Our oldest son, Mark, has been a Mormon missionary for 14 months now. Mormon missionaries serve for 24 months. This is something we have looked forward to since the day he was born. Both Jeff and I served missions and we both greatly value the time we served. Serving missions taught us so many things that have had lasting value and given us great joy we had as we watched people accept the gospel. So, we were of course delighted as he prepared and looked forward to his own mission.
The departure date was far more difficult than I ever anticipated. It took me about 6 weeks before I could be unemotional about his being away. However, once that passed, I look forward every Monday to his letters. I feel that he is protected by God in his safety and health. It has been wonderful to watch his focus and dedication to the job at hand. He has worked hard and tried his best. That is a wonderful thing to see in a son. Mark's blog is here: Mark's blog
We have three more sons. I trust that they will all serve missions. It is such a valuable experience for a young man (or a young woman).
update: 3/17/17 Our second son, Paul served in the Arizona Tempe mission, Spanish speaking. You can see Paul's blog and read about his experiences. One thing I loved about his mission is that the missionaries got to use ipads for the first time and they were given permission to teach people using facebook. Paul taught people all over the world and some people even got baptized. I was allowed to teach with him so we often worked together to talk with people about the church through facebook. It was a really wonderful experience for me!
Now, our third son, Eric is serving his mission in the Michigan Lansing mission, Spanish speaking. He was sent to the Mexico City MTC for his language training, which was unique. You can read about his experiences here: Eric's blog. He will finish up in December of 2018.
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