LEAVING DAY FINALLY ARRIVED . . .

August 2, 2017 (written by Mom)

After a fun-filled summer and many mission shopping trips, the day finally arrived. With much hesitation, anticipation, and excitement, we all piled in the van early Wednesday morning and headed for the Provo MTC.

Many friends and neighbors came out to see Conner off, waving and sending well wishes as we pulled out of the drive. That meant so much. People are so kind. 

We arrived in Provo about 11:30 and headed to Red Robin for "the Last Supper" . . . Conner's choosing, of course. We sat right behind another family who was doing the same as us, only they were dropping off a daughter. Moods were good with lots of smiles and excitement. 

After lunch, we headed up to the MTC where we stopped on the temple grounds for a few minutes to take some pictures and say our goodbyes. Needless to say, this part was tough. The realization that he was leaving and this was it hit us all really hard. Thankfully, we only had about 10-15 minutes there for we couldn't have handled any more time to hug and cry. 

We drove across the street into the MTC underground parking garage where we were lined up behind several cars and a cute young Elder came over to welcome us and Conner. This was it! We unloaded the luggage. Everyone got out again because we had a few more minutes than we thought we'd have. We couldn't go anywhere until the cars in front of us left. We took some more pictures, hugged some more, cried some more and finally it was time to go. As he began to walk away, a piece of our hearts were torn out and went with him. It was the hardest thing any of us have had to do. Natalie was vocally yelling, "NO! Don't Go!", which only made us cry harder. We quickly got in the van and drove away, and as we circled around the garage and out, Ira gave an "ELMER" holler out the window. Somehow, we drove out of there. I'm not sure how. None of us could see through our tears. It was such a range of emotions but mostly just heart-wrenching. 

Conner was so excited and ready to serve. That is the only thing that got us through. Within about an hour, we had all calmed down to just mild whimpering. What a blessing it was to receive this short message via email from him.

"I'm alive. Everything is good. I heard p-day is tuesday? Not sure though. I met my companion, got my name tag, went to hmong class. Holy cow, its gonna be hard. Oh well though, I'm gonna do this. Love you guys. drive safe"

I don't know how many times you can read and reread 3 short lines, but we did about 15 or 20. It was THE BEST! Before leaving Provo, we all wrote him a letter and I had already made a box of goodies and stuff to put in the mail that day. We added our letters and stopped by the post office to mail it. He received it the next day, which made all of hearts feel a little better. 

Even though it was such a hard thing to say goodbye, we are so grateful for his willingness to serve. He is a great example to all of us, and we are anxious to watch his journey unfold, as well as ours. As parent's, we prepare them for this day their whole life, and he was ready! (Maybe we should've prepared ourselves a little better. haha!) Day 1 is in the books!!!