[Originally published October 31, 2011] You can learn a lot from your kids. Grant spoke in church yesterday, and gave a beautiful talk about what he learned on his mission: 1. Don't be a baby. This is never a bad thing to learn, and generally needs to be learned over and over. And over. 2. Put God first in your life - He is your DAD. No one loves you more, and your prayers should be TALKING to Him. It's so much more than "We thank Thee, we ask Thee...." from Primary. Grant told a story about a little tiny boy, Tino, the stake president's son, who gave a prayer and kept calling Heavenly Father "Poppy," as he asked Heavenly Father for things that Grant felt that he specifically needed at that time. Grant said he was very grateful to have learned to TALK to His "Poppy" from Tino. He told about a tiny little outpost of the church, down at the tip of the continent, called the 28th of November (it's cooler in Spanish). He said one member's home was the most holy place he had ever been, besides the temple. He said the man felt his home needed to be sacred, because of being so off the path of any church jurisdiction. Grant said he could feel that the Lord had not forsaken these few saints in this tiny little area, out in the middle of nowhere - that no one in the world may know about them, but the Lord knew about them, and watched over their lives. "For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on ths on of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." (1 Nephi 21:15-16). He learned that he is not alone from the 28th of November. Lastly, Grant told of David and Maria, a family who had a huge trauma befall their family the day after their baptism. He told of counseling David that this event could bring him closer to God, or tear him away from God - but that he, David, would be the one to decide. He said one of the most meaningful moments of his entire mission was watching the change come over David's face as he made the decision to stay with the Lord. He learned to stay with the Lord, through anything that could happen to him, from David. The last area in Grant's mission was a return to an area where he served very early in his mission. He spoke about how powerful it was to see different people's choices to move closer to the Lord - or not - over that year and a half in between. It reminded me of Alma meeting Ammon and his brothers after their fourteen-year mission to the Lamanites, how overjoyed Alma was at learning that his dear friends were still faithful to their covenants. It was particularly poignant to consider, after hearing about a family who could have been ripped away from their tender, newly-planted gospel roots at the very outset of their planting, but instead, to reach down deep into that soil and cling to their covenants, and to their God. I love what I've learned and how my faith has been strengthened as I've watched my son serve a mission. I'm sure gonna miss those Monday emails.

[Originally published October 21, 2011] Two days ago, we had a taste of what I imagine it's like to pass through the veil at the end of our lives. As I stood in the airport waiting to see our missionary man child come down the escalator inside the terminals, we waited with three other families whose sons were traveling with Grant: Elders Harris, Healey, and Peterson. Naturally, we were all instantly friends, because we were all there for the same purpose, to welcome valiant sons home. Then we caught that first glimpse of them, predictably near the end of the disembarkment, and suddenly, we weren't one big group. We were four individual groups, sacred family units, sharing a private, sweet moment of reunion. Suddenly, Grant wasn't the disembodied idea of Grant that he had become over the past two years. He was my Grant, our Grant, that sweet little boy, loping down that hallway towards us, a man home from his first big commission from the Lord. It was Wednesday afternoon, and because of changed travel plans, the dear boy had essentially been up since Monday morning at 6:30 Buenos Aires time. He looked dazed and confusedly happy. This must be what heaven will be like, welcoming each other after completing our life's missions. There will be people there to greet us and welcome us home again. It will be familiarly strange....and strangely familiar. Being together again with people we may have been separated from our entire mortality, it will surprise us that we remember and know grandparents and others whom we never met in this life. You can't really say that it feels like he's never been gone, because the separation mattered so much. It was vital that Grant's first two decades of life be tithed for the Lord, and all four of us are different people because he served. I am so grateful for this son. It was joyful, yesterday, to watch him get up and study, make his bed (!), clean up after himself, ask every few minutes, "What do you need? What can I do for you?", thank me for the meals I've fixed him, allow me to chase him around the bar in the kitchen for hugs, the way I used to before he left.....only now, turn around suddenly and run right into my arms. I'm so grateful for children who grow up and still want to come home! The apostle Paul calls followers of Christ "children of light." I am so grateful to have raised children who love light. Light is the way by which we see everything else. The Light, is what helps us discern truth - "things as they really are."

[Originally published October 17, 2011] So much to do in the next 30 hours. So for now, I just have to say that tomorrow, my little boy is coming home. He'll get on a plane in Buenos Aires @ 10:30 tonight (their time, 7:30 our time), and land in Miami tomorrow morning @ 7:00 a.m. He will be in my arms @ roughly 4:45 p.m., tomorrow afternoon. Being in Grant's air space is a very, very good place to be. He really knows how to be present. In fact, I love to say that he will never be mistaken for being absent! He sees people, and he loves what he sees. He has one of the most beautiful hearts that I have had the privilege of knowing in this life, and I'm honored to be his mother. His patriarchal blessing said he asked to come to our home, which I will marvel over until my dying day. After that, I'm hoping it'll make a little more sense. :) The very best thing I have done with my life is bringing up two amazing human beings that are making this planet a better place. Today, I am having joy in my posterity. Gotta go make somebody's favorite peach dessert.