Heigh ho! Heigh ho! Six more months to go!

It was a good, but way too short lunch. We took some pictures, hugged goodbye and parted ways. Us, to D.C. and the elders off to a thrift store to look for (ugly-in my humble opinion-the uglier and old the better- polyester) ties to add to their collection.

Wow! We saw Elder Pierce. It was such a good time, but in a way it feels like cheating, like we should have waited. He will be home in sixth months. Six months! I can't believe it. I thought the first year would never pass and now it's almost time for his mission to be over. I worried about seeing him. Would it make him sad. Would it make him trunky? Would Laura (just turned 8 and got baptized two weeks before our trip) be sad and realize how much she missed her big brother? But it was a good thing. Lane #2 son is going on his mission in 2-3 months. If we had not made this trip, the boys would not have seen each other for four years.

When Elder Pierce first left on his mission, I was talking with a friend who is not a member of our church about him being gone for two years. "Do you get to visit every weekend?" "No" "You can call him, can't you?" she said. "No", I replied. "We do get to talk twice at year on Mother's Day and Christmas". "Is that it?!" she said. "Yes", I said rather sheepishly. "Well, I would never be able to do that," she said. For a new missionary mom the more I said it, the more crazy it did seem. But now, as an (older)and wiser missionary mom I can totally see the wisdom in the policy.

If missionaries were allowed to call home often or for families to call them, who would stay on a mission? It would be too hard. There would not be any separation and the missionary would have a really hard time losing himself in missionary work. These elders are committed to what they do. They have a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. They are committed to giving two years of their lives away from friends and family to serve the Lord.