The movie Neil choose for tonight’s family movie night is very fitting. Poetic even. It came out the year Garyn was born and was his favorite movie for a long time. We had to watch Cars eventually because Corra doesn’t remember it and that is just unacceptable. So we just finished the opening race and Layna about lost her mind.
I’ve known this post was coming for a while. And here we are, and there he is…out at the Missionary Training Center and I won’t know anything about what he’s been up to until next Thursday on his P-Day.
And we are so good with that. He can focus on the work and we can get on with life.

But here’s how the last little while went…

A few days before the at home portion of his training started, he got a package with his tags and some other important stuff. It started to feel a tiny bit like this was actually going to happen. Then we had an appointment with our Stake President and Garyn was told to wear his tag to that appointment. After that meeting, it was real and very much happening. He walked out a missionary.

That night we prepped the office where he’d do his online classes and meet with the other missionaries in his district. Alaska flag on the wall, family picture, a few other pictures and study materials.
Daily exercise is a very big deal for missionaries so he made sure to do weights or go running. He also found time for a last minute 3D printing project: a specific helment from the video game Doom. He almost had time to paint it…alas, it will be waiting for him in two years. This table picture is pretty much what our whole house looked like during home MTC.

We had both sets of missionaries serving in our ward over for dinner about half way through training. It was so fun and such a great experience. At some point Garyn told me that this might just be his mission scripture, and I heartily approve. The night before he flew out was Memorial Day. We had the usual BBQ-ish foods…then a few last board games to say goodbye properly.

We woke up at 2:45am to get him to the airport for his 5:40am flight to Denver and then Salt Lake City. Then he took a shuttle to the MTC and I got a phone call from a weird Utah number. He made it. Walking back out to the car and driving home was big. It was a whole mess of big milestones and emotions for us. I’m so glad Neil and I do all the big life stuff together. It was so cool to hug him and be all choked up together and to know that he was feeling all the exact same big stuff that I was feeling. I know in the last picture it looks like Neil is sad but if you zoom in he is smiling really big. Yeah we cried on the way home. But we smiled really big too.

We get to do video calls once a week and lots of emails and even letters. If we were back in the olden days when there was a normal phone call twice a year, it would have been ok. We would have survived. The once a week calls and email are going to make these next two years just fine. But what’s already making this whole adventure spectacular is watching him discover how close Heavenly Father and Jesus are when you make space for them in your head and your time and your heart.

(Also spectacular: The amount of pictures he’s taking and that he sent out! Makes me sooooooo happy!!! Can. Not. Wait. for him to get out to the field!)

I’m not sad he’s gone and I know he is exactly where he wants to be and where he is supposed to be. That makes all the difference. Life is so, so good.