Jeff is Set Apart

Jeff was set apart for his mission on Tuesday, January 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the high council room of the Salem West Stake center. In attendance were President Roy Silcox, President Eric Weight, Jeff, Grandma Sharron, Grandma Ruby, Aunt Trina, Tammy, Sharee, Tyler, Sean, Rhett Nance, Dallin Jack, and me. President Weight conducted and asked Tammy to give an opening prayer. Afterward he asked me to say a few words as Jeff's bishop.

I reviewed some things from a talk by President James E. Faust called What I Want My Son to Know Before He Leaves on His Mission. I only had about 3-5 minutes to talk so I covered: (1) The idea that Jeff is called as a representative of the Savior Jesus Christ and will wear His name on his badge each day. (2) Work is more important than intellect. It is important to work hard on a mission to be happy. (3) Testimony is the most important "arrow in his quiver."

President Weight read from 3 Nephi Chapter 11 beginning in verse 32. He taught Jeff that being a missionary is easy. He just needs to do what the Savior would do, say what the Savior would say, and teach what the Savior would teach. He then told Jeff, "I know that you can do it!"

President Silcox talked how he lived in Raleigh, North Carolina and that the whole time he was there only knew a small handful of Spanish speaking people. He was surprised when Jeff received his mission call to Raleigh to speak Spanish (Jason Carrick who lives in our stake and just returned from the same mission estimated that there are 40 Spanish speaking missionaries in that mission). He then talked about Lehi in the Book of Mormon and about how Jeff would be teaching his descendents. He talked about how Lehi was a visionary man. He said that Jeff was foreordained in the pre-existence to serve in the Raleigh, North Carolina mission. He said, "I believe that you said, 'Here I am, send me to North Carolina to speak Spanish.'"

President Silcox then set Jeff apart as a missionary. He gave Jeff a great blessing. Two of Jeff's best friends since kindergarten, Rhett Nance and Dallin Jack, were there and since they hold the Melchizedek priesthood were able to stand in the circle as Jeff was set apart. Following are pictures of the three together at different times in their life.





Before heading to bed that night, Jeff, Tyler, and I got in one last guitar jam session and then Jeff wrestled his brothers.

Jeff's Sacrament Meeting Talk and Letter from Mission President

I thought it might be fun to see the notes that Jeff used for his Sacrament Meeting talk and his letter from his mission president. This is a scan of the actual notes that he used. He talked for almost 15 minutes from that! Be sure to click on the links above to see.

Jeff Orders His Mission Bike

With less than a week before he enters the MTC, Jeff finally ordered his bike. He looked into a couple of options but ultimately decided to order his bike online with CTR Bikes. The advantage with CTR was that they ship the bike directly to the mission home and also offer a Guaranteed Bike Replacement Program for stolen and accident "totaled" bikes. Hopefully he never has to use the replacement program, especially the "totaled" part. CTR also carries several name brands including Specialized, Trek, Raleigh, Gary Fisher. Being an avid mountain biker, Jeff was a little choosy on his choice of mission wheels and this was not a quick decision for him. He definitely wanted disc brakes and one that had some better components. This made CTR a little difficult because they only offer a couple of models with disc brakes. Jeff finally settled on a Trek 4500. Anyway, above is a picture of the bike. I think it is going to be a little hard for him to wait two or more months to ride it!

Shopping and Sacrament Meeting Talk

On Monday and Wednesday this past week Jeff and Tammy finished up most of his missionary shopping. He checked out the stuff at the Missionary Mall. He needs to have a dark colored backpack for his mission to carry things. He found a nice CamelBack backpack at the Missionary Mall that should work pretty good. Other than that the inventory at Missionary Mall was pretty sparse when we were there. We may go back and pick up a raincoat that they normally carry but they were currently out of Jeff's size.

On Wednesday we returned to Mr. Macs to pick up his purchases from several weeks ago that had been tailored. While there he purchased his shoes. He decided to go with one pair of Eccos and one pair of Rockports. I guess we'll see how each works out. They recommended that he alternate shoes each day to help avoid blisters and minimize pressure points that a specific shoe might have.

Saturday the family went to Brighton to snowboard and ski. Grandma Sharron gave the family ski passes for a day for their Christmas. It was kind of an over cast day but a great day for boarding. The lift lines were generally short most of the day. The only time we waited was right after lunch as everyone was returning to the slopes. As soon as the crowd dispersed on the mountain we pretty much rode up to the chair each time. This was the first time that Tammy had been skiing in many year since raising kids and then break her wrist in 2007. She had a little fear to overcome but did pretty good by the end of the day. The debate between snowboards and skis is alive and well in our family with Tyler and Tammy preferring skis and the rest of us on boards. Jeff and Tyler spent the day on the upper mountain while the rest of us stayed on the lower "green" runs most of the day.

Jeff spoke in sacrament meeting on Sunday. The program consisted of Caden Christensen, Joe Grant, Jeff, and Patrick Campbell. Caden is a Teacher in the ward. Joe is from the Knoll Park ward originally but most recently has been attending the Salem Hills ward, a ward for Young Single Adults. Brother Campbell is my second counselor in the bishopric.

Jeff gave a great talk on loving God. He used the talk that President Uchdorf gave in Conference last October called The Love of God as a basis for his talk. Being his dad I am a little biased, but I thought that he did a great job. For the having a reputation of being shy and not saying much, he spoke for about 14 minutes using the scriptures, quotes from general authorities of the Church, and shared a great testimony. I'll try and post some of his talk in a later post if he has it in soft copy. There were a good number of his friends that attended in addition to family.

Following the meeting some of his friends and family came to the house for a light lunch. I had to stay at church but from the pictures and what everyone said it seems that they had a good time. I think it is great the way the other young men support each other in preparing for their missions. Some of Jeff's closest friends are all leaving at various times over the next year. One of his friends, Dallin Jack, bought each a grey tie that they are all going to wear when they speak in sacrament meeting and each Thursday of their mission. Jeff had his on this past Sunday. A big group from the Timberline staff were there and took group pictures. Timberline is a leadership training for Boy Scouts. Jeff has been a staff member for the past 4 or 5 years and has made friends with some great young men.

Preparation Progress Report

It has been a little while since my last update. Today is Jeff's 19th birthday so he is now officially old enough to go on his mission. For his birthday he received mostly missionary type items including a first aid kit, travel alarm clock, mosquito spray (yes, that is something on the list he is supposed to take), sewing kit, and a portable CD player (he can't take his iPod). He also got a soldering iron for projects after his mission. As I started writing this, Jeff was at the hardware store picking up stuff to build the electronics for a rocket launcher for Estes Rockets so that he could try out his new soldering iron.

Jeff will speak in Sacrament meeting in the Knoll Park Ward (160 S 460 W Salem, UT) on 10 January at 9:00 a.m. Now for what has happened the past couple of weeks.

First, we had a great Christmas with the family. My mom and sister and Tammy's mom came out to the house and spent Christmas day with us.

The day after Christmas Jeff thought it would be a good idea to go and get a missionary suit. He needs two but he recently bought a new suit from Mr. Mac that he has liked and plans to use. Despite my misgivings about going shopping the day after Christmas, we loaded up and headed to Mr. Mac. The mall was very busy and I had to drop everyone off at the door so they could start looking while I trolled for a parking place. Fortunately someone walked out of the mall just as everyone got out of the car and I followed them to their place and waited until they pulled out.

Jeff found a nice dark grey suit with two pairs of slacks. It was good we went when we did because it will take until January 7 for the alterations. He also found two pairs of slacks, white slacks for baptisms, short sleeve white shirts, and an umbrella. He looked at shoes but decided to make that purchase when we went back to pick up the alterations. The word among missionary moms is the Rockport and Ecco shoes are the best and hold up the longest with lots of walking. Jeff will likely be doing quite a bit of biking and walking on his mission in North Carolina. Both brands are fairly pricey but they do look pretty nice. Ecco is a European brand that come in European sizes like most bike shoes. We were going to pick up a coat for him but they were out of his size and so we will pick that up when we go back.

On Monday we left for quick trip to Colorado so that Jeff could visit his great grandma Ruth Holman before he leaves. She celebrated her 90th birthday in April of 2009 and still lives alone, drives, and gets along better than most people half her age. There had been a LOT of snow along the way but the roads were all cleared off and we made the trip in a record 8 hours and 15 minutes from Salem to the Comfort Inn in Alamosa, CO. That did not include speeding. We went through Moab and then over Wolf Creek pass into the valley. We went down to mom's house in Sanford and ate a ham dinner with her, Trina, and Grandma Ruth before heading back to the hotel for a swim before bedtime.

On Tuesday we went up Cumbres / La Manga pass on the South end of the San Luis Valley and did some sledding. It was cold and a little windy but we found a great hill with lots and lots of snow. The kids had as much fun throwing each other in the arm pit deep powder as they did riding the toboggan. It snowed almost the entire time we were there. The scenery up there is incredibly beautiful.

On Wednesday we headed up to our land up Rock Creek. There was only about a foot of snow but it had drifted pretty bad in places and we could only drive to within about 1/4 mile of the gate. Before walking up to the gate, we shot a box full of .410 shells at clay pigeons. Tyler was the star hitting 6 pigeons which is pretty good considering that has only done that a couple of times. We hiked into our property and rode the toboggan and a tractor tube down a hill that we had purchased at the Monte Vista COOP on the way up. Tyler and Sean did some exploring down by the creek but came back up with the family when they thought they heard a big animal in the brush. A large herd of deer had recently been through the area leaving tracking and places where they had bedded down.

It was intended to be a quick trip and we drove back home to Salem on New Year's eve. It had snowed in the Colorado mountains while we were there and while the roads were plowed, they were still pretty icy all of the way over the pass. We went home over Cochetopa pass.

I know that a lot of this doesn't have to do specifically with Jeff's preparation for his mission, but going to Colorado was part of what he wanted to do before leaving. Next post will probably be after he speaks in sacrament meeting on the 10th.

Gotta Get Some Things Done Before Leaving for Two Years!

Before going on a mission, every prospective missionary has to do a few things for the "last time" before leaving home for two years. I remember a river trip and some motorcycle rides prior to my mission. One of the things on Jeff's "Bucket List" was to go mountain biking in St George before the weather cooled and the trails got muddy. He and I headed out to St George on November 6 leaving as soon as Jeff could get away from work at BYU. We got a room at a Super 8 in Hurricane, UT because there were baseball tournaments going on in St George and most of the rooms were booked. Not only that, it was a lot cheaper in Hurricane. We had dinner at Bajio's and watched the movie A Christmas Carol. I am probably without culture, but I have never enjoyed the book and the movie didn't do much for me either although the animation was amazing.

On Saturday we got around pretty early, ate the free breakfast at the motel and headed out to Gooseberry Mesa. Gooseberry is similar to the famous Slickrock bike trail in Moab only a little less work for about the same amount of fun. I think that I like the look of the red slick rock of Moab better but otherwise Gooseberry is every bit as fun and unique in its own ways. This was Jeff's first time to Gooseberry and so we took the beginner loop first. That was really more for me than Jeff because he can handle a LOT more than I can. Then we headed up the road and started on the Hidden Canyon Maze that ultimately ran into the South Rim Trail. This was mostly humbling to me as I watched bikers much older than me ride they things that I was walking. However, I had a great time. This was only about the 3rd time or so I have really been able to try out my new Teocali Elite bike and it was great on the slickrock.

The South Rim trail has some really nice views where much of the trails follows along the edge of a cliff. Breathtaking but fun! At the end of the South Rim we followed the four wheel drive road back to the Suburban and grabbed some lunch. Then we packed up and drove back to St. George for the Bear Claw Poppy trail.

Jeff had never ridden Bear Claw either so I took him to the top and dropped him and and then drove to the bottom. While Jeff came down and play on the Fingers of Death and Acid Drops, I started chugging up the trail. Fortunately, it isn't very steep near the bottom but I had already pretty well burnt my legs on Gooseberry. We met about in the middle of the trail and then Jeff turned around with me and we both rode back to the top so that we could take a few pictures. We got a few nice pictures of Jeff coming off the Drops and I found a nice bicycle light buried in the dirt that someone had rattled sometime back.

It was a great time and a fun chance for the two of us to do something together before Jeff leaves for two years. I think Jeff had a great time too but probably fell a little behind in his homework. It always worth it though for some great mountain biking.

Jeff goes to the Provo temple

In preparation for his mission, Jeff went to the Provo LDS Temple on November 21, 2009. Temples are considered the House of the Lord and are sacred buildings. In temples, faithful member of the LDS church make sacred covenants to keep Heavenly Father's commandments.