Hard to believe - it has been a week since Justin's farewell. I want you all to know how very much we appreciate you and all you did to make this monumental life event so wonderful!
Deanna- who after only 2 weeks of Davey being born made and brought the yummy foil sandwiches that we all enjoyed. Did any of you get her homemade rolls? Mmmmm! David-Thanks for supporting D in her desire to come and bringing your whole family!
Shawna- who purchased a considerable amount of food to feed us at the beach on Saturday and after the farewell on Sunday. Meat, condiments, rolls, fruit snacks, chips, fruit, cookies, water, etc.
(D and Shawna were critical in planning the whole gathering, as usual. Could you two just block out some time in two years to plan for Justin's homecoming?)
Rachel- who brought her AMAZING homemade rolls that we all know and love, as well as the veggie platter and cupcakes that all the cousins enjoyed!
Heather- who made and brought her DELICIOUS cookies that were enjoyed throughout the entire weekend. Hmmmmm, wish I had some right now! Tom- who got pizza for all to enjoy Friday night (and Saturday)Thank you for coming as well. And to all the Ludlow children for choosing to come down for Justin's farewell instead of coming a couple weeks earlier to join friends on their scheduled Disney trip!
Grammy commented on how unique our family is to BRING food to the event in addition to making the sacrifice to travel. What a blessing!
Keriann and Kourtney- who provided a GREAT service by cleaning up afterward
Jason and Suzie- who risked being put in jail by going AWOL to be here;)
Scott- who was the first to bear his testimony and get the ball rolling. Brett and Shane really enjoyed the fact that he called Justin a goober:) It was a powerful testimony acknowledging and appreciating Justin's conviction of the truthfulness of the gospel as well as his example to Jake and Bryce. That meant a great deal to Justin.
Scotty- who was able to force his sick body out of bed and make it to church. He is an example to all of us that we "CAN do hard things!" (Although I think his year long ban on sugar is harder than getting out of a sick bed). Anyway, you helped fulfill Justin's overall purpose with his farewell--which was to inspire 2 young men in particular to have a desire to serve missions.
Grandma McKe- who took Justin's photo for the Missionary wall in the stake center and hosted Brett and Shane in St. George while we went the distance with Justin to Provo and the MTC. And who also bore her testimony--thank goodness--she was the only woman who did.;)
Grammy- who stayed in Canyon Country with Rachel and Natalie so they could continue going to school.
Nonnie- who supported us from afar with her thoughts and prayers and financial contribution. You really were here in spirit, Nonnie, since some thought that Jamie Lawrence was you;)We did miss our beloved Kings and Uncle Jimmy!
You are all such a tremendous blessing to us! THANK YOU!!!!!!!
By way of report: Justin couldn't have been happier with the farewell. What a great sendoff it provided, as well as giving him the psychological boost he needed to finish up his packing the next day. (It's very strange and kind of sad to pass by his empty room each day). It probably won't be empty for long as we have children bidding to occupy the space.
We finally got out of here by 8pm and rolled into St. George around 3am (Wilson standard time).
The next day, all our patience was exhausted by trying to get just the right photo of Justin for the Missionary board at home. (All of you with Future missionaries> don't wait that long. AND do not forget, as I did, to take family pictures with your Missionary before he leaves. Aren't you glad you get to learn from my mistakes since you are all younger?!-and yes Scott, you get to go in the "younger than me" category since your children are younger than mine:)
Picture complete, Justin said his goodbyes to G'ma and the boys. Shane was a wreck. Then we headed to Provo. We took full advantage of the drive. For Valentine's this year, I gave the kids coupons. Justin redeemed his: a foot rub, while we watched "God's Army". It was a DVD that Grandma gave him to watch before he left. He advised me to tell Grandma not to do that to any of her other grandsons. It was kind of a downer. Joe warned him that there was probably more truth to it than he would like to think. Despite the negative ratings, Grandma did not regret him seeing it, just the timing. She said he ought to have seen it a couple weeks earlier.
We arrived in Provo at about 7:30 and went to Cafe Rio so that he could redeem his "free meal". As if the happiness he derived from this "free meal" wasn't enough, they sang to him (a common "free meal" practice that he was unaware of). Then, a couple girl friends from BYU found out he was there and they ran over to say goodbye. It was strange for them that he could not hug them. I think that might be when it started sinking in for Justin and he started to get REALLY nervous! It was also REALLY cold! He was still in his SoCal attire: T-shirt and shorts, and it was snowing. After visiting Carlie and Porter, we went out to Laurlyn's. Have any of you been there? Beautiful, big home, covered in snow. We were trying to get to bed early. I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow, but Justin said he had a hard time getting to sleep.
Next morning he got all "missionary-like" in his new blue suit and we headed back to Provo. He was too nervous to eat, so Joe and I quietly suppressed our appetites. We stopped by a few friends to say final goodbyes--Kari, Karly, and Dani: all girls, because of course most all his guy friends are already on their missions. Our last stop was the BYU Bookstore where he had to buy a pen because he had forgotten to pack the awesome pen that Jake had gotten him. He uses it all the time and he couldn't wait for us to send it. (Turns out they didn't have the exact one so he asked if we would please send it up soon).
Getting closer to drop off time by then and his nervousness was replaced by excitement. So, we went to eat at Brick Oven (my choice, and yes, I got a chocolate chip cookie:). His appetite was back and he was pumped! Everyone there wished him luck (must be a common occurrence to have perspective elders taking their "last meal" before reporting). It also helped that the Hostess there told him she would be reporting for her mission in two weeks. She asked him his name. When he told her "Justin", she reminded him that probably wouldn't help her since he would be known primarily by his last name.
We left with full bellies and headed to the Provo temple for a last picture together before dropping him off. He asked the girls who took our picture to "wait for him"--luckily they didn't speak English. Next came a motivational pep call from Uncle Howard that lifted Justin's spirits even higher. Driving up to the MTC was a thrilling sight! A long procession of cars lined the front of the MTC, and traveling opposite on the sidewalk was a plethora of missionaries ( yes Jason, I would say a plethora) walking with their luggage to check-in. I half expected to hear "Called to Serve" playing in the background. Our ticket through the gate consisted of pointing in the back seat to Justin (it was kind of obvious who belonged there). Next, a kind, Elderly gentleman in a neon vest stopped us, put a sticker in the window, and then kinda stuck his head in the window, looked Justin in the eyes and welcomed him and wished him well so warmly that it made me start to tear up. He directed us to station #1. We pulled over and jumped out of the van. There were about 5 Elders there (at each station, and there were about 20 stations) to help with the process. I'm not sure if they needed such large numbers to subdue uncontrollable moms?
Anyway, there were two in particular who came forward to help Justin with his luggage. They both were nice young men with faces absolutely covered with acne. I asked if they could take our picture. One said they were not allowed. The other one looked pained at this and seemed as though he would succumb to my request at any moment. I was not about to encourage them to break the rules. So, Joe took a picture of Justin and I, we gave him a hug and said goodbye, and as he was hoisting his backpack on his shoulder he recognized one of the Elders, walking by, from BYU. He seemed so relieved to know someone. They shook each others hands and he was off! Joe and I got back in the car and I yelled "Justin! I love you!" out the window. (Yes, it was as pathetic as it sounds). The Elders stationed at that stop were paying more attention to me than Justin. Seriously, their eyes were riveted on me. I think they were hoping to see me fall into a pool of tears. I thought, looking at them, looking at me, this must be an entertaining (and heart warming) assignment. They probably have to earn the privilege to do that. As we drove away, I felt like we were in a parade. All the missionaries old and young waved to us. I waved back and continued looking out the window so that Joe wouldn't see that my eyes were leaking.
Anyway, there were two in particular who came forward to help Justin with his luggage. They both were nice young men with faces absolutely covered with acne. I asked if they could take our picture. One said they were not allowed. The other one looked pained at this and seemed as though he would succumb to my request at any moment. I was not about to encourage them to break the rules. So, Joe took a picture of Justin and I, we gave him a hug and said goodbye, and as he was hoisting his backpack on his shoulder he recognized one of the Elders, walking by, from BYU. He seemed so relieved to know someone. They shook each others hands and he was off! Joe and I got back in the car and I yelled "Justin! I love you!" out the window. (Yes, it was as pathetic as it sounds). The Elders stationed at that stop were paying more attention to me than Justin. Seriously, their eyes were riveted on me. I think they were hoping to see me fall into a pool of tears. I thought, looking at them, looking at me, this must be an entertaining (and heart warming) assignment. They probably have to earn the privilege to do that. As we drove away, I felt like we were in a parade. All the missionaries old and young waved to us. I waved back and continued looking out the window so that Joe wouldn't see that my eyes were leaking.
It was very surreal. I thought back to all the other monumental good-byes that I have said to my precious first born: Kindergarten ( I stuck around after drop off and spied on him over the fence to make sure he was happy and adjusting, and playing nicely with the other students). EFY (I chatted with the Session director and counselors, and he attended every session with Hunter). College (Since we were staying with the Doughmans, we had several opportunities to meet up with him and see how he was doing in his new environment before saying the final goodbye--which did hurt, even though we knew we would see him again at Christmas). Mission (No spying, no lingering. We were right back on the freeway after gassing up and headed to St. George). We drove almost the whole way through snow, much of it in silence as Joe and I pondered the fact that we had just sent our son off for 2 years; something we had prepared for since he was born 19 years ago. The ultimate "bittersweet" experience.
Well, we made it back to St, George and after seeing the boys and enjoying a delicious dinner made by Mom, we went to see a movie. It felt like such a long time since we had done something fun like that and the dollar theater was just the ticket! It was kind of that feeling when you have a big project due for school and after it is complete you want to celebrate and enjoy before you jump back into work.
How happy we were to receive Justin's email on Saturday. I thought you would enjoy reading it as well! You are welcome to email him, but I don't know if he is allowed to respond? Did you all get his address at the MTC?
Elder Justin Taylor Wilson
Texas Dallas MissionProvo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604
United States
Love you!
Erin
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Justin Wilson <justin.wilson@myldsmail.net>
To: erinwilson7@yahoo.com
Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2012 10:24 AM
Subject: Hola Familia!!!!
From: Justin Wilson <justin.wilson@myldsmail.net>
To: erinwilson7@yahoo.com
Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2012 10:24 AM
Subject: Hola Familia!!!!
Hola!!!! Wow I cannot believe that I'm finally in the MTC and I'm so stoked to share what its like with you guys! Whatever you hear about the MTC, part of it is probably true.
The first day I got here totally blew my mind and they don't ease you into Spanish. It's more of a survival situation where all they do is speak to you in Spanish and you just have to make due with what you know, adjust to getting taught in Spanish, and try to make sense of it all. I haven't seen more open-mouthed and wide-eyed blank stares in my life!! Its priceless haha but It's awesome how busy they keep you, and how I was able to end these past three days satisfied knowing that I did all that I could do.
I truly can't believe how much Spanish I have been able to pick up just being here for three days, but that is truly the kicker. Just when we started to get comfortable with how our Espanol was coming along, we learn that we are going to teach an Investigator, in Spanish, and by the way, she doesn't speak English.
So we prepare a lesson out of preach my gospel and use our rough "Get to know you" questions and we weren't really all that worried because it was only supposed to be a 10-15 minute lesson. We started to feel golden, go get some dinner, and by the way it is exactly like the Cannon Center, even holds true to the fact that everything tastes the same and that it gets old your second time through, but anyhow we get back to our classroom and our teacher suprises us with the fact that the lessons are supposed to be 30-40 minutos.
With our mind blown, we try to scramble and throw something together, but after a reasonable amount of time of panicking, the time of redemtion comes. We get to "Liliana's" door and everything goes smoothly. We tell her that we are missionaries of the the LDS church and that we have a message to share with her. So naturally she lets us in, but that was when the confusion started.
My companion, who by the way is a super chill guy, was planning on leading the lesson but once we started to ask her some questions, he just looks at me like a deer in headlights and attempts to speak in Spanish, but reaches barely a whisper. So I just decided to take over and get into the lesson we had planned, grabbed the bull by the horns, and asked her what she thought of God and how important he is to her. We went into how much our Heavenly Father loves us and she starts asking questions about the Atonement (la Expiacion). No idea what we said to fuel that question but we flip through a couple pages in Preach My Gospel still wondering why our second day consisted of teaching a 40 minute lesson in just Spanish, and were able to explain (very roughly) the Atonement.
We eventually got back on topic and to the lesson we had originally planned, with my comp still looking like a deer in headlights, and got through it and were able to close with a prayer (and if you're wondering, yes we can already pray in Spanish haha.) At this point it was a "how are we going to end this and get out of here?" situation, and I asked her if we could meet her another time. She tells us that we can meet with her tommorow and I asked her "que hora" as in "what time", but I found out that ora means prayer and hora means hour, so she jumps into a whole new topic before we can leave and starts asking us about prayer. This time I felt like I was talking to a baby, I knew what she wanted to know and I could roughly understand what she was saying, but I could barely explain anything to her!
After what felt like a month in there, we were finally able to teach her that you fold your arms, close your eyes, bow your head, speak with God, and close en el nombre de Jesucristo. We finally got out and when I looked at it, it was a great analogy of what I hear a mission is like. It was by far the hardest and most humbling experience of my life (felt like 24 hours)-- but then again, covered a lot of time and didn't feel that long when I looked back on it.
The whole lesson I was expecting Heavenly Father to put words in my mouth and make me sound fluent, but that just didn't happen. I was thinking the whole time, "Heavenly Father, I NEED HELP!!" but as I look back, I cannot believe that I was able to say as much as I said, stuff that we haven't learned here at the MTC that I picked up somewhere from my freshman course or somewhere else. It amazed me to see what my knowlege was before and after the lesson, put in a situation where someone could only speak Spanish and I was forced to find ways to communicate with her and all my help was a couple books and my companion.
Its true that the days feel like weeks but I'm way excited to finally be out and from what others tell me, if you make it to Sunday, you're golden. Tell Hunter that me and my comp are going to Dallas, but everyone else is headed to the Santiago North Chile mission! I really miss all of you and Its really hard to truly forget myself and devote all my time to the Lord, but I'm working as hard as I can on it and am giving the MTC all I got! Sure is crazy to walk around with the badge but I love it!!!
The first day I got here totally blew my mind and they don't ease you into Spanish. It's more of a survival situation where all they do is speak to you in Spanish and you just have to make due with what you know, adjust to getting taught in Spanish, and try to make sense of it all. I haven't seen more open-mouthed and wide-eyed blank stares in my life!! Its priceless haha but It's awesome how busy they keep you, and how I was able to end these past three days satisfied knowing that I did all that I could do.
I truly can't believe how much Spanish I have been able to pick up just being here for three days, but that is truly the kicker. Just when we started to get comfortable with how our Espanol was coming along, we learn that we are going to teach an Investigator, in Spanish, and by the way, she doesn't speak English.
So we prepare a lesson out of preach my gospel and use our rough "Get to know you" questions and we weren't really all that worried because it was only supposed to be a 10-15 minute lesson. We started to feel golden, go get some dinner, and by the way it is exactly like the Cannon Center, even holds true to the fact that everything tastes the same and that it gets old your second time through, but anyhow we get back to our classroom and our teacher suprises us with the fact that the lessons are supposed to be 30-40 minutos.
With our mind blown, we try to scramble and throw something together, but after a reasonable amount of time of panicking, the time of redemtion comes. We get to "Liliana's" door and everything goes smoothly. We tell her that we are missionaries of the the LDS church and that we have a message to share with her. So naturally she lets us in, but that was when the confusion started.
My companion, who by the way is a super chill guy, was planning on leading the lesson but once we started to ask her some questions, he just looks at me like a deer in headlights and attempts to speak in Spanish, but reaches barely a whisper. So I just decided to take over and get into the lesson we had planned, grabbed the bull by the horns, and asked her what she thought of God and how important he is to her. We went into how much our Heavenly Father loves us and she starts asking questions about the Atonement (la Expiacion). No idea what we said to fuel that question but we flip through a couple pages in Preach My Gospel still wondering why our second day consisted of teaching a 40 minute lesson in just Spanish, and were able to explain (very roughly) the Atonement.
We eventually got back on topic and to the lesson we had originally planned, with my comp still looking like a deer in headlights, and got through it and were able to close with a prayer (and if you're wondering, yes we can already pray in Spanish haha.) At this point it was a "how are we going to end this and get out of here?" situation, and I asked her if we could meet her another time. She tells us that we can meet with her tommorow and I asked her "que hora" as in "what time", but I found out that ora means prayer and hora means hour, so she jumps into a whole new topic before we can leave and starts asking us about prayer. This time I felt like I was talking to a baby, I knew what she wanted to know and I could roughly understand what she was saying, but I could barely explain anything to her!
After what felt like a month in there, we were finally able to teach her that you fold your arms, close your eyes, bow your head, speak with God, and close en el nombre de Jesucristo. We finally got out and when I looked at it, it was a great analogy of what I hear a mission is like. It was by far the hardest and most humbling experience of my life (felt like 24 hours)-- but then again, covered a lot of time and didn't feel that long when I looked back on it.
The whole lesson I was expecting Heavenly Father to put words in my mouth and make me sound fluent, but that just didn't happen. I was thinking the whole time, "Heavenly Father, I NEED HELP!!" but as I look back, I cannot believe that I was able to say as much as I said, stuff that we haven't learned here at the MTC that I picked up somewhere from my freshman course or somewhere else. It amazed me to see what my knowlege was before and after the lesson, put in a situation where someone could only speak Spanish and I was forced to find ways to communicate with her and all my help was a couple books and my companion.
Its true that the days feel like weeks but I'm way excited to finally be out and from what others tell me, if you make it to Sunday, you're golden. Tell Hunter that me and my comp are going to Dallas, but everyone else is headed to the Santiago North Chile mission! I really miss all of you and Its really hard to truly forget myself and devote all my time to the Lord, but I'm working as hard as I can on it and am giving the MTC all I got! Sure is crazy to walk around with the badge but I love it!!!
Yo le quiero!!!
Elder Wilson
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