to do this - I'm not special - but holy moly. What a unique heartbreak it causes to send your child out into the world. A friend said to me today, "Your child is right where you want them to be, yet it's still so hard to let them go." Amen, friend. Amen!

We were told that he would be able to email us to let us know he made it to Mexico City. The email finally came at 9:11 pm. He's fine, and he's happy. And I’m relieved, and I can’t wait to hear from him again. 

I wrote back and told him that if he has a liquid Code Brown, there is Imodium and Pepto in his suitcase. Does my kid know what to do if he gets diarrhea in Mexico? Probably not. Will he listen to me? Probably not. But at least I tried. The care of his bowels is entirely up to him now. 

His toenail maintenance is entirely up to him now.

His can opening method is entirely up to him now.

Can this boy live without his mom? I hope so, and yet, I hope not. 

Home MTC: Finito

Nicky just finished ten days of “home MTC” prior to leaving for the Mexico MTC. He had to live missionary standards at home while doing daily classes to train him to be a missionary. 

I heard various things about “home MTC.” Some say the missionaries have too much down time. Others say that they’re too busy. One person said, “It’s like living in COVID again and being quarantined.”

All three statements are valid. They do have too much downtime while at the same time being way too busy. And it definitely felt like COVID as far as being online Zoom all day but also trying to find creative things to do during downtime. 

Nicky went stir crazy. He’s not one to sit still, so he got really antsy during “home MTC.” It felt like I had four-year-old Nicky with me again… “What are we going to do today, Mom?” “Can we go somewhere?” “I’m bored.”

I tried to think of something to do with him each day during his long break. Unfortunately that break took place during the hottest part of the day and my most tired part of the day. 

I took him to run errands, I took him to visit friends, I dropped him and Scotty off at a bike trail with their bikes a couple of times, and I even took him to get a pedicure (he’ll have the cleanest toes in the Mexico MTC!) 

Last week someone asked me, “What do you think the purpose of home MTC is?” to which I replied, “I have no idea!” But a few days later, I decided the purpose of home MTC is to drive the missionary and their parents to the point of “get this over with!” so that all parties are ready for the the missionary to go! 

It wasn’t all bad, though. We got to have Nicky around for the 4th of July, and we got to witness his first week and a half as a missionary up close and talk to him every day. We got to have some time with him without his social life taking priority (he was stuck with US for once!) It was really special having a missionary in our home. 

He’s ready to go, though. 

On the Pontoon

Nicky starts his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on Monday. After he opened his mission call, and we had the details of where and when he would serve, we started looking into possible family vacations before he left. He would graduate May 27, go to Disney World May 30 - June 5, go on his temple trip from June 9 - 14, and go to YM camp June 25 - 26, so that left no time for the kind of vacation we hoped for before his start date of June 30th (we dabbled in the idea of doing a cruise out of LA). 

Last year, for a team building activity for his work, Scotty rented pontoon boats at Strawberry Reservoir and took his employees fishing. They really enjoyed it and want to do it again! Scotty loves fishing (in fact, the very reason I use the name “Scotty”’as his pseudonym on my blog is because it’s a brand of fishing supplies). We decided to try out the pontoon rentals with our family for our last hurrah with Nicky. We invited Scotty’s brother and his family and our moms. 

At first we were just going to go up for the day, but then we looked into booking rooms at the lodge, and they weren’t horribly priced, so we booked two nights. We went up Sunday evening, had two pontoon rentals from 6 a.m. - 7 p.m. Monday, then came home Tuesday.

Other than a couple of windy moments, the weather was really nice, and we had a lot of fun. 

Here are a few memories to jot down:

1. Nicky and his cousin Asher found some crawdads. 

They latched them on to everything, including their own fingers.

2. We caught lots of fish. Many of them needed to be thrown back due to size regulations, but we brought home nine.

3. Nicky kissed a fish, and it bit his lip and drew blood.

4. Our girls all showcased their unique driving personalities.

“I’m so happy! Look what I can do!”

“I can’t see anything in front of me!”

“I’m so cool and chill because I’m in drivers ed.”

5. Zoe still had her arm in a cast for the trip. 

6. Nicky partied hard on the boat for hours and hours (in true Nicky fashion) and then crashed and burned in the afternoon (in true Nicky fashion).

7. We made grilled cheese sandwiches in our room at the lodge.

8. My sister-in-law, Amber (sometimes referred to as “Nameless Sistera-In-Law” or “Timber” on my blog) passed away unexpectedly the morning we left. She loved geocaching, so Zoe made a letter “A” and we went and found a geocache for Amber.

9. The sunrises and sunsets were primo.

It was a great little trip. Everyone enjoyed it, and they want to make it a yearly tradition. 

22 Temples

Last week Nicky went on a temple trip with his friends. They went to all of the LDS temples in Utah (except for those that are under construction) in less than a week. 

Some facts about their journey:

• They drove the entire trip with expired plates
• They backed into a truck at their first stop (in Fillmore) and smashed in the back of Jackson's mom's van
• They almost ran out of gas between Cedar City and Monticello, but they prayed their way out of it
• They performed baptisms and confirmations for 900 people
• The temple workers at Monticello pulled some strings and opened the baptistry just for them
• Nicky served as a recorder at three temples
• Provo City Center, Saratoga Springs, and Vernal were closed, but they stopped by the grounds anyway
• Syracuse opened that week - the first operating temple with two baptismal fonts
• Nicky was baptized for five Pietros during one visit

Here are their photos from each temple in the order they went:

Red Cliffs Temple

 

Saint George Temple

Cedar City Temple

Manti Temple

Monticello Temple

Vernal Temple

(somehow they didn't get a photo of the group)

Payson Temple

Provo City Center Temple

Orem Temple

Mount Timpanogos Temple

Saratoga Springs Temple

Draper Temple

Jordan River Temple

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Taylorsville Temple

Deseret Peak Temple

Bountiful Temple

Layton Temple

Ogden Temple

Logan Temple

Brigham City Temple

Syracuse Temple

It was a really great experience for all of these kids, and Nicky really enjoyed it. They worked really hard from sun up to sun down to get to all of their destinations. It was exhausting but worth it! 

I bought all of them this Utah Temple Passport, which I was really pleased with. It has a page for each temple where you can record the date you went there, what ordinances you did, and your thoughts or memories about it. Then there's a sticker for each temple that you can put in place after your visit. There are already stickers for the upcoming temples as well as blank pages for future temples. 

I haven't mentioned it yet, but Nicky was endowed June 7th at the Jordan River Temple. 

Tonight he was set apart as an ordinance worker at the Taylorsville Temple. It was a really neat experience. We thought we'd be in and out really quick, but the temple president is a talker, and he told us all sorts of stories. Then he took us all around the temple showing us paintings including a small version of Michael Malm's Come Unto Jesus mural, which happens to be Nicky's favorite painting, and we keep having run-ins with it (there is a copy in the Syracuse Temple as well). 

Nicky will only be able to work in the temple for two weeks, but they welcomed him with open arms. The temple president said, "We'd want you here even if you could only do a single shift!" Nicky's temple experiences are a bit rushed since there are only a few weeks between him graduating high school and starting his mission, so I'm really glad he got the chance to go visit all the temples in Utah in such a short period of time. And I think he will really enjoy serving in the temple as an ordinance worker, even though his time doing so will be short and sweet. It has been really special to hear all of his stories and adventures in visiting the temples.