Next 2 Years

Well, Tommy is now learning the Tagalog language at the MTC. For the next 2 years he will be serving the people of the Philippines.


The past week has been a little tough, okay a lot tough, I'll be honest. I know he is doing the right thing, and this will be one of the greatest experiences in his life, but I will miss him. Last wednesday (the 13th) I gave him the quilt that I made for him (i will post a picture when I get one of it) and it was really awesome. He had no idea, so I was very pleased. I had gotten every single person in his immediate family to give me their favorite scripture and then I cross stitched them onto squares. I then pieced the front of the quilt together, and had a lady from my ward finish the back of it. It was one of the greatest things I have ever accomplished so far. I was so pleased that he loved it. He went on to tie the quilt into his farewell talk, by taking every scripture on there, mentioning who it was from, and saying how it either had, or was going to affect how he served his mission. It was an awesome farewell talk. He's going to be such a great missionary.

I spent all the time I could with him over the past week because I had to get enough in to last me for the next 2 years!! Monday rolled around, and things got a little tougher. It kept hitting me that I had 2 days with him before he left for 2 years. We ended up running a ton of errands that whole day and it was great just being able to be with him. Even though he procrastinated a long list of things he had to do until the last minute, everything ended up working out just fine. I laughed the whole time, because that is such a Tommy and Carly thing to do. I have this little motto that I told him after we accomplished everything that we needed to do that day. It goes like this: "Procrastination is the universe's way of telling you: Stop, slow down, you're going too fast." This is honestly pretty much how I live my life. Ha ha

Tuesday was the hardest day for me. We woke up and ran a last minute errand and then I spent the whole day with him until he went to the temple and I came into work for a few hours. I headed straight over to his house for dinner after work, and we downloaded all of the pictures we had taken onto a cd for me. These are what now get me through the day. I look at them over and over again and I never get bored. I love them. So after dinner Tommy and I went downstairs to say our "I will miss you for 2 years, but we'll see each other when you get back" unofficial goodbyes. To be honest, they were kind of lame. I had so much that I wanted to say to him, but if I would have tried to say anything, I would have started crying and I didn't want to make things harder so we just held each other and there are no words to describe how wonderful it felt. Off to the church for his setting apart. One more hug outside and then into the Stake President's office. His blessing was so beautiful, and I know with all of my heart that Tommy is going to bring so many people into this Gospel. I get the goosebumps just thinking about it again! So afterwards I'm the only one who didn't get a hug (which is totally in all fairness) and we headed back home. It was hard knowing that everything we had done before in our routine was out the window for 2 years, so we actually really didn't say anything to each other up until the point that I started to cry again because I was headed home. All I could manage to get out was "Good luck!" and then Kim walked me to the car. (After all of this Nate said, "Well last night after you left, Tommy just looked at Shauna and I and said that was wierd having someone else walk her to her car." Thats so typical of him. Ha ha) So I cried the whole way home, cried when I got home, cried myself to sleep. Woke up the next morning and started the whole process over again. (Don't worry, I am better today! It gets easier!)

So yesterday I went and bought a lot of frames and put our pictures in them. My mom teased me about having a shrine for him. Ha ha not funny... His sisters have this tradition to go out to Denny's once someone sends a missionary (we're all waiting for one to come back at this point.) So off to Tommy's house (minus Tommy) and visit with his family again. I love how close I am to them all. I got so lucky with such a great boy, but also his family. They have been nothing but sweet to me. We had a few more tears as they told me about the day, but Tommy is so excited to get out there that I can't wait to hear from him! (I think he is mostly excited for the 24/7 cereal at the MTC) Then the 4 of us girls headed off to Denny's. Mainly because it doesn't matter how bad you look at this point. We enjoyed breakfast for dinner and ended up staying and talking about everything for about 3 hours. It was so great, and so sweet of them all, and really what I needed at that point. Thanks Kris, Kimmi and Brenn!! Oh also, I had been planning on making a calendar with 24 spots (one for every fast Sunday he is gone, because lets face it. That is a whole lot less squares to mark off than one for every day. (Ugh kill me now!) Anyways, Brenn shows up with this bag and hands it to me. Inside is 24 candy bars. One for each fast Sunday that I can break my fast with, and be that much closer to having Tommy home. She is seriously so great! Later that night a family friend came over and was teasing us about the candy bars getting old after a year. My reply "I will eat those rock hard candy bars because that means Tommy is that much closer to being home!!!" Mmm, dig in ;)

Then it was back to the house for a sleepover. When we got there Shauna gave me the quilt that I made for him and told me that I could sleep with it. Ah it was so great. Kim and Brenn and I stayed up and talked for a while in bed, and just laughed about all of the things we remembered about Tommy. Everything I see reminds me of him, and somehow I just know that that is Heavenly Father letting me know that He and Tommy are still with me, and that everything is going to be okay. I am so grateful that Tommy is able to have this opportunity and share the Gospel with those who need to hear it. I am also grateful for his wonderful family, and how much they all care about me. The Lord truly does answer prayers, and send us blessings when He knows we are going to need them.