Jaren is off!

Hi everyone.  I'm just trying to figure out this whole blog thing.  Thought it would be a fun thing to do while Jaren is gone so that you can keep updated.  I'm going to try to get a ticker on here that counts how many days Jaren has been gone.  I can't bear the thought of one that counts down. . . . that would be too depressing at this point!

The day we dropped him off at the MTC was, of course, a sad one.  The one most affected by it was Tanner, our 8 year old.  He was clinging to Jaren.  After two rounds of hugs, Steve slapped him on the back (it's a guy thing!) and said, "Get to work, Elder!"  And we left. . . without looking back.  It's different being on this end of it.  Grandma Rudger treated us to ice cream in Heber City on the way back.  A little emotional comfort!  It was a nice diversion until we got home.  I walked in the house and got a little sad thinking our relationship with our oldest child is forever changed and I won't have his happy disposition around for two years and then not even after that because we will never again be the most important people in his life.  You know what I mean.  Steve immediately got the boys and I working on getting the last of our boxes from the shop where they've been stored for almost a year while we were building our home.  That was good thinking on his part.  I started moving things into my craft room and what were the first two things I found?  Jaren's senior picture and his album from when he spent two weeks in Germany with Steve just before we moved there in 1998.  I was excited, so I ran them upstairs to show Erik and Tanner and Tanner started crying AGAIN!  I told Tanner I didn't bring them up to make him sad but so that we could be happy seeing Jaren's smiling face and that it would be really sad for me if I couldn't keep his photo out for the two years he's gone!  The next things I found were my missionary journals.  I was hoping to find them before Jaren left so I could tell him about the MTC, but maybe it has changed in 23 years!  I started reading them and the memories came flooding back.  I think it was Heavenly Father's way of comforting me.  It was great to read about me going into the MTC the same my son went in.

Tanner hasn't cried since that first day.  His prayers for Jaren are really cute.  He prays for him "to be able to read the language and to be able to write the language."

Jaren sounds really good in his letters and loving his time in the MTC.  His original companion was moved to the advanced German speaking group that leaves next week.  He has had 6 years of German!  I guess a sister from his district did the same thing.  Jaren has only had 2!  He is in a threesome so there are two companionships of three and two companionships of two in his district.  His companions are from American Fork and Brigham City.

They were immersed in the language the day after he got there and at their first zone meeting, the  Branch President got up and announced the hymn number and title in German and the Zone Leaders ran around passing German hymn books around and they sang in German.  He said the missionaries that had been out a few weeks longer than the rest got up on the stand and faced them and they all began to sing, "Hark All Ye Nations."

Out of the 10 in his district, 6 are going to Berlin and the remaining 4 are going to his mission, the Germany Frankfurt mission.

We warned Jaren about the food in the MTC and how gassy it can make you.  We kept teasing Jaren that his district would be sorry!  Well, Jaren isn't the only one it's affecting.  He referred us to Jeremiah 4:19, 20.  Look it up, it's really funny!

Jaren told us about the first Sunday devotional he attended.  He said, ". . . it was so amazing.  They have 15 minutes of prelude singing, and they sang 'Armies of Helaman'.  I couldn't even get through the song without crying!  They change the lyrics from 'we will be the Lord's missionaries' to 'we are now the Lord's missionaries.'  The spirit is so strong here.  There is just a feeling of joy and peace here that doesn't exist anywhere else.  It is very much like the experience we had on the church restoration trip."  I shared the part about the song in Primary Sharing time because we sang that song that day.  The name of the song is actually "We'll Bring the World His Truth" and it is one of my favorites!

Jaren tells us he is reading the Book of Mormon in German and English at the same time with a English/German dictionary in hand so he can become familiar with what he will be teaching.

One of the best things for parents and missionaries to keep in contact is dearelder.com.  We use it every week.  We have also sent care packages through them.  Go check it out.  For those of you who don't have Jaren's address yet, it is:

Elder Jaren Smith 

MTC Mailbox #180

GER-FRA 0908

2005 N. 900 E.

Provo, UT  84604-1793

He would love to hear from you.  I will keep you posted.  I would like to commit to every week, but I'll see how it goes.  I am just figuring this whole blog thing out.  I thought I was too old to do this, but thanks to my much younger sister, Cristi, I am trying to be with the times!