Mission report

Elder William Karl Petersen was called clear back in September to serve in the Baltic States Mission, assigned to Lithuania.  He finally had his opportunity to go. 

On Sunday, February 23rd, he gave his farewell talk to an huge crowd at the Hunter 1st Ward.  He gave and excellent talk that showed he was a little nervous, a little bit of a boob, and a little bit of a dork, but a well-prepared young man, ready to serve.  His talk was about faith, hope, and charity and also included some kind of basketball analogy (which honestly lost me, but that's ok).  Embarrassingly, my Jack walked up on the stand during the talk.  He's not usually permitted to wander during church, but had been going back and forth between us, Grandma & Grandpa Binggeli, and Annie's family.  I thought he was with Annie when we realized he was on the stand.  Sorry - bad parenting moment.

One of the best parts of the meeting was to see a whole group of Willie's non-member friends attend the meeting. They looked pretty sharp in white shirts and ties.  Also, I didn't see them, but there were a couple of inactive families in the ward who decided to come for the occasion and that was pretty cool, too.  Don't forget Allen and Chunky, also non-members and Willie's neighborhood friends since we moved into that neighborhood. They came too, all dressed up, and sat with my mom.  It was a great experience.

Most of the packed church house descended on my parents house afterwards.  I have never seen so much food consumed in such a short amount of time.  The Petersen's and the Huber's both know how to throw parties with plenty and we thought we were ready, but I don't think we could have ever prepared for the crowd that there was.  The food was gone pretty quickly.  My mom began emptying out her pantry with bags of chips and chips & salsa, we found some apples and an extra cantaloupe that we cut up.  It was just crazy.

Saturday night preparations

Sunday morning, before the masses descended 

On Monday night we had a final family farewell feast at Crown Burgers. It was delicious, of course.

On Tuesday night, Willie was set apart as a missionary by President Hunt, his stake president.  He gave a very nice blessing to Willie, even though my kids (tired and sensing everyone's emotions) were not very well-behaved.  It was a good experience and there were a few tears shed, but the saddest part was poor Elliott.  Once the setting apart was finished, he was just inconsolable with tears.  I think the reality of his favorite Uncle Willie leaving had set in and he just didn't know what to do with all the emotion.  He was ok, though.  We went back to my mom's after for a quick donut before saying our goodbyes.

On Wednesday morning, I got the kids to school and then headed to my parents around 9:00 to hang out with them and Willie at their house until it was time to drop him off at the MTC.  

The bags were packed.

We played UNO and Willie played a few more songs on his ukulele.

Last photo in front of the house.

We made a quick pit stop at Annie's house to say final goodbyes toe the boys and Annie, there.  

And then we were off to Provo.  Once we got out of Orem and into Provo, Willie said he started to itch.  Oh well.  I guess he'll just have to itch for 6 weeks.  We made a last stop to Wendy's for french fries and a fruit punch.  Mother Judy made us stop and another building so Willie could go to the bathroom (just in case there wasn't a bathroom in the MTC).  

Itching

Waiting for french fries.

We still had some time to spare so we stopped in front of the Provo Temple for another photo shoot.  There were only 8000 other missionary families with the same idea.  We were just counting down the minutes until it was time for the drop off.  Mother Judy wanted to yell to everyone in the parking lot that her son was going on a mission, but she resisted since they probably all had missionaries out, too.

Finally it was time.  He was ready.  We drove to the gate of the MTC, they told us what direction to go.  We parked.  My dad got the suitcases out of the car.  We met Elder Sonik (who leaves next week for Brazil) who was going to be Willie's registration escort.  We took one final picture and then that was it.  He was gone.  He had a huge grin on his face and we got in the car (sad) and drove away.

Until we meet again in 2 years . . .