Another two years...

This is the first Sunday since we left Benjamin at the MTC in Provo...and I've only started crying randomly a few times. It seems a little weird to not have him around. He did spend 8 months at BYU last year, but we had Richard, Nickie, Sadie and Mason living here, so it didn't seem empty in the house, but now it's just Robert, Brian and me living in our big house... this will take some getting used to!

The Stouts came over on Sunday to say goodbye to Ben and then he was set apart by President Hicken on Tuesday. Lots of people came over earlier that night to say their goodbyes ...

We had a great day on Wednesday... Ben, Brian, Robert & I flew to Salt Lake City and visited at Richard & Nickie's for a little while. Then we drove to Provo where we met Kelli, Adam and Vanessa and David (Robert's brother) for lunch at Mimi's Cafe. Lindsay had school and wasn't able to be with us, but we were able to see her later in the day. It was so nice to spend some time visiting and being together as a family before saying goodbye for two years.

After lunch we took Ben to the MTC and dropped him off. Literally. We pulled up to the curb at marker 25, took his luggage out of the car, hugged him a couple of times, said our goodbyes then watched him walk off toward the MTC main entrance with a couple of other elders.

I actually liked it a lot. We had a nice morning with him, then we said our goodbyes and left. No meeting to build up all the emotions in and no "door" for him to disappear through!

Ben is a sweet boy with a wonderful testimony and he will be an awesome missionary.

The people of Chile are lucky to have him for 2 years! We will miss him, but we will pray for him and he will have a wonderful, life-changing experience as he serves a faithful and rewarding mission.