Last, last, last--so blessed

I feel like I am in exact reverse of when this boy came in to my life. First time rolling over, first crawl, first solid food, first steps, first words. Now we are down to hours. Last weekend together. Last time at church together. Last picnic. Last family prayer, last dinner, last FHE. He is officially a missionary. He now has to live as close to mission rules as possible. We are his companions. :-) I thought it quite rude that the Stake Pres asked me to pray before they set him apart. I have been mostly fine with only a few moments of tears, but that made it awfully tough.

This day has been better than I could ever have imagined. We had a nice breakfast. We got to church early. The program was beautiful. I did not have to pray in sacrament meeting, but I did sing with three other ladies and I did not cry. Woohoo! All of the talks were beautiful and timely, charity, missionary work, the Savior. The Young Women sang Come Unto Christ. We sang Write Thy Name Upon My Heart. Andrew gave as beautiful a talk on the Savior as I have ever heard. He spoke for fifteen minutes and he has his dad's gift. Only he has it at a much younger age.

I came home and threw food together for about 20 of his friends and went back to the church for RS. Great lesson on Second Coming. Back home for more food for 20 family members and friends. Stake Pres called. Let's set him apart now. Off we go. Beautiful advice and it ended up being just us, him and his two oldest brothers. An aunt and uncle were going to come. In the rush we did not invite Grandma. She had gone home. We were going to ask in the friends/girlfriend outside, but he was reluctant so we did not. And I am so glad it was just our little intimate group. He told us and promised us wonderful things.

I feel so blessed that I cannot even express it in words. My heart is filled with joy. How could life be any better? The next few hours will be tender and I am sure there will be a point of major bawling, but it will be with the knowledge that it is a sweet parting and the reunion will be all the more joyful.

We are all writing our own letters to him to give him to read on the plane. We only have 16 hours left together, so I am going to make the best of it.