If I thought being in Hawaii was a "little bit of heaven," I can say sending a missionary out feels to me like "a lot of heaven!" What an amazing experience we have had the last few days as Robert has been set apart as a missionary and is on his way. I think Lynn and I still feel like we are in a dream. Words don't come even close at expressing my gratitude for everything that has happened to make yesterday possible. Robert is a tough kid who has been at rock bottom and made a decision to climb back up again. He didn't give up on that decision and now he is at the start of a new life for him.
I'm not surprised that Robert couldn't get out of the car fast enough at the"stop, drop, and roll" curb. He was sick of talking about a mission and wanted to actually start the mission! He didn't even turn around as he headed off.
Lynn and I are going to need two years to try and recover from raising such a strong willed child. He will be meeting his new "parents" tomorrow as Robert's mission is getting new mission presidents which are in the MTC right now training.
We had a great experience yesterday morning in the temple before he left. We did sealings and ended up in a group that had two missionaries, a man who happened to have served in the Pennsylvania mission years ago and Lynn, Robert, Grandma Shields and me. When the sealer found out Robert was going into the MTC that day he spent about half of our time talking to Robert and the other missionaries and sharing experiences from his mission and from being a mission president. It was awesome and such a tender mercy. It was also neat that when Robert got his endowments out I happen to have a Filipino name which I never have had before. It reminded me of my mission and my experiences taking out my endowments.
I wanted to post some pictures and thank everyone for their love, support and prayers in Robert's behalf. It has definitely been a group effort in getting him where he is today. I was very comforted by the Stake Presidents setting apart blessing which talked about how much Robert wanted to come to earth to share the gospel to others and that now he is fulfilling his desire.
I felt bad that Joanna had to share her 16th b-day with Robert's big day of leaving but that didn't stop her from getting up at 6:30a.m. so she could be at the Driver's license division when it opened! She got her license and as soon as she is off pain medication from having her wisdom teeth out she can officially drive. I felt bad that I told her she will be fine getting her teeth out 5 days before her b-day. She ended up getting dry sockets and was pretty miserable. She was a trooper and will hopefully feel better by tomorrow night when she has her party.
I can't seem to get anymore pictures to work right now so I will put more on when somebody comes home that can help.
Robert flew out to Pennsylvania Monday and we only got a few minutes to talk to him so we don't know a whole lot except he survived the MTC and gained 7 pounds.
