I'm Officially Writing a Missionary

And that missionary's name is Elder Seth Russell Stoor!  (No...not what you may have been guessing. Sorry to disappoint!) My big, little brother checked into the MTC Wednesday (Nov 30th).  Many tears were shed as he left.  He kept telling me "It's not like I'm dying! Sheesh!"  I know he's not dying, but I'm sure gonna miss him.  I would have cried even more had he decided not to go.  I won't see him again for two years, but I am so proud of him for his decision to serve the Lord by helping others to receive the gospel.  

He has a strong support system at home and in Soda, so he shouldn't worry because he will have a ton of family and friends praying for him.

  

Why ever on earth he has to spin me around each time he hugs me, I'll never know haha.

I'm sure gonna miss you bud....I already have, like when something awesome happened and I went to text you about it....and then I couldn't.  I sure hope these two years go by quicker than the last week, haha.

Last pic before I left (Monday night), tears and all.

I only had institute and one class Monday, so I sluffed class and spent the day with him.  I swear I spent half the day crying.  I thought I did pretty good though, until right before I left.  Thank goodness he is my one and only brother, cause if I had to do this multiple times, I might not make it through.  Maybe that makes it harder, since he is the only one....I dunno.  It was kinda a weird thing for him to leave.  In our family we've there is this invisible buddy-like system....there's Mom and Dad, Megan and Shelby, and Me and Seth.  Being so close in age, us siblings have always had our buddy around...and now mine's gone for a little bit.  It wouldn't be that big of a deal...except things are going to change from here on out.  (Insert knot in the back of throat...commence tears).  The "normal" routine of our family will prolly never be the same.  I'd been thinking about that for a super long time (basically since Seth's graduation).

Then Dad brought up that point at "the last supper" haha.  We drove over and met dad in Thayne as he came home from work, to eat at "Dad's".  It was sooooo good!  I'd put Seth's leaving to the back of my thoughts, and then Dad said "Guys...think about it.  This is prolly the last time it will be like this...just the six of us at the table."  (Waterworks again!)  But Mom brought up the point that our family is going to get bigger and better from here on out.  It's kinda weird to think about that fact, but then I thought about twenty years down the road.  In-laws, grandkids...yeah, it's gonna be GREAT!

So there.  There's the post.  It almost makes it official to me that Elder Stoor is gone.  Even though I'm sad that I don't get to see him for two years (though we are crossing our fingers that he can skype on Mother's Day and Christmas), I know he is where he is supposed to be and doing the right thing at this time in his life. I'm so thankful that I have an amazing brother who is worthy, and following the commandments of the Lord. He is going to bring joy to so many people, and I know he is going to fall in love with all of the people he meets.  We have a blog set up, where we will share pictures and letters that Seth sends us and Mom put a quote on it that defines a missionary: "Someone who leaves their family for a short time, so that they may be with their families for ETERNITY".  How true that is, I love it.  I'm going to miss him a TON, but it is totally worth it!  Love and miss ya bud!  Here's the link to his blog: http://elderstoor.blogspot.com/