School Concerts
This month we got to enjoy two wonderful concerts at Waterford. Madeleine performed with the Waterford Strings as well as with the Chamber Orchestra and with her quartet. It was so much practicing and playing that she started suffering wrist fatigue. The strings program is very strong. Their teacher is fabulous — I'm always amazed at how professional it sounds.
During the Band Concert, Elliot got to perform his marimba solo. The school recorded the concert and so now we have Elliot's solo on the CD. He did a great job and had real stage presence. The marimba is such a fun and rather unique instrument — it always grabs people's attention.
Football Games
November was also a month of college football — the highlight of which was winning the BYU vs. UofU game the Saturday after Thanksgiving! It was a cold but beautiful day — perfect for a football game. It got a little dicey there for a few minutes, but we pulled it off — 17-10.
After a busy week of shopping, cleaning and packing, Phillip was ready to start his mission. Sunday November 11th in sacrament meeting he gave a great talk on sacrifice and was very personal and sincere. It was great to hear his heartfelt testimony. A lot of family and friends came to support us and we had a nice get-together afterwards.
Tuesday night the 13th the Stake Presidency came over to our home to set Phillip apart. Alan's parents also came and we had a really touching hour or so where everyone got to say something if they wished to — sharing testimonies and feelings with each other. President Pugh gave Phillip a wonderful blessing and the Spirit was so strong in our home. What a great experience for our family.
Wednesday around noon, we took Phillip down to the MTC in Provo. It was extra fun this time because my Uncle Mark Breinholt and his wife Susan are serving in the MTC mission presidency and he was conducting several of the orientation meetings. They were watching for us and we got to take a couple of pictures together before going into the meeting. It was fun to have him conducting and special for us knowing that they would be there daily to "keep an eye" on Phillip.
Of course it was difficult to say goodbye, but also just so exciting that the day had finally arrived! He left smiling and we heard in his letter later that right after we said goodbye that it had been basically impossible for him to feel sad. The Spirit is so strong at the MTC — I wanted to stay and be a missionary, too.
Uncle Mark and Aunt Susan took us to his office afterwards to show us where he works and that really helped to redirect our focus and keep us from feeling too sad. It was so impressive again to see how organized and how kind everyone is at the MTC and how much love they feel for your son that they don't even know yet. It's a marvelous place and he is having a great experience so far.
How did you spend your Thanksgiving morning? Our family spent it playing dodge ball at the church with several other families from the ward. It's a great way to work up an appetite! Then we headed over to Alan's parents' home since it was their turn this year to have us for dinner. We took pies that we had made the day before and then Tess and I made rolls over there. They did the rest of the dinner, so it was quite a relaxing day for me. We played some games, tied a fleece blanket, took pictures for Phillip and Loren and took some dinner and the fleece blanket over to Shirley at the nursing home.
We missed having the boys with us, but a couple weeks earlier we had prepared an early Thanksgiving Sunday dinner to have with Phillip before he left. We did hear though, that Thanksgiving at the MTC was a wonderful day. Elder and Sister Holland came and spoke to all the missionaries in the morning, then they had a wonderful dinner and then they did a huge Humanitarian project where they assembled 10,000 first aid kits with 30 items in each kit! I know they had a devotional that night and that they turned on all the Christmas lights. Phillip said that it was the most spiritual day of his life — wow.
Elder Loren Brown and Tess
Loren is doing great in Texas. Apparently it has actually gotten a little bit cold there recently! He is really enjoying his companion Elder Bugg and they have found some wonderful investigators and are enjoying some baptisms. He is already talking about how hard it will be for him to leave the people to come home at the beginning of March. He is really loving the work.
Tess our BYU co-ed is doing great. Of course she came home for a lot of the Phillip mission stuff, and then again for Thanksgiving. What a blessing to have her so close by! She is getting the hang of being an RA (resident assistant) in one of the dorms on campus, and is now working up to facing another round of finals. We will be excited to have her home for Christmas — 3 kids just doesn't seem like enough!