Alex's Mission Farewell

During the middle of August, Jeff and I flew down to San Diego for Alex's mission farewell. My grandparents were also able to be there for this special time. It was busy doing lots of last minute things and seemed to fly by so quickly.

Alex gave an amazing talk during sacrament meeting. It was so nice to see how excited he was for his mission, how strong his testimony was, and what a great young man he had become. He had a lot of friends in attendance, as well as some of his wrestling coaches. I will include my favorite excerpt from his talk:
"Over the past few months many friends of mine have asked me why I am planning to forego the next two years of my education to travel to a largely backwards nation half a world away. I haven't always known how to respond to these questions in a quick, concrete manner. However, I am not serving a mission in Durban, South Africa because of family or peer pressure. Nor will I be going in an effort to build up my own sense of pride or the numbers of the Church. And I am definitely not a rich college student who wants to study abroad to "find myself."
No, I will be going simply because I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true...I know that Christ's gospel has a unique power to change people's lives. And I know that this power stems from the Savior's perfect love for us...That is the reason I plan on serving a mission. So that I can share with the people of South Africa the message and power of Christ's love."

The night before he left, we were up late doing last minute packing, farewells to friends, and talking. Alex tried to convince me to stash a Harry Potter book in his luggage! Unbeknownst to him, each family member wrote him a letter that we hid in his suitcase. We also typed up what we could remember from his setting-apart, as well as the things that each person had said that they admired about Alex that we had shared before his setting-apart. We woke up early. I watched him walk down the stairs of our house for the last time for two years and put on his black name tag. We drove together to the airport and got him all checked in. The flight was going to be a LONG one. We said a tearful goodbye at security, hugged him, and waved him off. We watched as he already started chatting to the man he was standing next to in line.

We miss him greatly, but are so very, very proud of him. His emails are so upbeat and his testimony and faith shine through. It has been a tremendous blessing in each of our lives. I put together a little video for my sweet mom, which she still can't watch without crying all the way through!