My son will soon be leaving on an LDS Mission. He has most likely wanted to serve a mission since he was just a little boy. In Primary they sing this song.. I hope they call me on a mission when I have grown a foot or two.
My husband and I are converts to the church and I spent many years helping in the Primary and listening to children sing this song. Each year children would fill out papers about themselves as they had a "Spot Light Child" each week and one of the questions was always where do you want to serve on a mission. I wish I had those papers to see where my son might have said he wanted to go. I asked him and he can't remember...and I can't either.
I look at my son and I'm so proud of him that he wants to serve a mission. He has always had that as a goal in his life. My husband and I have never really pushed our children on the mission subject. We never sat him down and said we expect you to do this. In fact I feel very blessed as while most teens tend to fight going to church our children have gotten up each Sunday on their own and willingly attended all 3 hours of church. They have also gone to their week night meetings. There has never been a struggle to get them to go.
With my son Sunday seems to be the day that he actually gets up and gets ready on his own. The nice thing about moving to Utah has been that church is walking distance away. For many years he would get up early and leave before us so that he could help put out the Sacrament. We never told him to do this, he did it all on his own.
Before living in Utah, we lived in New Jersey. My Son was the only LDS student in his school or maybe one of the only students. I remember him coming home and telling me about how he shared with his classmates that he would some day go on a mission. He told them that he had promised Heavenly Father that he would not date until he returned from his mission. His classmates did not know what a mission was and thought he was going to be a Spy and go on some top secret government mission.
I have loved watching my son grow up. He has grown that foot or two...he has spent the last year working full time to raise money to go on his mission. My biggest fear two years ago was how ever will we help pay for this mission? A good friend told me if you send your child on a mission the funds for that mission will come. And so I gave all that worry to Heavenly Father. I gave him our finances, and said my son wants to go on this mission and I will trust that you will help us. It has been amazing to see all the changes Heavenly Father has placed in our lives to help us with this mission. He has over and over showed me that he knows what our needs are and that he will be there to help us.
I go from being excited for him, to nervous, to heart aching sadness...I have been helping him prepare and trying to block out the fact he is leaving all at the same time. While I know that the best thing for your children is for them to move on and experience life and go on adventures, I also miss those sweet years of being with my children. Someone once said that the teenage years are meant to help you want your children to leave. But I was lucky and got really good teenagers and still have a hard time letting them go.
There are all these books out there to prepare your missionary for their mission... I'm wondering are there any books on how to prepare yourself to let your missionary go? I've already told my best friend I'll be texting her alot... So as these weeks fly by and my son gets ready to go, I'll share our journey with you... At least with typing on a computer there will be no tear stained sheets of paper.
I can't believe how one moment you can be so excited and the next so sad... Just another roller coaster for my life...
Do you have a child serving a mission? Or have you had a child serve a mission? What did you do? How did you feel? Would love to hear your stories...
G.G.
