This is a tale of two missionaries with two very different stories -- one home and one currently serving.
Erik began his mission with 2 phone calls home a year and emails once a week. Four or five months in that changed to calling home weekly either through text, phone, video chat, messaging. I could count on Erik every Monday morning between 6:30 and 7am. And if a birthday or Mother's Day/Father's Day landed that week, we could get phone calls twice a week. Covid hit with all of it's quarantine restrictions and Erik was calling home as needed which was several times a week. He began his mission the traditional way with us dropping him off at the Provo MTC and three weeks later a flight to Orlando, Florida. He did the traditional missionary contact methods. Facebook was not one of them. And when Covid came swinging with all her punches, Erik still had 6 months left and missionary work came to a standstill as they struggled to figure out how to do missionary work in the nontraditional ways that didn't involve physically interacting with people. Erik was in a biking mission. We bought him a bike which he rarely used and sold at the end of his mission. His main mode of transportation was a car.
Nate is not quite like his brother. He calls home once in awhile and seems to write even less frequently. Although, he is good to call when I tell him too. I trust he is doing well and doesn't need the interaction with home as frequently has Erik might have. His original assignment is to Australia although he's beginning to believe he might never make it there and he is totally cool with it because he is where he needs to be in the Denver North Colorado Mission. He began his mission assignment right here at home. Home MTC. No dropping him off curbside and being whisked away. That came 3 weeks later at the airport. He began his missionary service using the nontraditional ways right from the start. Facebook has been a big part of his mission experience.
Erik had two mission presidents and I'm sure they were both great. I just didn't have very much involvement with them. Nate's mission president, President Blake, has been very much involved with parents, even creating a separate Facebook page just for parents where he can update us on things unbeknownst to our missionaries. He did a Zoom call with all missionary parents a few months back to let us know how the mission was doing and what their goals were. I was impressed. Nate tells me his career was to take struggling businesses and make them better, to take people in these businesses and make them better. He is a mission president at the right time as he tackles the process of being a missionary and making it better. He's inspired Nate enough that Nate is seriously rethinking his choice of schools post-mission. He was training a greenie who came out and struggled with headaches on the mission (never at home). After testing and moving apartments and other things, it was decided last week to send him home to figure things out. I hope he'll be back. Nate has been in a biking area on a bike we did not buy. Most of the time he bikes. Once in awhile he gets access to a car.
Tomorrow is p-day. Any bets on whether Nate calls tomorrow or sends an email?
He's happy sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and that's all I could ask for. These young people just radiate joy. You can see it in their faces. That is the spirit of God radiating goodness.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." --Galatians 5:22-23
