OVERDUE (11/26/10)

Okay. This envelope is really coming today. It better come today. After the pain and agony of no mail yesterday...it really has to be here. Well, we set up the camcorder to again stalk the mailman, and then just waited. It wasn't long before Dylan and I were talking about the mailman and Kenneth was like the Mailman is here. No. what! we didn't hear the mailman. so we run to the window and sure enough he is there. We watch, holding our breath to see if he has that most desired envelope in his hands....wait for it...HE DOES!!!! You can't miss that one. (unfortunately, in the video you can) So I tell Dylan, lets go...and the action begins. check out the video if you want a first hand experience and expression on Dylans face. It was priceless. The excited and pulse pounding rush....Here it is. The call to serve a Mission as a representative of the Lord for the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. Years of singing the song I hope they call me on a mission has paid off. Where does he go, when does he leave, what language is he learning....Well I can tell you one thing...I cheated...he's going foreign...the postage is $1.73. And a sidebar. as i was checking out the postage I noticed that the packet was mailed November 23, not the 19th as the computer says. So again, just cause the doc says the baby has a due date, they can also be overdue.

Wait a minute Mr. Postman (12/28/10)

So I put my mind to it today and actually got to the postoffice. This is so going to be a struggle for me when Dylan leaves. I can NEVER get to the post office.

So today, we went to Walgreens and got Dylans 15 passport pics. Cut them up and sent them to the Mission President in Madagascar. NOTE TO EVERYONE. To send a letter to Madagascar it is .98 cents. not .44 cents! Good thing I asked the postman.

Went to the bank and deposited Dylan's insurance check to pay for his speeding ticket. Mailed off the speeding ticket. Hopefully I filled that out correctly. Enjoy the money county of Juab!

Mailed of Dylan's passport and visa application to SLC. Sent it certified to make sure it got there. Would hate to have to pay for a replacement.

THE MISSION CALL (11/27/2010)

So the Stake President was right after all. Because of family working on thanksgiving we decided to have our Feast on Saturday. Dylan's best friend was out of town on a cruise this week and Dylan promised him that he would wait for him to come back. We'll Dylan about killed himself waiting the one day, i don't think he could have waited 2 days till Chase came back on Sunday. As it was,after we got the envelope in the mail, we hung it up on the wall above the map, everytime Dylan walked by it he keep looking at it and touching it. Well, Dayna in all her funness, decided to pull a prank on him. since we couldn't give him a fake mission call we decided to change out the envelope in case he broke down in the middle of the night and open it while we were all sleeping. So we took his envelope and hid it, we replaced it with an almost exact duplicate except there was a big blue stripe on the front of the envelope, so we turned it around. A couple of hours later Dylan gave in. took the envelope off the wall and started to open it. He then resisted and put the envelope back down. Not even noticing that it wasn't the real deal, I hurried and put it back on the wall. Well Saturday came, and he couldn't wait till Sunday so he send out the word...HIGH NOON...he was going to open his call. Good thing we were having Thanksgiving at our house, I was able to clean it, and thanks to my wonderful sister Allison, who cleaned all my windows and my floor in the entry. So people started showing up at noon, we ended up waiting till 12:20, as we were trying to get the computer video up, and people on all the cell phones. It was hectic but great! Finally everyone is here and he starts to open "the call" and then he turns it over and is like...what, this isn't it. Where is my real call. It was so funny. Watch the video if you want to see if live. Anyways he thanks everyone for coming and opens it, and is looking, and starts laughing inside his head, and grandma is like..what..i can't hear you! Then he begins to real it...you are called to service in the ANTANANARIVO, MADAGASCAR mission! NO!!!!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS????? That is like winning the lottery ticket. No one in our family gets to go to such a cool place. (Go King Julian) Wow. We were all flabergasted. Wow. Watch the video. It was great. He leaves April 6, 2011. 6 days after his sister turns 18 and right after General Conference. Guess where we are going next year? You got it. General Conference. What an exciting thing to happen. That is only 4 months away. So much to do so little time. Madagascar! Wow.

Saturday Night Adult Meeting (11/13/2010)

This meeting was most awesome. I had to add that. But this post is about Dylan of course. So by now we are thinking that the Stake President had submitted Dylan's papers as Dylan did his part therefor we thought the President did his. So after Stake Conference we are walking out and we meet up with a member of our ward who is a High Councilor and he asked us about Dylan and ordaining him to an elder, and he told us to catch the Bishop and make sure everything was good. And I am like great, oh look, the bishop is right behind you. Too cool. Bishop hits me up and he says, sis thurlow, why don't you go and tell the stake president that the momma bear is wanting to know about the cubs papers. IE...the stake president hasn't turned them in. See the bishop can see on his computer where the mission papers are. i.e. they are in the boys hand, in the bishops hands, or at the stake presidents, in salt lake, or in the mail and on their way back. Well apparently they were still in the hands of the Stake President. Now i have to remember, that we can't rush things, we think we did our part, now all you have to do is to hit the submit button. Well the stake president has to recommend the boy too. and it took me awhile. In fact I am learning that lesson in my calling. We can't rush the counselors or Bishops to do things just because we want them to. All in good time.

Well, I hit up the Stake President after I talked to the Bishop, and the Stake President said he still hadn't turned them in but he promised that he would the next day. He said it would make for a great thanksgiving memory. I am like what. It won't be back that soon. The Stake President just smiled. Then as we are leaving the High councilman we talked to before was still at the door and he said, "if the stake president said he would do it tomorrow, then he will." I believed him. Now we wait.

Melchezidek Training (11/9/2010)

So tonight was Dylan's 1st training meeting. I didn't know they had training. He said it was all about what the priesthood means and what you can and should do with it. Very interesting Dylan said it was him and a pair of twin boys. President Gardner was teaching. Dylan liked President Gardner. I do to. He is really a very humbling man.

Deadline for Real(11/7/2010)

Dylan's deadline is here. Has to have the book read by today. Still in Ether. So the Stake President lets him slide as the Dentist apparently hasn't turned in Dylan's paperwork. He got 1 day reprieve. Lucky Dylan. So all day monday he is reading while I am at the Dentist. Well turns out I have a dentist appointment that day and the great dentist that we have actually let me delivery the exam papers to Bishop. I do, turns out Dylan didn't sign it. How can the boy sign the paper if the paper isn't filled out yet. DOn't get it but ok. Well turns out Dylan never sign the medical exam form either. So Dylan has to go to the bishops house and sign it. Then the bishop took the paperwork to the Stake President, but the Stake president does NOT go to the church building on Mondays. So we had to wait till Tuesday.

As of Monday Dylan still had a bit to read, so him and I sat down in his room and well, Dylan managed to get a head of me reading (because I got sick) and I started where he was and we finished together (reading silently of course). It was way fun. Very exciting. So Dylan called the stake president and told him he was done. I think the Stake President might be sick of Dylan now. I wonder if the old Stake President, who just left for a mission in July, would have gotten a kick out of Dylan and all his texting. This, I am sure, was a lesson for this Stake President. It was all very exciting. So although Dylan didn't technically meet his goal, he still accomplished it and actually got some exciting stuff out of it. I now know that Abinidai is his favorite hero. I still need to get through Alma, but I read everything before and after Alma. I think Captain Moroni is my favorite. A true warrior and if I might say American.

Halloween(10/31/2010)

So today was Dylan's deadline to read the book of Mormon, like he told the Bishop. We'll apparently it was a self imposed deadline and that he really didn't have to finish it until Nov 7th when he meet with the Stake President. So the heat is really on he now has 1 week to read the book of mormon. We'll apparently he started a little bit. I agreed to read with him. I never had cover to cover read the book of mormon, and since I was doing it anyways I might as well start over and do it with him. Well he wasn't doing it, so I started to read it myself from the beginning and I kept telling him where I was, and guess what he started reading. I have never realized what an awesome book this is. 2nd Nephi is so awesome!!!

Good Goals! (10/10/10)

So the past month has been very interesting. Almost like walking on eggshells. One doesn't want to push very much but when the decision has been made...well...lets go! So Dylan came home today and said, "moms here's the plan(thanks for including me, son)
A. read the book of mormon by October 31st.
B. Meet with the Stake Presidency on Nov 7th to submit mission papers and have Melcezidek Priesthood Interview
C. Nov 14th be receive the Melcezidek priesthood and be ordained to the office of an elder.

WOW!!!!

He sure has the ball and is running now. I was so excited to hear this. Dayna was just as surprised too.

Paper work, paper work and more paperwork (12/28/2010)

So today was little exciting. I actually got to do some stuff for Dylan.
*I got his visa paperwork ready and copied.
*His passport and pictures ready to mail and made copies.
*I put all his mission paperwork into sheet protectors and binders. (that is a major plus for me)
*Paid Dylan's really nice speeding ticket (now he doesn't have to fear having a warrant out for him).
*Made our todo list- so he isn't cranky when I have a list of things for him to do in the near future.
*I also filled out his little calendar of when we have to do things.
*I called church Headquarters to get his Line of Authority researched. *Called the temple and made his appointment to go to the Temple on January 8th at 5:30 p.m.
*I called the MTC travel office because they had his name wrong on his visa.
*Called back the MTC travel office to see if they wanted to me mail his visa and passport now or to wait till March 23rd when I get the letter from the police department. (i have now called the MTC 4 times)
*Had Richard fix his passport pictures and uploaded them to Walgreens (he needs to take 15 passport photos with him to Mada for visas. They only give out 90 days visa, so every 3 months the mission has to reapply for him).
*I also got to email and get an email in return from his Mission President assistant.

It has been a very productive day. Now tomorrow lets see if I can get to the mailbox and actually mail all this stuff.

FRIENDS, FRIENDS, FRIENDS (12/27/2010)

So you know the sayings, birds that flock together stay together...you know something like that. You know the other saying that friends influence friends...no that one doesn't work either. Well Dylan just found out that one of his good friends received his mission call to Paris and is reporting to the MTC on April 6th. The same day as Dylan. We also found out that a lady who use to be in our ward, her nephew is serving in the same mission that Dylan is and reports also on April 6th. Then there was this guy from Florida that found us and he also is serving in Madagascar and also reports on the same day as Dylan. Then there is Dylan's best friend Chase who is submitting his papers and also has a chance of being in the MTC at the same time. And then there is Zach who is in our ward and is 2 months younger than Dylan (we have been in this ward for 10 years the same as Zach) and he just needs to hit the submit button and he is ready to go. He also has the same chances as Chase to be in the MTC with Dylan, especially as Dylan will be in the MTC from April 6 to June 1st. This is so amazing to see all these guys who has grown up together, gone to school together are now serving together. I saw my brother do it and is still friends some 18 years later. Friends are amazing. is all I can say.