A Huge Blessing
One of the highlights of my Sundays are our early morning Mission Preparation class.
We usually have anywhere between 8-10 kids attend, along with our full time Sister Missionaries.
I love that Kloe comes with me.
Kara comes too. Kara is planning to serve next December.
Kloe is planning on college for a year before making the decision whether or not to serve, but she's preparing in the mean time.
Before our Stake began this class three and a half years ago, we had about 50% of our missionaries returning home early.
Currently, 0% of all the kids who have attended Mission Prep and then served missions have returned home early.
If you are a parent of a junior or senior in high school who's thinking about serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I beg you, find them a Missionary Preparation class. If your ward or Stake doesn't have one, bug your Bishop or Stake President to start one.
There are times when it's necessary for a missionary to come home early, but often, it's lack of preparation.
Missions are great but they are hard and these kids need to be prepared spiritually, mentally, and physically.
There, that's all I have to say about that.
When the Bishop gets home at around 3 on Sunday he is mentally fried.
He's a year in and I don't know if Sunday's have gotten any easier.
Often times he goes to bed right after dinner.
It helps to sleep it off.
But last night he held off until 8:30 because we celebrated the birth of Tami and Garren!
It was Garren's actual birthday yesterday so he chose Lasagna and rolls with the stuff on it for his birthday dinner and a funfetti cake for dessert--although he hates sprinkles so Em left those off the top.
For Tam, it was a Key lime pie.
Garren is sick with a cold so he made sure to take the candles out of the cake to blow them out so he didn't blow any of his germs on to the cake.
We went around the dinner table and everyone shared their favorite things about Tam and Garren.
One thing I love about Tami is how good she is to my kids. She's so thoughtful and has provided them with experiences they weren't getting from their mom.
One of my favorite things about Garren is his enthusiasm. He is always up for anything and one of the things we share is our enthusiasm for missionary work. He's also the only one in the family who is enthusiastic about eating my left overs (besides myself). I am so grateful Em and Garren found each other. He has been a huge blessing to our family.
We got an email from our Prophet, President Nelsen this week with an invitation to immerse ourselves in the glorious light of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
2020 is a bicentennial period commemorating 200 years since God the Father and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith in a vision, initiating the Restoration of the Lord's gospel.
Pretty exciting stuff.
Tam and Steve taught us some fun facts about the Restoration last night.
You can go HERE to read more about it.
We usually have anywhere between 8-10 kids attend, along with our full time Sister Missionaries.
I love that Kloe comes with me.
Kara comes too. Kara is planning to serve next December.
Kloe is planning on college for a year before making the decision whether or not to serve, but she's preparing in the mean time.
Before our Stake began this class three and a half years ago, we had about 50% of our missionaries returning home early.
Currently, 0% of all the kids who have attended Mission Prep and then served missions have returned home early.
If you are a parent of a junior or senior in high school who's thinking about serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I beg you, find them a Missionary Preparation class. If your ward or Stake doesn't have one, bug your Bishop or Stake President to start one.
There are times when it's necessary for a missionary to come home early, but often, it's lack of preparation.
Missions are great but they are hard and these kids need to be prepared spiritually, mentally, and physically.
There, that's all I have to say about that.
When the Bishop gets home at around 3 on Sunday he is mentally fried.
He's a year in and I don't know if Sunday's have gotten any easier.
Often times he goes to bed right after dinner.
It helps to sleep it off.
But last night he held off until 8:30 because we celebrated the birth of Tami and Garren!
It was Garren's actual birthday yesterday so he chose Lasagna and rolls with the stuff on it for his birthday dinner and a funfetti cake for dessert--although he hates sprinkles so Em left those off the top.
For Tam, it was a Key lime pie.
Garren is sick with a cold so he made sure to take the candles out of the cake to blow them out so he didn't blow any of his germs on to the cake.
We went around the dinner table and everyone shared their favorite things about Tam and Garren.
One thing I love about Tami is how good she is to my kids. She's so thoughtful and has provided them with experiences they weren't getting from their mom.
One of my favorite things about Garren is his enthusiasm. He is always up for anything and one of the things we share is our enthusiasm for missionary work. He's also the only one in the family who is enthusiastic about eating my left overs (besides myself). I am so grateful Em and Garren found each other. He has been a huge blessing to our family.
We got an email from our Prophet, President Nelsen this week with an invitation to immerse ourselves in the glorious light of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
2020 is a bicentennial period commemorating 200 years since God the Father and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith in a vision, initiating the Restoration of the Lord's gospel.
Pretty exciting stuff.
Tam and Steve taught us some fun facts about the Restoration last night.
You can go HERE to read more about it.
