More Kindness

 Some dear friends sent me a beautiful "Missionary Mom" necklace that came with a note that said, "A piece of my heart is serving a mission." I am wearing it everyday!

And one of my sweet primary kids who shares a love of Disney with me sent me this to help cheer me up with Audra gone:

It really did make my day- such a sweet gesture! 

Ben said, "nobody got me anything for Audra leaving!" I told him he needed to get up and bare his testimony and cry all the way through it like I did and then people will feel sorry for him.

I did bare my testimony on fast Sunday before Audra left. This is the gist of what I said:

"You won't believe me, but Audra was a terrible baby. She had colic for 12 months and she would just cry and cry literally all day, every day. There were a couple of times when I couldn't handle it anymore, and I would take her upstairs and put her in her crib, and I would go to the basement, and I would pray that Heavenly Father would send His angels to watch over her, because I couldn't in that moment.

Now, as she heads off to Brazil, I am saying that same prayer- that Heavenly Father will send His angels to watch over her.

I have thought about all the moms who have sent their babies on missions, and how many broken hearts have sent their babies to a world unknown. And I have thought that there is only one reason we do this: Because we love our Savior. And I do love my Savior, with all my heart. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw. I know Christ lives, and I am so thankful for missionaries who go out into the world to bring the joy of Christ to others, even while their mothers are at home silently weeping."

Zoom Call

 I got to talk to talk to Audra! Ben is at work and the girls are gone, so it was just me. We talked for quite a bit. Here are the highlights:

-There were two other missionaries on her flight to Atlanta, but she didn't sit next to them. They did, however, meet up after the flight and walk to their next flight to Sao  Paulo together

-There were 24 missionaries on the flight to Sao Paulo

-She didn't get any sleep on the plane (I was tracking the flight on  my phone- that was cool!)

-She is still really sad. At first when we started talking she began crying, but then she was able to settle down. 

-There's not much space in her room, so she can't really unpack

-It took a little bit to get her Facebook Messenger to work, but Ben was able to get it working

-She said the food in the MTC is OK. She really likes the juice.

-She is still scared and nervous, and the first few days are pretty boring and empty, but hopefully she will adjust soon

Some friends brought me really sweet gifts to help me get through today. It was very thoughtful.

I continued work on Audra's high school quilt, which she did a ton of work on, and that helped

Saying Good-Bye

 And then it was time to say good-bye.

We shed a lot of tears. It was very hard to watch Audra sobbing as she went through security.

We had a couple of problems with her ticket. We should have brought her phone- two step verification was our downfall, so she had to go through normal security rather than TSA pre-check. But it all worked out, thank goodness.

There is really nothing to say about this. It was hard. My mother heart is breaking. All of our hearts are breaking. But we- all the mothers and fathers who have said good-bye to their children for 18 months or two year while weeping inside- do this because we love our Savior Jesus Christ. We know that Audra is going out into the world to bring people to Him. What a blessing. We know that she will be amazing.

But, wow. It is so much harder than I ever expected.

Last Days

 It has been a series of "lasts" as we countdown Audra leaving for Brazil. Her last night, we played Pandemic. And lost. Ebola, unfortunately, spread throughout the world and it was all our fault.

She chose her "last supper"- chicken taquitos.

She will  not miss these long Zoom meetings!

We started packing Audra about a week early. This actually calmed her. One thing with Home MTC that is really hard is that it feels like this perpetual state of waiting and being in limbo land. Starting to pack was a little grounding.

Lair O The Bear

 Audra's P-Day was suddenly changed from Saturday to Tuesday (we didn't know until last night, when she had about 5 minutes left in class). Ben took the day off work and we went on a hike. It actually worked out really well and was quite lovely, though it was hard for Audra to make the mental adjustment of her P-Day being changed. 

Home MTC is a lot harder than any of us expected. Audra is in REALLY long meetings- 3 hours long- and Portuguese has been more of a struggle than she would have liked. She is comparing herself to the other sisters in her district (there are only 14 sisters, no elders in her district) and is spending a lot of times in tears. But, we had a really great hike and it was wonderful to be together (minus Claire who had to go to work).

Camille reminded me to get our traditional baguette, sausage, cheese, and chocolate- an old remnant from our homeschooling days.

Set Apart

 And so it begins...Audra got set apart tonight by our wonderful Stake President Chipman. He was a mission president in Peru and he gave some wonderful advice:

She isn't called to learn Portuguese. She is called to testify of Christ. Language is a tool, not a purpose.

Then he set her apart which included some beautiful blessings: Your family will be greatly blessed while you serve. You will have angels helping you. You will be blessed with the Holy Ghost so you can get your point across. You will be blessed with the gift of tongues and with good physical health.

She got to put her pin on the map of where she is going. There is one other person from our stake in Brasilia, and she does know him so hopefully she will see him when she is there.

This is from when she got her mission tags in the mail, about a week ago. Now she will wear them every day for the next 18 months as she testifies of Christ. What an honor to wear his name every day. She will be wonderful, but oh- we will miss her.