Brazil or Bust!

This weekend was the last weekend we had with Ashton before he left so we tried to make the best of it. He tried to split his time up wisely between his family, his friends, his XBox and his Seinfeld series and I have to admit he did a pretty good job of it. Of course, he didn't mind us watching Seinfeld with him so that seemed to kill two birds with one stone!

On Saturday he started working on his talk for the Sunday 'Farewell' meeting and I was relieved because I knew he had not written one. When I went to read the blogs that night I noticed his talk was still open so I read it. It was a really good talk except for the fact it was only 2 pages long and double spaced! I had visions of me being called to the stand to bear my testimony because there was plenty of time left in the meeting and that was not exactly what I had in mind. I would have just stood up there and bawled my eyes out thinking of how awesome Ashton is and how I was going to miss him and especially how proud I was of him choosing to go on a mission, etc......so I panicked, but I didn't know what to do because he was out with his friends by then and I didn't expect him until late!

So Sunday I woke up and still had the feeling that I should either start rehearsing my testimony with some sort of composure, write a talk for myself to give at the pulpit, or expand on his talk to avoid any discomfort on my part. I located some great articles from the church website and before I did anything decided that I would go talk it over with him. (Unfortunately this was about 8:00 am and our meeting started at 9:00 am!!) His first question was...."were you ever able to print my talk?" because our printer wasn't working.....I didn't know that I was even supposed to print it!! I explained that his talk was great but it was going to take him less than 2 minutes to give so I suggested that I could help him add some on to it while he got ready for church. So knowing that he had not even printed it I first had to email it from the downstairs computer to the upstairs computer where we had a working printer then from there I tried to cut and paste a talk together PLUS get myself ready to go! I was shaking so bad because of the anxiety which made me make mistakes and I wasn't quite sure it was even going to make sense because I wanted to use his whole talk plus bits and pieces of the other two articles I had found........So I somehow completed it in the knick of time, handed it to him so he could go, miraculously got ready in time to catch a ride with Coree and Casey, and arrived at church during the opening remarks. How?....I will never know!!

So when it comes time for Ashton to speak the first thing he tells everyone is that I woke him up at 8:00, told him his talk wasn't long enough, and rewrote it for him so if it didn't sound like something he would actually say then it probably wasn't!! (He was teasing me, as usual..) The talk actually made sense which was a relief and everyone seemed to enjoy it. After the meeting some family and friends came over for a small brunch and I am so thankful for my friends who helped me pull off the wonderful food.

Monday night we played the candy bar game with his two friends, Matt and Sean, and after made sure he had packed everything and was ready to go.

This morning was the day he has been looking forward to for almost 4 months. He was set apart by the stake president at 7:00 am and we took him to the airport at 9:00. There were quite a few missionaries going to Brazil so that gave me some comfort knowing that he was not alone and that meeting all of these new guys would help ease the nerves on the long flight overseas! We can't wait to hear from him!! He is a very special young man and we expect wonderful things from him. The people of Brazil are so blessed to have him in their presence!! (Does that sound like a mother or what?) We love you, Ashton!!!