Dylan Shaw has been called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Antananarivo, Magadascar. He reports on April 6, 2011 to the Provo UT MTC.
Follow along as Dylan and his family shares their experiences and feelings while he is in the service of the Lord.
My Missionary Commission
MY MISSIONARY COMMISSION
I am Called of God. My authority is above that of the kings of the earth. By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my Master and he has chosen me to represent him. To stand in his place, to say and do what he himself would say and do if he personally were ministering to the very people to whom he has sent me. My voice is his voice, and my acts are his acts; my words are his words, and my doctrine is his doctrine. My commission is to do what he wants done. To say what he wants said. To be a living modern witness in word and deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous latter-day work. -Elder Bruce R McConkie
If any of you have received any letters or great stories from Dylan and would like to share it, we'd love to have it and post it here. When Dylan is done we are going to make this blog into a book for him. So any contributions are welcome. Just email them to dawn@thurlowonline.com
Feel free to make comments as they are automatically emailed to Dylan. He would love to hear from you. Even if it is a small comment.
Dylan's Photo Album- check back on Mondays when he (hopefully) uploads more each week.
So today, went to Tucson to see and say goodbye to Dylan's grandparents and friends. It was a good day. I am surprised though no tears from Grandma nor from Dylan. After this trip Dylan has some thank you letters to write. This was also Dylan's last time for Dylan to make this drive. As in Madagascar he doesn't get to drive cars, its an all walking mission. Lets home he remembers how to drive when he gets back.
So today we had a few last minute things to do...like get a flu shot- even though the pharmasist said there was no point as by the time the medicine does its thing the cold season will be over, I told him that he was going to like in a dorm with 3 other guys and in a building with 3000 and he said...uh ya..you should get it especially living in those close quarters. So another shot in the arm for Dylan..I think he is up to 5 shots.
We then headed to go get a 2nd pair of glasses for him. That turned out to be fun as we ended up buying 2 for $99 and Eye Masters. Great sale. Now mom doesn't have to worry if Dylan breaks his only pair of glasses.
Then we headed to Walmart to do some research and ended up finding his travel pouch, toiletry kit, shoelaces, transformer and adaptor, and even some sexy body spray...too bad he can't take it with him.
We also mailed his police letter, purchased him some stamps, and picked up our awesome family pictures!
So today was Dylan's farewell talk. His topic was the Restoration of the Church. It was a good talk. He had many friends and family show up. They even opened the back overflow doors..that is a good turnout my friend. Again I am so thankful for all the friends he has and all the support he gets from them. He also had family drive up from Tucson which was great. We took some photos afterwards while he talked with all his friends. We didn't have an open house, so our afternoon wasn't stressed, but we are having a Madagascar night on thursday at 7:00 p.m. After church we watched "The Best Two Years" movie. Twice. It was great. I hope Dylan has a great mission and truly cherishes every moment. It is going to fly by so fast. He also had his exit missionary interview and he will be set apart as a missionary on saturday morning. Sweet!
Today was suppose to be mom's cleaning and moving out day part 2. Instead it turned out to be...mom, will you help me write my talk because I procrastinated the last 3 weeks? Please...
Well Dylan did write most of his talk and he actually started packing today. That was very kind of him to do his own packing. He also hung out with buddies again. I told him Wednesday was his bachelor party as nomore after that. Boy is going to bleed me dry on gonig out. I am super glad he has great friends.
So today was the start of cleaning up the house because there is so much to do next week I don't want to be cleaning...i'd rather be maintaining my home. Needless to say it took me till 3 to start cleaing the home. It was Dylan's job to move out of his current room (which is actually the baby's room) into the toy room. Needless to say Dylan wasn't too happy about it so instead he decides to go fishing for a couple of hours instead of cleaning. Well he was definitely more successful at the fishing more than i was at housecleaning. Looks like he had a good time and he caught a pretty big fish. Glad he had a good time as he keeps telling me that this is his last time to do ____________(you fill in the blank).
So one of the items that you are asked to bring to the MTC is your four generation pedigree chart and a couple of stories about your ancestors . It's interesting the things you find out about when doing your genealogy. For Dylan there are a few exciting and sad things. Sad for instance is not knowing who is great grandfather is. A one night stand is not good for anyone. Enough said on that subject. The other is a story of his many great great grandmothers who was on the pioneer trail to Salt Lake City, when this particular grandmother just dissappeared-so the family thought- until further investigation lead to three eye witness accounts say they saw a women walking the other way- Leading to the belief that this mother just up and left her small family of tiny children to defend for themselves on the pioneer trail cause she couldn't hack it. One would hope the beginning of the story is right story- that she just dissappeared as many people did on the trial west.
One the other side it was exciting to find out that we are related to Emma Hale-wife of Joseph Smith Jr, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Bringham Young, Heber C Kimball. There was some very interesting stories that come from our family history.
So today we had a few more errands to run, like getting white pants, and picking up Dylans police letter (thankfully no altercations with the police), and then we needed to find a shirt for family pictures for Dayna, what a breeze today. At 1 we went to Brandt Photography and had professional photos of Dylan taken. Very nice. They took so many as it was painful to have to cut out so many. But Dylan did great and we have our proofs and now we just need to pick the ones we want. Then after Dylans picture we went home and got ready for family pictures done by Tami Webb. It was as painful as a root canal. I can't believe how hard it is to get a good family picture with only 10 people. That shouldn't be too hard...well when you have a 2 yr old and an 18month old it is hard. Tami said she got some good pictures, lets hope so. Today ended with Dylan hanging out with his buddies...let's hope his talk is coming along.
So today is day 3 of the shopping spree. Dylan was not too happy today. We had to go look for sweater vest #2, get Dylan's police report, and make a few more stops. We have just about it all. We are still in need of a camera, 2 sweatshirts, shoelaces and a few other items that we know we can get at, again Walmart.
We also checked the airlines again and they were offering a spring special so we booked our tickets to Salt Lake. We are heading out Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and get there at 3:00. This should be fun as Dylan has never been on an airplane.
So today we went shopping at Walmart to get all the non clothing items. I typed out the shopping list and it was 2 full columns on 1 page. Richard about had a heartattack because he never really read the list before. So we headed to WAlmart and let Dylan do the shopping and it was too funny. Its amazing what your kids do and don't know about shopping. Well in the end we all played the price is right and see who guess the closest prices off all the items we got. Well Richard guessed $700, Dylan guessed 500 and I guess $425. Well winner is....the MOM...of course. Total bill came to $438. Alot of stuff for 2 years! and in Richards words...How is he going to pack all that stuff into 2 bags.....I say Miracles do happen!
So this is THEEEE week. We have be waiting for our money to come in so we can purchase all Dylans needs. The plan was to shop for clothes on monday and on tuesday shop for the non clothes items. Well, we went to the mall for 3 hours and ended up buying 1 tie. Oh my lanta this is going totake forever. I wish I had a video camera of Dylan shopping. It was too funny. He just couldn't make up his mind. He knew what he didn't like but that was about it. Well after hitting up all the stores in the mall we finally hit up Burlington Coat factory and found a raincoat...(yes they do sell raincoats here in Arizona but apparently on during the rainy seasons) and we got a belt and some ties and a shirt.. Woo hoo we are on a roll. We then headed home to switch out the babysitters and then out again we went. This time to DSW at the Chandler Mallfor some shoes. Good prices good selection. We got him 2 pairs. Then we headed to Fiesta Mall to Dillards outlet. The other hard thing to find in Arizona apparently is a long sleeve v-neck sweater. We found one at Deseret Industries, but man we hit up laike 7 stores and couldn't find anything finally my brother in law suggested Dillards oulet. Great Store, found 4 racks of v-neck long sleeve, solid sweaters. Hallelujah! Then on to backpacks. Another hard thing probably because of the type he needed to have. You'd think a backpack would be an easy find. Again...one of the three hardest things to find. Anyways we came home with almost all his shopping done!!! Picture coming soon!
So the other day our tax refund came in, which is what we were using to pay to purchase all of Dylan's mission stuff. Well it came in and we were planning to go shopping on Monday, when the kids were in school. Well while looking at the ads we saw that JCPenney's had a sale going on from 9 am-1 p.m with extra discounts. Well we jumped on it and headed to the mall. Found some good stuff, then went and got Dylan(he was at his cousins house), and made him come down and help pick out some clothes. We got quite a bit of stuff, well we get to the check out and find out that the sale was at the other location. All that rushing for nothing. But we did take advantage of a great sale that was going on. He got to check off his list his:
Suit (How handsome is he going to look in this)
1 long sleeve shirt
4 dress pants
9 socks
2 pairs of shorts
2 ties
and we even picked up some shirts for our family photo. Way cool. Way good savings.
So some of the appointments are starting to be made. Today we made Dylan's appointment to have his professional Missionary Photos taken. We also made an appointment to have our family pictures taken. unfortunately I found out that Dayna has to work that day, so I got to call again and reschedule. It is going to be fun to take family pictures..with 10 of us...seriously..no really, it should be fun. Last family pictures with just all of the kids. (i know that there will be more but there could be more people...like a new son-in-law or a new daughter in law.) one never knows...and one can hope right. Here are some of the past fun times while taking family photos.
So tonight, for family Home Evening we played a game where every took a turn pulling an alphabet letter from a box and saying something about dylan that begins with that letter.
Dylan got to be in attendance with a friend of is, who was going to the temple for the first time. It sure makes you feel a little bit grown up when your friends are all going to the temple. Especially for the first time. This friend of his, is also going to Madagascar on his mission, he reports April 27th. How exciting. Its not too often you get to go to the temple with your friends before your mission. I am very thankful that Dylan enjoys attending the temple, and takes joy in the service that he gives.
Thanks to Dylan's dad in Tucson, Dylan has 2 supercool suit cases. I guess you can't really pack without a suit case can you. Good thing they got wheels. I dont' know if I could pack for two years in two suitcases and be able to carry it. Dylan will become an expert packer when he comes back. So great, I say that he won't even want to unpack when he comes home. He'll just move right on out and in to an apartment....with a wife...within a few months...... (a mother can hope can't she)
Dylan, being the oldest child of the family has this insane thinking that he should get his own room. I don't know where he ever got this idea. Just kidding. Dylan actually has shared with his younger brothers and as he got older he did have his own room. Well this past fall we gave Dylan the option of sharing the large master bedroom with his brothers or having the teeny tinny baby room. Well you guessed it. He took the teeny tinny room. So when it comes time to cleaning he is the one who gets to honor of cleaning it. Lately, he has been doing good and keeping it semi cleaned. But the days are slowly dissappearing and so will he room. One he leaves it will revert to Taytes room (hence the jeep on the walls). Good luck packing all your stuff while in this room. :) We just wanted to be able to put up a before the packing and after the packing pic.
So Dylan received a letter from the MTC today. Quite exciting as you don't think you'll really get any communications from them. But he received a letter telling him to get a flu shot. To watch a few training videos before he goes, and to remind us that only one car is allowed at the MTC and that we need to say our goodbyes beforehand and that there is little time to take pictures. One of my fav videos of a curbside drop off.
One would think that it would be such a big hassle to plan some fun activites in between General Conference and reporting to the MTC. Well it wouldn't be if Dylan wasn't being set apart before we leave. But with trying to stay within the Missionary rules. So here is the plan. we are driving to Salt Lake City, then to Afternoon session of General Conference. Monday we are going to the Salt Lake Temple, Red Butte Gardens and then to the Clark Planetarium. Then top it off with dinner at The Roof and a carriage ride around the city. So Sweet! Then we are going to the Mt Timpanogas Temple and then to Thanksgiving Point. Wednesday we are going on a sunrise hike then a session in the Provo Temple, do pictures at the MTC, then to lunch then back to drop Dylan off at the MTC. It's coming so soon.
So Malagasy isn't a language you hear everyday. In fact when Dylan and I first listened to videos we were like- no way. But Dylan found some software that helps teach his the language, so he has a feel for it before he is immersed in it. Dylan made some flash cards to help him memorize some phrases. The language is very basic but it takes a lot of letters to make one word.
So tonight a member of the ward, wanted to get something for Dylan's mission. So he came by and took Dylan out shopping. Dylan had a very fun time and came back with 6 of the 9 white shirts he needs and some dress socks. When Dylan came in with two shopping bags I was, like WOW! thinking I can't believe they spent that much on you and with less than a month to go we have so much to do and we are running out of time. It was another WOW! moment to remind me that this is really happening and also that we have a great ward family. It is just going to snowball from here on out! Thanks and love goes out to this wonderful family that bought Dylan his white shirts!
So we just finished checking the MTC website and it is official Dylan's time to ahem... "dump and roll" (the term now being used for the new curbside dropoff) is at 1:15 p.m. on April 6th. He also will be having his Missionary Farewell Talk on March 27th at 8:30 a.m.
