Sunday, March 14, 2010

Tru's Shindig!



Tru's Shindig..... a.k.a.... farewell Sunday..... was a smashing success!!! (said in a British accent)
Tru spoke about Diligence to a "packed house".....and did beautifully.
He used scriptures and Joseph Smith stories and even said one of the quotes that I posted on the chalkboard door a while back. (I knew I was getting to him.)
He praised his Pro ring given to him by Stake Pres. Brian Taylor.
He paid a beautiful tribute to his "dizzy" diligent dad.
He gave a shout out to ward members, friends, and family that really contributed to getting him to this point.
He bore a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and of the atonement.
I cried.
Tru cried.
We all cried.
After he spoke, I had it confirmed to me that Truman is going to be a great missionary.
It was great to feel and see such love and support for my Tru.
We had a lunch after at our home.
At one point Wayne and I looked around at the wall to wall people standing in our space and said, "thank goodness for the remodel." Our home never would have worked otherwise. We have always had summer parties-- in our backyard, because of our chopped up space, but with the walls down, we had room.
We had people on top of people, but it worked.
During the prayer, my uncle counted 78 people in the Dining/family room area alone.
We are thinking we fed about 200+ relatives/friends and strangers......( I didn't know them, I'm hoping Truman did)
Lunch was truly a loaves and fishes --testimony building experience for me.
Truman wanted Funeral potatoes, meatballs and frooty tootsie rolls. I added salads, rolls and desserts to round out the lunch.
I looked at the masses of people in my home and knew we did not have/would not have enough food for everyone.
We made 980 bbq meatballs. Family and friends kicked in with potatoes, rolls , salads and desserts. I told Wayne we needed to send someone to the store for more food....he just said , "ON a Sunday?...Have faith."
I scrounged up another bag of meatballs and we started to serve.
The people kept coming...and the food worked out.
The kids and cousins LOVED the bowls of Frooty's---- they ate 2,100 of them. Some of the kids stuffed their pockets with them. We even had Oaks Morley conquer an "Eat 100 frootie's in under 10 minutes" bet. So funny.
When everyone was gone....and the dishes cleaned up ( thanks to Laura and Diane),
all that we had as leftovers was the one bag of scrounged up meatballs that I threw together at the end.
Figures.

Faith :)

I am so blessed to live by so many wonderful people--it's great to have family so close, and so willing to help.
I didn't get teary today thinking about Truman leaving me....I got teary just thinking about all of the great people that I love and who love my family.
I still have 10 days left with Tru.
10 days for him to "drive me crazy"...and for me to "teach" him something that he needs for England.
10 days to be with my teenage son.
10 days before 2 years go by and he returns as a 21 year old man.
Farewell.

4 comments:

Laur said...

Sigh. It was really great Melinda! Thanks for letting me be a part of the fam the past few years.
You have an amazing kid there with Truman. He did wonderfully, he will be a great missionary and I love him and you and your family!

Lesley said...

What a great post!! I remember my missionary "farewell" experiences. Andy was the first, his farewell was Easter Sunday. I knew we'd have 150-200 people at our little house and I didn't know what I was going to do. I prayed for beautiful weather and it was perfect. The sun was shining the day was warm and we fed 150-200 people in the backyard... it snowed everyday the rest of the week. Faith :-)

Kimi said...

Trumeee WILL be a great missionary! It's so exciting! He did a fabulous job on his talk. I loved it. Love him. Love you. Love your whole family, individually, like, I would love them all even if they were in different families. But I'm so glad they're not!

Can't wait to be mish moms together!

Verification word: POPATICK

EW!

Melanie said...

It was a fabulous day. He did great and you did fantastic. Enjoy these last few days.