Mom's Birthday and Father's Day - June 19, 2005

Today is mom's birthday and Father's Day.  I am so grateful for both of them.  It's actually kind of sad today to not even be able to call them and tell them how much I love them both.  I have been on my mission for four days now.  To think I have over 700 days until I see my family is hard to comprehend.  Anyway, the main highlight of today was a very powerful talk that was given at church.  One of the missionaries was speaking about his father because it's Father's Day.  He began to tell us that his dad was really old and I was thinking he would be 60 years old or something.  Turns out his dad is 80 years old!  He said that his dad has always seemed old and has been getting rapidly older as time goes by.  He use to always be sad because his dad couldn't play catch or do anything that he saw his friends dad's doing.  He goes further and says that it makes him sad when he thinks about thinking that way before.  Anyway, his Stake President, who was also his dad's doctor, told him that his dad would probably not be alive when he gets back from his mission.  He made a very hard choice and decided to come on the mission.  I don't think I could have made that choice if I was in his situation.  The spirit was strong in the room and everyone was crying.