We had the setting apart on Tuesday, June 11th, the night before Eric left for the MTC. The stake presidency came to our home, along with the Bishop and the grandparents. It was such an amazing experience. The minute that Eric sat down, he turned to me and said, "I know Grandma Jones is here." I immediately agreed. It was very tender and sweet. I really missed her, but could feel that she was still a part of this experience.
President Bigelow (our stake president) talked to us for a minute and told us that we are witnessing something really amazing in the church right now with regard to missionary work. There has been so many young men and women who have wanted to serve and each week, there are roughly 900 new missionaries entering the MTC (and that's just in Provo). It's quite a historical event that so many missionaries are heeding the call to serve. I'm so grateful Eric is a part of that right now...
The blessing he received from the stake president was awesome and very comforting. After the blessing, President Bigelow asked Eric to bear his testimony. That was amazing! He was so excited to begin his journey. He was ready and willing to serve. I was even ready to let him go... (mostly)
Eric is pictured here with a friend's special tie from our ward. His name is Jake Cameron. He gave this to Eric to wear and called it his "lucky tie." He even wrote a special message on the inside. It was so sweet! We LOVE the Cameron family!!
In the morning, Eric got up bright and early, got dressed in missionary attire and began his first day as a missionary. He did not watch TV, he did not text on his phone, he did not play video games, he did not listen to his ipod...it was awesome!
He even wrote a few thank you notes...Yippee! (I love how you can see Eric's CTR ring in this picture. It's got the notes to the song, Choose the Right, engraved on it)
Here is a picture of Eric's luggage! Sheryl Cameron (who we love and adore) made those little smiley faces. She crochets them for all of the missionaries in our ward. They are what sets his luggage apart from all the other missionaries, so he can always recognize them right away. But guess what? Sheryl didn't even know that I LOVE yellow smilies! I couldn't have picked those out better myself! Ironic, eh? :)
The morning before entering the MTC...still wearing his lucky tie!
These pictures were taken right before we loaded up the family to go to Provo to drop Eric off...
"Thumbs Up!" It's kind of an Eric Jones trademark...
Loading up the car...
On the curb at the MTC. I've gotta say that dropping Eric off was so amazing. It was so organized. There were hundreds and hundreds of missionaries lined along the curb...some of them were greeting the new missionaries, some of them WERE new missionaries. The feeling in the air was electric! You could feel the faith of every person and it was so overwhelming and humbling.
What an awesome sight!
See ya later, Elder Jones! We love you and will miss you! But you are in the right place! Good luck and we'll see ya in a couple of years! (ahh)...
I only cried a little bit on the way home. I'm so brave. :)
1 comment:
so, so, sooooo great! He is really so handsome.
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