Aloha Thomas!

It's hard to believe my baby brother is old enough to be a missionary. Last October, he received his call to serve in the Hawai'i Honolulu mission. He came home right after Christmas to spend a month at home before going into the MTC.

 

Sidenote: over Christmas Break, I met with a lady from my parents' ward who is a genealogy expert and she sat down with my mom and I for a few hours one afternoon and helped us get started on the Church website to find names to do temple work for. I had always been really overwhelmed by family history - I just didn't know where to begin. Having her there for those hours was the best thing we could've done because it gave me the chance to learn it by doing it. I set a personal goal this year to do two hours of family history work every month. I laugh at that now, because it shows how little I understood. It is SO addicting! I think I spent about 15 hours on family history in January alone. Once you get started, it's hard to stop. There's always someone else to find. In about a month and a half, I've found about 200 family names to take to the temple. It's so rewarding. The night that Thomas went through the temple, our family went down early so he could meet with the Temple President. I had some female names to do so Micah did the baptisms and confirmations for them, then my mom and I did a few initiatories, then my mom, I, and several women from my parents' ward did their endowments. My dad and a few other men also did endowments for our family names. Sitting in the endowment room waiting for the session to start, I kept looking down at the name in my hands: Drucilla Taylor. I could not get over the feeling of joy, knowing that I had found her. It wasn't just that she was in the system needing work, but I actually found her. She was not on the website at all, but by looking through records I found her name and now in one day she had all the ordinances she needed, short of sealing. As I've been doing this work, I've learned another side effect: it definitely turns your heart to your ancestors and makes you want to find them and take them to the temple. But more simply, it makes me want to go to the temple more often because I have dozens of names of people who are ready for their work to be done and I have promised to do that work for them. It's an incredible thing.

 

Now, back to Thomas. He went through the temple for the first time that night and I'm so grateful I could be there with him. As I've already mentioned, I'm still not over the blessing and novelty of being able to be involved in such important family events. I'm so proud of his choice to go through the temple and go on a mission and it was an honor to be there with him that night.

 

A few weeks later, we had his farewell. The night before his farewell talk in church, my parents threw a farewell open house for him at their house. My mom and Micah did an amazing job on the food and decorations. I think Thomas and Dominika helped, too. My mom and I joked that it was nice of Thomas to go somewhere that lends itself so well to a party theme. :)

The next day was his farewell talk. Our entire family was there except for Holden. That was a really special moment for us - to have everyone at church at the same time. Micah, Dominika, and I sang "The Olive Tree" and Thomas spoke last. His talk was really interesting - a rare look into his mind and why he chose to serve. He said there were three reasons: He knew there was at least one person in Hawai'i who was waiting for him specifically to teach him or her, He also knew it would be a good opportunity for him to cement his own testimony rather than relying on his parents' testimony, and He knew he was going to be an example and a strength to his two older brothers who are both making their way back to the church. It was a really proud moment, and I'm grateful for his example of willingness to sacrifice for himself, others, and the Lord. After church, we took some sibling pictures. I love these people so much.

 

Afterwards, all the ladies in the family went to our cousin Lindsay's baby shower. She wasn't due for five more weeks but her baby boy came only a few days later! It was a really great weekend.