Sister Kaylee Brooks: July 2015

Ready!

Since Kaylee was set apart as a missionary on Monday night,

I was lucky to be her companion for a day. Lucky Me!

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Sister Kaylee Brooks' mission starts TODAY! Leave St. George at 7:00 AM. Wave to all the friends who are running or riding bikes, or walking. We get a lot of thumbs up! We are all trying to be tough and swallow our emotions- we're doing pretty good, most of the time! Kaylee has many mixed emotions: excited, nervous, scared, sad to say goodbye, anxious, happy, tired, sick to her stomach (hasn't eaten a good meal since Monday morning), and filled with the Spirit!

We stopped in Springville to eat breakfast at Ihop. Kaylee tried to eat and managed to eat two grapes and one melon. It must be her Pre- mission diet before she enters the MTC. (Her stomach cannot handle eating right now.)

After eating, we enjoyed a visit at the Beautiful Provo Temple, across the street from the MTC. We took some pictures for memory and for putting off what we know is going to be the hardest time ever- time to say goodbye! We knew we needed to "rip the band aid off fast!". It isn't like we haven't been saying goodbye for the last month or so- but it's still way hard!!!!

With all our guts and energy, we placed ourselves in the car to drive across the street. Funny how we want to make the short drive AS LONG AS POSSIBLE.

This is our view from the car as we drive into

the MTC parking lot/drop off.

As soon as we get in the parking lot, they are organized and ready to tell us where to go to drop off Sister Brooks. This is a time we would not have minded that they were unorganized and it took some extra time to drop her off. As we passed all the hosts, we saw that most of them were Elders. Kaylee said, "Please do not let me have an Elder be my host. Please let there be a Sister Missionary to help me!" We only saw one Sister Missionary and we passed her up quickly as we drove down the curb to where we were to stop. Happily and luckily, we watched the Sister Missionary try to catch up with our car as we kept driving. Hurray! A sister missionary host! She was darling!! She told us to take our time and take a few pictures. She helped get Sister Brooks' luggage. She told us the best thing she could ever say at that time in our lives, "We will take care of her! She will be in good hands!" We took a few pictures, we hugged, we said goodbye. We watched Sis. Brooks walk off "in good hands" and then we looked and saw NO ONE in front of our car (all the cars had left already) but looking behind us, a long line of cars waiting for us to leave. :)

Well that was easy- NOT! Kaylee made it as easy as she could for us with her incredible attitude but it still rips your heart out to say goodbye to an amazing part of our family! Thank you Sister Brooks!! You will be an amazing missionary. I wish I could be your companion longer! We love you tons and tons! We are very excited for you to Serve the Lord and have this wonderful experience!!! We will see you in February of 2017.

After leaving the MTC, we drove straight to Krispy Kreme Donuts. We were on a mission ourselves. The mission to get some donuts, return to the BYU Mail Place and send the donuts to Sister Brooks and her District, with a big note inside. (A tradition we have done for our three sons and now for Kaylee) It keeps our minds off of saying goodbye and makes us feel like we are doing something fun for Sister Brooks and her district! It's therapeutic!

We did not want to drive straight home, so we did some school clothes shopping and then went to our favorite spot in Santaquin- The Red Barn. Best ice cream and milk shakes ever!

We are so thankful for the many texts and calls from family and friends to wish us good luck, to pray for us and Kaylee, and to give us sweet/loving words of strength. This is a wonderful/special day but it's just takes TIME to get through the hard part of saying goodbye.

We returned to our Santa Clara home around 8:30 PM and walked inside to this basket of Sunshine: Thank you Anderson Family- it really did brighten our day- and days!