Farewell to the Brother

Today was Mitchell's farewell, he is going to be leaving to serve a mission in Moscow Russia. He reports to the MTC on June 16th. We had family come from California, Arizona, and Utah to be at Mitchell's farewell. 16 family members were able to make it. I was amazing to see everyone come together and support Mitchell like this. I think one of the coolest things for me however was to see us taking up the first two pews in the chapel...when they passed the sacrament around and I was able to see all of that family, from the youngest to the oldest partaking of the sacrament it made me think how truly grateful I am for my family. Not only is my immediate family active in the church, but my extended family is as well. I am truly blessed with an amazing, supportive family and that showed a lot this weekend as they all rallied around to support my brother!!! I am so incredibly proud of him for making the decision to serve a mission. In the Church (especially for boys) it is almost expected that boys will just go on missions when they turn 19. Not all the boys go, serving a mission is a huge sacrifice...you are giving up two years of your life and everything that you know and love (besides the gospel) to go serve the Lord. I am proud of my brother for going, and although I will miss him (more than he knows) I look forward to supporting him in any way that I can for the next two years!!! He will truly be an amazing missionary!