Guest Post: Mom
Elder Hurst asked his dad and me to pick him up from his mission. He wanted to introduce us to South Texas and to the members and investigators and elders who made such a big impact on his life. What an incredible privilege it was to meet these amazing people who played such an important part in Jeffrey's life for the past two years.
We should probably start with the Sunday before we picked Jeffrey up. Kevin, Cammie and I had the opportunity to go to President and Sister Maluenda's homecoming talk. It was fun to hear from them and hear their feelings about our boy. President Maluenda mentioned that Jeffrey has a sensitive soul. He got that right.
To say Kevin and I were excited to see our boys is quite an understatement. You can know it's the right thing to send your child on a mission and you can know it's for their best and that they will have amazing growth, and you can know it's going to bless their lives forever, but that doesn't change the fact that you miss your child VERY MUCH while their gone.
We had an opportunity to spend a few minutes meeting the office missionaries who worked with Jeffrey and to meet his new mission president Jose Torres. Even though this great man only was Jeffrey's mission president for a couple of weeks they bonded quickly and he made a huge impact on Jeffrey.
It was also fun to make the connection that because he's from Honduras he met our dentist and worked and traveled with him to our favorite dive location Roatan.
The first place we headed while we were in McAllen was to a boot store to buy this honorary Texan some legit cowboy boots. Then we headed to buy him a new suit. He was pretty much over the one he's worn for the past two years and wanted to look snazzy for his homecoming talk in his new boots.
As we drove to the Victoria family's house we passed the church and Jeffrey got to see the progress on the new church that was just started when he left Hidalgo a few months ago.
Next we headed to Hidalgo the second to last area Jeffrey served and had the opportunity to meet Carlos Victoria at the mall (he was working) and then go to his family's place and meet the wonderful Victoria family. This amazing family was such a great support to Jeffrey while he served in Hidalgo and it was such a privilege to meet them.
Next we stopped by and met Muy. The rest of his family wasn't there, but we had a quick visit with him. Jeffrey offered to let he and another young lady from the ward stay with us for a night next month before the go into the MTC in Provo. They are both going to Fresno, CA.
These cute Victoria daughters tracked us down in their car after we left so the daughter (Jenny) on the right could say good-bye to Elder Hurst.
Next we stopped by the Elder's apartment and Jeffrey got to say goodbye to Elder Knutti who he lived with for several months.
Next we headed a bit further south to Brownsville, Jeffrey's first area. We went to dinner with Robert Perez who actually met Jeffrey in his second area San Benito, but has since moved to Brownsville. He took us to authentic Mexican food and it was AMAZING. We thought it was funny that T-mobile thought we were IN MEXICO we were so close to the border.
After dinner we hopped a few miles West and visited San Benito, Jeffrey's second area. Here we met the wonderful Saldivar family. They took great care of Jeffrey when he served in their area and it was wonderful to hear him communicate in Spanish so well. We actually went back the next morning before heading to Corpus Christi so Jeffrey could see the dad and 2 older boys. Sweet sister Saldivar got up at 5:00 am to make Jeffrey some fresh tortillas because she knew how much he loves them.
Next we stopped by some investigators, Jessica and Nelson. Jeffrey and Elder Moss had been teaching them, but even though they have 5 kids they needed to get married before they could be baptized. They are getting married in a few days so hopefully they can continue to progress.
Next we headed to Whataburger. I heard a lot about Whataburger while Jeffrey served in Texas. We were able to buy lunch for wonderful Jennifer Oliva and her son and several of the missionaries in the Corpus Christi area. I loved getting to know these great people that Jeffrey loves so well.
Elders Moss, Hurst, McFall, Monnett and Penman
Finally before we left Corpus Christi we stopped by Kia's house. Several weeks before, Jeffrey was on splits with the Elder's quorum president. After a great lesson with a less active family they had some time and the spirit told Jeffrey to go by another less active's house. They had tried and tried, but hadn't ever caught him home. When he wasn't home again, he wondered why the spirit had directed him there. He asked the Elder's quorum president if he knew anyone in the area and he said, "yea, my sister." Jeffrey asked if they could pass by and he said yes. Her name is Kia, a single mother of 3 little boys. They started teaching her and she loved the lessons. She came to church for the first time the Sunday before Jeffrey left. When we stopped by she gave him the great news that she is getting baptized on July 24. He was so happy. What a way to end his mission.
We passed fields of cotton on our drive from Corpus Christi to Laredo.
Once we arrived in Laredo we met up with Ashley Hill. She is a convert of 4 years who worked often with Jeffrey in the YSA ward in Casa Blanca. We had MORE yummy food and then headed to Sister Dominguez' house for MORE yummy food and a great visit with Veronica Dominguez who treated Jeffrey like her own son. He's even got his picture on her wall. Not all missionaries have that privilege. While there the Gutmans, who also took great care of Jeffrey in Laredo while he served in the Del Norte area, came to visit. It was so wonderful to meet these great people and see their love for Jeffrey and his love for them.
Jeffrey with his mammas.
Before heading to the hotel, we made a stop at the Lavulavu's home. This great family serves the Laredo area with great family. President Lavulavu serves as the branch president. We were only going to stop by for a quick visit, but it turned into an hour and a half. They caught up on branch news and the Lavulavus shared what a great missionary Jeffrey was. We left we new friends that we will love forever. What a great family.
The next morning, before heading to the airport, we had the opportunity to meet the Acereto family. Sister Acereto made wonderful food for us and we had a fantastic visit with them. Their love for Jeffrey and by association, us was a tangible thing. How grateful I am to Jeffrey for inviting me and Kevin to share this great experience with him.
No wonderful experience can be without it's downside, and the airport was ours. Our flight to Laredo was delayed for mechanical problems. Because of this we were going to miss our scheduled flight in Dallas so the ticket lady rebooked us. Little did we know that if we HADN'T rebooked we would have made our original flight because it was also delayed. We could have walked right from one plane to the next, but we had lost our seats when we rebooked in Laredo. After spending about an hour in the rebooking line, we managed to get a flight on the 10:00pm flight. We spent 3+ hours hanging out in the Dallas airport and then were able to board our plane to head to SLC. Many of the family that were planning to meet us at 6:45 were planning to meet us at midnight. But that didn't last when we had to deplane because there was a leak on the 10:00 plane. We had to wait for another plane to come and we finally were able to head home about midnight.
We didn't expect anyone to be at the airport to welcome us home, but Jeffrey's sisters couldn't wait any longer to see their brother. Aunt Janice was kind enough to stay with James while he slept and Taylor, McKayla and Morgan came to welcome Jeffrey home at almost 2:00am.
A wonderful blessing came from our plane troubles. Jeffrey really wanted to go to the temple before he was released as a missionary, but President Osguthorpe said he was instructed to release missionaries as soon as possible after they return home. He was planning to come to our home at 9:00pm Friday and release Jeffrey, but because our flight was delayed we thought he would be release Saturday morning, but President Osguthorpe had plans to take his daughters fishing and fortunately he is a great dad and said he wouldn't be able to release Jeffrey at 12:00 noon. Even though we hadn't had much sleep we got up and went to the temple Saturday morning so Jeffrey could have his last prayer as a missionary in the Celestial room. What a tender mercy for Jeffrey. What a way to end his mission.
No comments:
Post a Comment