Sam's Farewell

I forgot to note yesterday that my family and I took a small road trip up to my old hometown of Richmond to attend my cousin's Missionary Farewell.

I have been in and out of sickness that last couple of weeks and unfortunately I woke up Sunday morning feeling really clogged up and sick. I barely went to my Church meetings before coming home to medicate and rest up before we all headed out to go up to Richmond. Luckily, I felt a little better on the drive up and was feeling the effects of the medication by the time I went and picked my mom up.

It was strange walking into that old church building. This is the same church building that I gave my own Missionary Farewell and Homecoming talks in. What was sad is that I hardly recognized anyone from the old neighborhood. But I still felt a little like I was home again. We sat with mom at the back of the church and waited for the meeting to start.

I will say this, and it has nothing to do with church, Sam or anything like that, but I love watching kids and their parents. Back in the day, before I had kids, I might have been annoyed a couple of times with kids and how they act. Now that I have a kid myself, I am a lot more sympathetic to those that have kids. And now I am not nearly as annoyed by kids. I could tell that the mom that was sitting in front of me was having a devil of a time trying to keep her kids quiet and behaved. I appreciate that she was trying to control her kids but they were not bugging me at all. Actually, I was a bit entertained by them.

Sorry for the brief detour. Sam gave an excellent talk and shared some great scriptures. It made me reflect on my own mission farewell and how inadequate and how unprepared I was. The only similarity with Sam and I was how enthused we were about going on a mission. He was already above and beyond me. Kids these days are certainly more prepared, there is no fence sitting here. They are either for it or they are against it. It was great to hear his testimony. The people of Germany are going to be very lucky to have Elder Anhder serve them.

Deep down I am a bit jealous of Sam. He is going to the place I wanted to go and he gets to live a different life. One away from the worries of the world. Now don't get me wrong, I loved my mission and I have no regrets. I am proud that I was sent to New York and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I had a great time seeing my extended family at the little get-together after. My uncle Kurt and his family have been a great support to me. I remember that Aunt Lisa would send me Christmas packages while I was serving in New York. Kurt would pay me and my friends very well for odd jobs, he would also escort me to the Temple and was a special witness when I got married. I feel a little bad that I am not closer to my cousins since they are so much younger than I am but I am glad that they are my cousins. And I will support them in all that they do. It was good to see my uncle Mark and his family and I look forward to seeing them at the end of next week for Kelli's wedding. I am blessed with a great extended family on all sides.

I look forward to hearing Sam's experiences and I am happy that my family and I can share in it. I appreciate the Anhder family for inviting us to spend some special time with them.