MTC here he comes!...ready or not!

Wow!  The prep time for Nathan leaving for his mission was buried under the crazy dust of preparing for our Peru trip to pick James up.  I hadn't realized how crazy the overlap would be with the preparation of both...we had always only worried about them not seeing each other for four years.  I think I handled it fairly well.  Luckily Art took Nathan suit shopping at Christmastime when he was home for break, so that was a HUGE task off my plate.  All of his short sleeved shirts I had gotten at a garage sale two years previous for $1 each (sure hope they hold up!!).  There was still a ton to do, though.  Two shortcuts that eased the pain were #1) Nathan refused to bother with much of a first aid kit and all the extra medications they have on the list.  He insisted he would never need it/use it, so I let it go (Figuring he was probably right...only to have James come home and bear testimony to the wisdom I had in forcing him to take medicine on his mission. :0 It had been a blessing in being able to share it with others in need.).  #2)  We went to Pomeroy's (the missionary store here...I didn't use it for James, trying to save money by shopping around at the department store outlets) for shoes.  I had been carefully monitoring James' mission experience, hoping to be better aware of how to shop for Nathan (I had heard all the horror stories of Art's mission and how his cheap clothes fell apart after a very brief time, and he was left replacing them.).  I hadn't gotten much of a report from James...only that all three of his shoes had fallen apart and he was on the fourth pair that I had mailed him for Christmas, and that his favorite pair of pants was ripped out in the crotch and he kept mending it (Turns out it was much worse than this!  The suit he wore to pick us up at the airport was ripped to shreds, the lining hanging out from the bottom of the suit coat (his other suit coat was worse...faded from the sun AND ripped).  All of his pants had wear marks at the pockets, and his final pair of shoes were on their VERY last leg. Anyway, our purpose at Pomeroys was to get some quality shoes and an appropriate coat (since it's supposedly way cold in southern Argentina).  We ended up buying over $800 worth of stuff...coat, two pair of shoes, wool socks, and oodles of ties (Nathan was really into the tie thing...he didn't care that the list said a specific amount-8ish.).
   So I hoped that he felt loved and catered to during his brief stint at home with us.  With the MTC no longer letting families come in, we felt it useless to make the trek up north to drop him off...especially with the trip to Peru on our heels.  He was good about it, stayed at his grandparents for a day and night, and then they took him to the MTC.  That part of it still bothers me; his leaving has never seemed real to me...it was a goodbye just like his leave for college.

The setting apart. L to R: Bishop Budge, Nathan, Pres. Ballard, and Bro. Wyeth

   What a week that was!!  Monday night the Stake President, counselor, and the bishop came to set Nathan apart; Tuesday, June 22 he flew to Utah; Wednesday, my brother Mark and his family showed up for a three day visit (More of a "three day clean"...I never could have gotten the house under control without them!); Saturday Art's cousin Beth showed up to watch the kids and get the lowdown (Not an easy task, seeing that she has never had kids of her own and isn't around kids very often.); Sunday we had a mission farewell and dinner for a friend's son (I made three batches of garlic braid for it), and finished packing our bags (and packaging all the little goodies we had made); Monday morning, bright and early, we flew to Peru.   Hoping and praying all was well with Nathan.