MTC drop-off an Great Grandpa's passing

Hey there Ty—

It was great (as always) to talk to you tonight. Being a missionary sounds so hard, but it also rewarding. You sounded very positive today, and I liked how you were looking for small miracles and things to be grateful for. I think that’s so important as you are training a new missionary. You can help shape his mission by what you teach him, and looking for the good is something you should practice your whole mission—not to mention life! I hope to hear more small miracles next week!

This was a tough week for me. Exhausting and emotional. But also a good week. I’m so proud of each of my boys. You are all doing exactly what you should be doing right now in your lives, and that’s so rewarding as a parent. This is what we’ve been up to:

Jett had football tryouts on Monday. He made the A team! Of course! They practiced every day in 95 degree heat. Jett told dad, “It feels good to hit someone again!”
My friend Stacey was in town from Arkansas and we went on a long walk Tuesday morning. It’s always good to catch up with old friends. She lived in Brazil with her husband and kids for a few years when they were young. Her son Austin just got called to serve in Brazil. After doing a few pre-MTC tutoring sessions, his tutor recommended he be put with native speakers and skip all the language training at the MTC. He was nervous, and the first few days were rough, but he received the gift of tongues and all that childhood practice came back to him! Before he left he ran a lawn-mowing business, and one of his clients gave him a generous tip for his mission. She looked up the cost of a Big Mac in Brazil and gave him enough money to have a Big Mac every week of his mission!
My Dad texted us late on Monday night to let us know he had visited Great Grandpa and that he was not doing well. I feel really lucky that we were able to see Grandpa at Blake’s farewell and have a good visit with him one last time. The week we were gone at Glacier his health declined quickly. He lost energy and was very sleepy most of the time. My Dad said that as his kidney function declined, his body was not able to flush out toxins and that resulted in confusion and less cognition. They were able to give him some medication to calm him and ease his pain, and he passed peacefully Tuesday morning. I would have liked to spend time at his bedside during those last couple of weeks, but I also feel good about having him my last memory of him be a happy one. He was such a good man and such a good grandpa to me. I’m so glad you were able to spend a little bit of time with him to get to know him.
Ethan and Blake went mountain biking Tuesday for one last time. But Ethan crashed, and unfortunately learned the hard way that he needs to wear gloves when he rides. I took him to the instacare to have his wounds cleaned out. His thumb was the worst—cut and swollen. He had a bunch of dirt shoved up under his fingernail, so he got to experience the joy of having a numbing shot to the nerve to deaden his finger while they cleaned it out. He was a champ and hardly winced through it all. Amazing. The x-ray tech said his thumb was not fractured, but the doctor said it looked like there might be a fracture on the growth plate. So he also had his thumb put in a splint and he WHINED about it until he finally took it off. The next day one of his eyes got irritated, red, and sensitive to light. We flushed it and put in eye drops, but it didn’t improve. So I took him to the eye doctor Friday and his eye was inflamed—-possibly from his contacts. So he has to use some steroid drops for a few days and take a break from wearing contacts. Tate keeps telling Ethan that he looks like a nerd with this glasses on! Ethan has also been waiting patiently for driving lessons all summer long. I let him drive me to Chevron on 200 N.to fill up the tank a few nights ago, but driving lessons with Dad began in earnest today. He’s pleased to report that he passed off the first 5 lessons in dad’s driving book!
The night we got home from Glacier I got hit by a stomach bug that took me out for an entire day. I had a lot to do to get unpacked and to get things cleaned and collected for Blake to pack for the MTC. Plus an unexpected trip to instacare and grief from my grandpa dying—I was overwhelmed and emotional! I took Blake out to visit Great Nana and then tried to come home and make a good home-cooked meal while he went to the gym one last time. We had visitors that night and I then I stayed up late ironing Blake’s shirts for the next day. I was spent!
But Wednesday was a really nice day. One of Blake’s leaders encouraged him to give me a blessing before he left so he could have some practice before being out in the mission field. So Dad gave him a very nice Father’s blessing, and then Blake gave me one. It was a sweet experience to receive a blessing from my son! Blake decided he wanted Hot Pot for his last meal, so we found a place in Provo to go to. It was a perfect recipe for food-borne illness, and it just about sent my anxiety over the edge of no return. They brought two large bowls of steaming broth to our table, and then we picked out items from the buffet line to cook in our broth. Tate touched EVERYTHING. He was piling raw chicken, meat, and seafood (oysters!) onto a plate with veggies. And then he dropped his cooking tongs into the broth. Burned his hand a time or two. Dropped an entire raw egg on the floor under his seat. I wanted the kids to understand that they couldn’t put their cooked food back onto the plate that had raw food in it before. Ugh. It was a whole stressful thing. But once we got hands cleaned and figured out the process, the food was very good! It would have been a more enjoyable experience if Michael had been there with us to explain the whole process for our first time! After lunch it was time to take Blake to the MTC. It was a quick drop off. They were invested in moving the line along quickly! We each gave Blake a hug, and he walked off with a smile. The rest of us had a good cry in the car!
While we were in Provo we drove past the Provo temple which is being reconstructed and looks completely different than the original. We drove up past Great Grandpa’s old house, but it looked much the same as the last time I saw it. We went home and had a little family time mini-golfing at Cherry Hill. I did not win, but I took second, and that’s a win for me! It’s going to be so strange getting used to having only 3 kids at home—-with the oldest just starting high school. It kind of feels like we are entering a new phase of parenthood again!
Blake’s p-day was Saturday and he was able to call home. He likes his companion, district, and teachers. He’s not thrilled about the food and the food lines. The gym is super crowded and he dying for a good workout.
I’m convinced Michael is having a richer Taiwan experience than every one of his classmates. He seems determined to explore every inch of that island. And he has been touched by the kindness and generosity of the people in Taiwan. Last night I checked Find Friends to see if Ethan was on his way home, and noticed that Michael’s location said HONG KONG. This is an approximation of our conversation: Me: Michael are you in Hong Kong? Mike: Haha. Yep! I wondered if you would notice. I wanted to surprise you! Me: Cool! Mike: This place is amazing. Me: Did you go with your program, or invite some friends? Mike: I didn’t invite anyone. When I invite friends I feel responsible for making sure they are safe and have a good place to sleep, etc. Traveling by myself gives me more flexibility. Me: Ah. So where did you sleep? Mike: Under an overpass. Me: Mike: It’s legal to sleep outside. I checked. Me: Don’t ever do that again!!!
Random news from the neighborhood—Dad and I were invited to the Warby’s house on Friday for a very non-competitive game of pickleball. Enjoyable. Anthony butler from our ward got baptized Saturday evening. I’m not sure if you remember him. He is the grandson of the Averys and has been coming to youth activities. It was a nice event to attend. Bennett Black had an accident at Lake Powell last week. He slipped at the top of a rock face and slid 170+ feet, landing in the water at the bottom. Apparently he is lucky to have dropped into the water because he was falling fast enough that landing on rock would likely have killed him. And luckily he did not hit his head. But his hands are so injured that he needs to go to the burn unit at the hospital tomorrow to have his hands treated. Colton Hyde had his farewell today and will be set apart tonight. He gave such a great talk. One of the stories he shared was about a strange prompting he had to go up into the mountains around midnight one night. He met a man who was obviously in distress and who had just said his first prayer in many years. Colton was clearly an answer to this man’s prayer. It was a great story.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. I hope you have a fantastic week!

Love you,

Mom