A missionary!

This has got to be the coolest, yet the strangest feeling ever. My son is going to be a missionary! I've known this day would come, but now it's here. Last Wednesday Taylor got his mission call. I know this isn't news, since you all know, but he is going to the Brazil Ribierao Preto mission on February 24, 2010.

We knew the call would come on Wednesday (the 21st). I checked the mailbox, no mail. Then I saw the mailman driving down the street, so I followed him. It wasn't our regular delivery man, and he had turned down a different street than I expected, so I asked if he would be going to our mailbox. He said yes, so I told him I'd go wait for him. He kind of chuckled and said if I had some ID he could give me our mail. So he handed me a couple of wimpy letters. My heart sank. I was probably whining when I said, is that all? I was expecting a big envelope. He looked in the "big envelope" pile, and there it was! He wanted to see if we had any other mail, but I didn't care at all about anything else.

I jumped in the car, looked at the letter, and started to cry. I knew that Taylor's life would be different now. He was going someplace to be a missionary, to teach the gospel, to find people who wanted to share in the glorious truths of what he could bring to them. It didn't even matter where he was going, but this was real.

The night before on my way home from work I kept thinking about all the places he could end up--Australia, Alabama. New Zealand, Nevada. Ireland, Illinois. Argentina, Arizona. The possibilities were truly endless (well, I guess there is a limit, but you get what I mean).

As I looked at that envelope, I just knew Heavenly Father had been thinking about my son and had great things in mind for him. I was gearing up for Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Two nights before I dreamed Taylor got the call to Florida, and I just shrugged and said, "Nah. That's not it. I just don't see him there." So I was trying really hard to be ready for Ft. Lauderdale and not sound disappointed when that was the place.

I drove downtown to pick up Corky so we could all be there together and find out where Taylor would be for the next two years. Brazil never entered my mind. But wow--this is so great. I know Taylor will be a wonderful missionary and be enthusiastic about serving the people of Brazil. Now if he can just figure out how Ribierao sounds like "Heberon." There are a couple of people in our ward who served in Brazil, and one right in Riberao Preto. He was pretty excited to share info with Taylor.

Today we received flight information and Visa information. I can't believe all the paperwork that's involved and the questions they want answered. I do have to say I'm pretty impressed by how organized the Church is--I guess they've got this down now. A good deal of the paperwork we received is already filled in with names and addresses and stuff like that. The instructions are very clear on what to do when. Of course, I'll still be able to mess it up. I'm good at that.

I am very proud of Taylor. He wants to go on his mission. He wants to be in Brazil. He is ready to go. He is the first of the group of boys in our ward to go, although there are four who should all be turning in their papers. I hope this will be a good example to the other boys. But I am proud of him and happy that he wants to be a missionary.

And yes, Uncle Lynn was the closest to guessing. He guessed another mission, but still in Brazil. So he's half right. I'm thinking of giving him half a cake for the prize. Hmmm.

The Annual Cub Scout Cake Auction

Every year our ward has a cake auction that funds our group for the next year. People try to get really creative, so this year I found a book (I'm not taking the credit for the creativity) that had some great ideas. So, we tried them! Check these out. . .

Old Swampy

You can even see part of the book behind Swampy--see, I'm not so creative as all this. . . but it does give me some ideas of where to go from here.

T.V. dinner turned out great! I did the chicken legs and Taylor did the rest. At first he wasn't very interested, but before I knew what he was doing, he had this part finished. It was a lot of fun. This isn't the best angle to see the chicken legs, but they did look like legs.

The pigs weren't as fun as the rest, but they were cute. Next year I'll make pigs, sheep and chicks, along with a barn. Yes, I saw that in a picture.

I love the corn on the cob! It was so fun to make. I was just laughing the whole time. As soon as I had three jelly beans in a row, it started to look like real corn. And of course I bought new corn holders--I promise I didn't use the rusty ones from my drawer. I love the pepper, too.

Simona made a beautiful butterfly and Jake made a dirt/worm cake. Naturally he had to bid on his worm cake--so I ended up paying $17 for his cake (that I already paid for) that we could have re-created for probably $3. Oh well. I can't even begin to say how much I spent on the "fixings" for these cakes, but I have quite a few leftovers. It was my first try and next time I'll know what to look for, but this was a lot of fun. People at the auction loved them, too, so that was cool. We all had fun making them.

I even made a batch of fudge, but it wasn't my best effort so I only took two small tins for the $5 table. I couldn't ask people to bid on imperfect fudge--or "wudge" as we call it at our house. Corky said he was going to call Grandma and tell her that I walked away from the stove while making candy. I know--that's the first rule--you never try to do too many things while making candy and you never leave the stove. How many cakes did I make? I didn't even mention the one that fell on the floor. Poor Jake. I have an old table where I was storing the cakes so they'd be out of the kitchen and out of the way. I warned the kids not to put any pressure on the leaf that was out, but he forgot. It was Corky's Favorite Lemon Bundt Cake. Oh well, we got pieces of it. And, I can make another one! And, not like we hadn't had our fill of cake. . .

I hope Emily took pictures of the butterfly and the worm cakes. Hey, I guess they kind of go together!

Wudge you ask? Well, Dante loves wudge. When he was little and I'd make fudge, he called it wudge. An "f" came out as a "w" for certain words. Wudge was one of them, and it stuck. He'd ask me all the time if I'd make him some wudge. He even got to help stir it. I pour the wudge out into tins--which by the way, keep the wudge nice and fresh if you remember to put the lid on--but a tin of wudge doesn't last long at my house. I like it when it's still hot, so I lick the spoon and rarely eat any more wudge, but everyone else likes it. Dante has even crossed out the word "fudge" on my recipe card and now it says: Grandma's Wudge.

Our Mission Guesses

Kyle is Sent to. . . By . . .

Argentina Salta--Dwynne
Norway Oslo--Taylor
Bulgaria Sofia--Stan
Italy Milan--Natalie
Japan Tokyo--Mike
Russia Saint Petersburg--Hayden
Singapore--Simona
Mexico Mexico City West--Lynn
Spain Madrid--Luan
Tahiti Papeete--Arlene
England Leeds--Margene
Fiji Suva--Dante
Uganda Kampala--Sally
British Columbia--Sharalee
Kentucky--Ron
Romania--Anna
Utah (West Valley City)--Jake
Brazil Sao Paolo South--Chad

Taylor is Sent to . . . By . . .
Alaska Anchorage--Mike
Argentina Resistencia, Rosario or Salta--Corky
Arizona Tempe--Dante
Greece Athens--Arlene
Philippines Quezon City--Hayden, Natalie
Brazil Salvador--Lynn
Ireland Dublin--Simona
Spain Madrid--Luan
Mozambique Maputo--Stan
Tonga Nukualofa--Dwynne
Texas Lubbock--Corky
New Zealand Auckland--Margene
Canada Winnepeg--Sally
Minnesota--Sharalee
Arizona--Ron
Michigan--Anna
Ireland--Jake
Czech Prauge--Chad

At our family reunion, we all made guesses on where Kyle and Taylor would end up on their missions. They were about the same as far as paperwork, so it will be fun to see where they go. I thought perhaps I'd pass this information along to the Missionary Committee and let them know these were our choices, so they could choose from this list. But I decided that might not go over very well. So we'll just have to rely on the spirit this time!

http://www.mission.net/cgi-bin/mission_index.cgi?action=show_all

If anyone else has a guess, check out this list for all the missions. It's pretty amazing to think that they could end up anywhere in the world, including places we've never even heard of, or they'll be next door as companions in Nevada.

Georgie Porgie

Thanks for the nice picture, Dwynne.

What a cute sailor.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Daddy. I love you and miss you so much.