A new Elder

My little brother Seth went into the Missionary Training Center yesterday. He's headed to Indiana at the end of December for a 2 year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are so proud of him.

Here he is with our sister Rachel, saying goodbye at the curb at the MTC (they no longer have families come inside and watch the video with their Elder then say goodbye. Swine flu and other concerns I think).

(It's a cell phone picture. They really aren't that pasty white.)

Seth flew in from Missouri on Tuesday night in the middle of a snowstorm here and a snowstorm there. I'm glad he made it safely. And I'm glad Rachel now lives here too so we could both send him off.

On Wednesday morning we hunted for a proper black nice winter coat for him. We also went to visit our little brother's grave in the Provo Cemetery. Enoch passed away 3 years ago but Seth and Rachel moved out of the state with the rest of the family and never saw the headstone. We searched for up to 40 minutes through the snow in the wrong area (my bad), and finally after some tears and prayers, we called our other brothers on the phone. They told us to go 50 feet to the right to the OTHER tree. And there it was!

I brushed it off with my car windshield brush and we were able to, despite our frozen toes, stay there for a little while. Seth won't be reading this because blogs and such are now off-limits to him as a missionary, but I hope he knows how much I deeply appreciate his care of Enoch over the years.

Phew. Getting misty again.

So, on to the rest of the day. After saying goodbye to Seth at noon, Rachel and I went to the Brick Oven for lunch. Benny was with us while Max was in pre-school, and boy was Benny glad I got the Brown Cow rootbeer float freeze.

Very yummy. And for the record I took the leftover chicken artichoke pizza home to JB and Max so they would have a treat too. JB loved it; Max not so much.