Questions, questions.

[posted by Jen's father]

For family home evening after the farewell, Jen's mom invited over some Mongolian missionaries that recently arrived home. Sister Cleveland had been home 11 days, and the Francoms, 20.

We exhausted them for 2 hours as we fired question after question at them.

Sister Cleveland inspected Jen's boots and coat, and showed her pictures from her mission, including holding a huge eagle. She also showed her traditional Mongolian clothes. She also read out loud to Jen from the Book of Mormon in Mongolian. Very Cool. I got the feeling that any missionary would be very lucky to have Sister Cleveland as a companion.

The Francoms told us about the mission home, the pianos, etc. They assured us you can get by in Mongolia using English and lots of hand signals, because they did it for 18 months. They speculated there might be another stake created in Mongolia while Jen is there. Also, they drove a long way to get to our house. Oh, and they told us the Mongolian grills in America are NOT authentic Mongolian food.

Farewell. Check!

Last Sunday was my farewell. I had family come all the way from Boise, friends from Logan all the way down to Alpine, and even one of my mother's old college friends flew in from Arizona. I was grateful to have so many people that I love travel in from all over the place just to come support me in my mission calling.

This was the day that I finally 'fessed up to my parents (well, actually everyone) that I had already read my call before they got to my apartment in Logan. ADD, sorry. So the video that everyone watched online was kind of fake. But not totally fake! Because I definitely was still in shock. I may have gone a little overboard with the whole melting onto the ground, but nobody suspected a thing. Should've been an actress.

After sacrament meeting, our home was busting at the seams with family, friends, neighbors, and lots of good food. Being the classy people we are we made a make-shift dining room in the garage to accommodate our guests. I think the garage door and tool rack makes for a nice backdrop, don't you?

 As part of the celebration my old piano teacher and ward friend played Sleigh Ride for one last time for a couple years. Here, check it out!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

I am so humbled and thankful by the kindness and generosity of friends and family that came to wish me luck and give their love. Everyone that I have met over the last several years has helped shape me in some way, and has etched me into the person I am now. I look forward to see how the Lord shapes me even more in Mongolia.

Shout outs:

My lovely cousin Heather. "Do I get to be on the blog??"

Blessed to have all these worthy priesthood holders in my family. 

Honorary 5th roommate. The best bros a bro could ever have.

13 days to go

Merry Christmas Eve! The time is getting closer for me to join the throngs of spiritual soldiers. I am grateful to have a couple weeks to spend Christmas at home. We are excited to have lots of extended family coming in from Boise this weekend for my farewell- we'll be filling every bed! 

My oldest brother, Kelly also came in Tuesday night from Southern California, and it has been fun having him here as well. We went skiing, saw Star Wars (again), and today for lunch we went to eat at the Mongolian Grill in Layton- I'm sure it is very authentic. ;) Here's a rare picture of all 6 of us in the same place! 

As far as mission preparation and readiness goes, everything just kind of seems like a blur right now. The days are one by one ticking away, and I know there's a lot to do, and I still need to go shopping and maybe start putting things in those big suitcases in my room, but I honestly don't even know what to tell people when they ask "How are you feeling?" because I just don't really know. Excited, I guess? I'm just very calm and ready to take on whatever challenges that will face me in the MTC. *cough* learning Mongolian *cough cough* My parents seem to be doing plenty of anxious worrying for the whole family ;) They are very excited and supportive of my mission, and I am so thankful and humbled by all of the people that have reached out to help me and my family as we embark on this spiritual journey. Merry Christmas, all!