Matthew can message people but emails and and phone calls to family are supposed to be done on his preparation day (P-day). It was 8 days after he left before he had a p-day. In the MTC it isn’t a full day, its just a few hours. That is a little stressful for me because some of the times he is available I am at work. Its only a few weeks but I still want to talk to him. It was so good to hear his voice and see him over facetime. All of us got to talk to him, and all of us were looking forward to it and anticipating it. Emilee even said she would skip her riding lesson so she could talk to him. It had ‘only’ been eight days but it felt like a month. We talked for a while. I think he is getting frustrated with the speed he is learning Portuguese. I’m sure its going to get a lot more frustrating before it gets better. Especially once he is in Recife and learning and figuring it out or not being able to communicate with people. I’m also sure that he will get it and then have the confidence and pride that comes with conquering a huge challenge and task. He likes his district and seems like he is already forming some pretty solid new friendships. It was great to talk to him and I am going to look forward to it every week.
Matthew started a photo album that he can add pictures to for us to see. We made one for him too. Here are his pictures from the Brazil MTC.
MTC CourtyardMTC foodCampinas TempleView of Sao Paulo from the MTCCampinas Brazil TempleSao Paulo TempleCampinas Brazil TempleElder Stewart and Elder TerryMTC District at Sao Paulo TempleElder Stewart, Terry and Patterson
This is Matthew’s first video of him bearing his testimony in Portuguese he sent us at the end of the Brazil MTC.
The first weekend after Matthew left I was pretty down in the dumps. Ryan tried to distract me a little bit. There was a Commemorative Airplane Show at an airport near by so we went with some friends to check it out. There were jeeps, helicopters, a museum and a handful of plans from WWII and Vietnam.
Allison went on her annual lake trip with a group of her friends for their friend Olivia’s birthday. This is the third year she has gone.
The Jones family picture that was taken on at Thanksgiving has now become outdated. John and Rachel had their fourth baby, second girl, Johanna. I believe they are going to call her Jojo. She was in the NICU for a few days because her breathing was struggling but she is doing great now.
Allison has been taking drivers education and practicing driving the past year. She recently got her learners permit for driving bumped up to her restricted driver license. That means she can now drive by herself, or with one sibling, to work, church, or school. For her first drive with Emilee to the church for youth night we took these pictures of her backing out. Its kind of hard to see but the first one is Allison crossing her fingers, and the second one is Emilee’s reaction when she saw her doing it. It was pretty funny. Allison did great and everyone got to and from where they were supposed to safely.
While Matthew started the MTC the girls started school! Allison is a soft more at Spring Hill High School. She is taking honors math and chemistry and an AP History class. She is planning on wrestling in the winter. Emilee is a 7th grader at Forest Springs Middle School. She is excited for math, spanish and her engineering class. She is doing club softball and still doing her riding lessons. Hopefully they will both have busy fun school years!
Matthew was set apart Sunday, August 10th. The day before he started home MTC. He gave his farewell talk in sacrament that morning, and was set apart that afternoon. Our church still zoom’s the sacrament meeting for people that can’t be there in person but want to listen, so we were able to send the link to family that was far away to watch if they wanted too. I was planning on recording it, but new I would probably forget so I asked Emilee to record it for me. I did forget until about half way through so I was glad she did it for me. A few of his friends from high school that hadn’t left for college yet came and listened to his talk. I think he did a great job. I am proud of him and excited for him.
Bishop Sirois
Monday, August 11th Matthew started the MTC (Missionary Training Center) at home through online zoom meetings. August 11th is the day our family has always remembered Aaron. I think it is pretty special and not a coincidence that Matthew started his mission on the same day Aaron returned to heaven and started his mission there.
Home MTC is a little rough, its is several 3 hour long online zoom meetings and studying with your companion for several more hours each day. Day one was fun to start meeting people and exciting that your mission is actually starting. His first companion is Elder Stewart (not sure if that is how he spells it though). He did a year of college at a military college in Colorado. They are a good pair. I am writing this a few weeks after they met but they seemed like a good fit from the beginning. By day two he was already getting a little stir crazy. It is hard to focus for three hours but on a zoom call it is even harder. We tried to take him out of the house for lunch. I tried to be around on his breaks to give him someone to interact with in person. We played games after family dinner. Campbell came over most evenings to hangout. It was a little awkward for them because Matthew is supposed to follow all the mission rules so he was trying to keep it friendly. Campbell knew but still wanted to sit close and snuggle. Matthew handled it with pats on the back and lots of pacing and walking around while he talked with her. A little awkward.
Overall, it is a good transition for starting a mission. He is still home so I get to ease into him leaving, and he gets to ease into following the rules and getting on the missionary schedule. After a week of it though, he was itching to get to the real MTC. I imagine the process will be the same for the MTC, excitement and adjusting at first, then going crazy and ready to get to your actual mission by the time the five weeks are up.
Elder Terry on a zoom meetingHe needed a nap after waking up early the first few days. He was still adjusting from his Summer sleep schedule.Family game night.Blake is Matthews best friend Carter’s brother. Carter is already on his mission in the Philippines. Blake brought him some snacks for the plane and came to say goodbye the night before he left.
He flew out Tuesday, August 19th. He flew by himself to Atlanta Georgia. In Atlanta, he thought he would meat up with about 20 missionaries and fly to Sao Paulo. I found out later it was more like 60. That would be cool to see 60 missionaries getting on a plane together. There was no communication with us about his flight and meeting other people. As far as I knew he was flying the whole way by himself. He wasn’t supposed to take his phone with him, so that meant I had no way to see if he was where he was supposed to be or for him to communicate with anyone if there was a change or problem with flights, or if he even made it to his final destination. That bothered me a lot. I told him he had to take his phone and he could turn it off once he got there. Matthew is a rule follower so he didn’t want to take his phone. After several discussions and not coming to an agreement, Ryan told Matthew that even Jesus broke a rule when his mom asked him to do something so he had to take the phone. Matthew didn’t like it but being the sweet respectful son he is, he grudgingly agreed. However, when he found out there were at least a dozen other missionaries meeting him in Atlanta, I felt much better. Normally I wouldn’t be to comforted having to rely on a think tank of a dozen teenagers, but knowing if there was a problem, or missed flight, he wouldn’t be completely alone I felt a lot calmer about sending him off to a foreign country with no phone. I told him I was ok with him not taking his phone, but I was putting an air tag in his carryon luggage so I could at least see where he was.
Dropping him off at the airport is one of the hardest days of my life. A piece of my heart literally walked away, waved at me one last time through the security gate and will be gone for the next two years. Somehow I am supposed to carry on like everything is great. I don’t even want to write about how hard its been. Just. Hard.
Campbell said goodbye at the house before we left for the airport.
Ryan tried to get a video of some hugs for me to watch while he was gone, Allison ruined it. I am angry about it but I am still keeping the video.
The air tag in his luggage was a life line for me. I really appreciated being able to know he made it to Atlanta, and then Sao Paulo, and then the MTC. It helped me a lot. Once he made it to the MTC they gave him a phone and he texted to say he made it, the flight was horrible and ask if he packed any temple clothes. It was the best text ever. The MTC sent us a picture of everyone together to let us know they arrived too.
First picture from the mission, arriving at the MTC
I am going to tag all the missionary posts I write while he is gone and then when he gets home I can print them all into a book for him. This is the first post. Only 23 1/2 months to go.
When we got back from Gulf Shores, that meant it was just a few days, eleven to be exact until Matthew started his mission. Just like the Summer they flew by way to fast.
Matthew went through the temple on August 2nd. It was a special day. He had the Terry, Jones, and Torgerson grandparents, and his aunt and uncles-Dave, Jen, Ross and Lauren come with him along with us. Bishop Sirois also came. When I went through the temple for the first time it was a little overwhelming and I wasn’t very well prepared. Matthew said he thought it was exactly what he was expecting it to be. I was very impressed and grateful for the Covenant Prep class, and Bishop Sirois’ personal temple prep class he did along with us to help Matthew be prepared and understand more about what he was committing to do before he went.
We got there a little early and took some pictures outside. They make a plaque for each missionary with their picture, a favorite scripture of theirs and where they are serving their mission. Matthew wanted his picture for his plaque to be at the temple with the Brazil flag.
When we were done, we all took a group picture together outside and then went to lunch together at a Greek restaurant called Meddi’s.
The last week was pretty busy. The girls were getting ready for school. We did some last minute shopping to make sure everyone had everything they needed for school or the mission. Nadia and a few of her brothers-Jesse and Alex- came up to spend a few days. Matt had one last night with his high school friends before most of them left for college. We just tried to cram as many ‘one last time’ things in we wanted to do with Matthew. Most of them revolved around what he wanted to eat. Ryan grilled lots of steak-specifically picanha. Our family went to a Brazilian steak house called Fogo de Chao with Grandpa Terry and Campbell. One of the favorite meats we had there was picanha, so we got some to grill on our own a few nights afterwards. We had lots of Costa Vida and K-macho’s. Matthew really loves food. One of our last Sunday dinners with the Terry’s we did a root beer tasting contest. Matthew, dad and the girls went golfing together. There was also a lot of just following Matthew around, especially from me. Probably driving him crazy but he didn’t show it. He let me sit by him, hug him and talk with him as much as I could. We went to a couple missionary welcome homes too. His buddy Bret Sawaya came home from Brazil, and Tanner Lewis came home from Saratoga Utah.
Allison painted a life size MatthewLast game night with his high school buddiesRoot beer tasting.Allison wasn’t feeling the root beer.Lunch at K-Pot, Matt’s seafood soup had a live giant shrimp in it…until he cooked it.Golfing…dad won.More golfing…I think this is actually in Gulf Shores though…Saying goodbye to Grandma because they went to Idaho for two weeks and were gone when he left.
We tried to make the most of it. I know I am going to miss Matthew A LOT, we all will. He is a big piece of our family and two years is a long time. This past year, I have tried to enjoy all the memories we have made and not focus on it being ‘the last’ or focusing on the sad part of that. I wanted to enjoy the moments and remember them as happy, not crying or sad about it meaning we were getting closer to him leaving everyday. I did pretty good and we made lots of great happy memories. When it got to about a month out, it started to get a little harder to do that. The last few days in August, I was pretty weepy. I still tried to push it off the sad part until later but it broke through more than I wanted. It is a surreal thing to have a child leave. It was like a real of his life going on in my head every time I look at him. I remember the first time I saw and held him, I could not believe we just left the hospital with a baby that was ours to keep forever. I remember him rolling around like a bowling pin learning to sit, then walk, then playing hide-n-seek, and watching Mickey Mouse Club house and laughing himself to tears about Goofy’s stinky shoes. I asked him on his 6th birthday if he would stop getting older and he said with all seriousness that he would do his best but he didn’t know how. Over the next few years I would remind him to stop growing up and he gave the same answer until he finally told me he wasn’t going to be able to but he will always give me hugs and love me. Countless trips to the zoo, learning all about animals. Hundreds of baseball games, basketball, football, racing his dad each year on his birthday. Thousands of memories. Its been 18 years, almost 19 now, but it really feels like no time at all. The hardest part of his mission I think for me will be not physically being with him and able to hug him for two years. Ugg, that is such a long time. It wasn’t perfect but I think we were able to be present in the moment and enjoy Matthew and the last few days with him as much as we could.
It was a big year for the kids in school this year!
Emilee is officially a middle schooler now. She started at Forest Spring Middle School. Because of our move she is attending a new middle school that Matt or Allison didn’t attend so she gets to blaze her own path. She was a little nervous to start without really knowing people. It was hard to not be going to the middle school most of her friends were at. She was a good sport about it and crushed her first day. She even made a few friends right away because she was pretty good at opening lockers so she helped some girls around her a few times. She was most excited about her FACS class and engineering class. She catches a bus each morning which I think she likes because she is on her own schedule and doesn’t have to wait for anyone.
Allison left middle school behind and became a Freshman this year. She is planning on doing wrestling in the winter. She decided to give Spanish one more try because last year was a disaster with a new teacher that has now been fired and not a lot of Spanish was learned. She rides with Matthew and is pretty gracious with accepting that she is the Freshman and he is the Senior so she doesn’t get to pick the music or where they park. She started seminary this year and has done great at getting up and getting there on time. She likes to be in the know so she is quickly learning every person in the schools name. She has a good group of friends that seem to get along pretty good for the most part. She would love to get a job and is keeping her ears open but opportunities are a little scarce for 14 year olds.
I remember when Matthew was in kindergarten they called them the class of 2025 and I thought I had forever until then. Now it is here and it doesn’t seem like it took forever at all. He has the confidence of a senior that has high school figured out…but is in no hurry to graduate yet. He should have 9-12 college credits when he graduates and could take a few less classes his last semester but he loves weights and lifetime fitness so much he is going to take them. He has Campbell and a solid group of friends that keep him busy along with his part time job at Costa Vida. Seniors had a first day of school sunrise event that he went to the first day. We are all going to try and make the most out of his last year in HS and enjoy all the things. Starting with senior pictures which he is not as excited about but his mother has told him are very required. I know his eyes are closed in most of these pictures. These were the best our of the 20 options I took. He said, “Its ok mom, it will remind me I was to tired to even open my eyes on the first day of school.”
Matthew and Campbell and a few other friends started the first week of school off by going to a Zach Bryan concert. He is one of both of their favorites. Matthew says one of his top three favorites. They had a great time and stayed up really late on a school night, just like seniors should.
After the float trip it was pretty much time to get ready for back to school. Since we weren’t doing our own family vacation anywhere this Summer I was a little worried it would be a boring, slow Summer. It really wasn’t though. We had lots of family come visit and between camps, sports and the kids going to visit grandparents we were pretty busy.
Sherrie and Dave (Ryan’s birth mom) came up for a visit at the beginning of Summer to watch Matthew play baseball. We had some extra time between games and were right by Liberty so we went and saw the Liberty jail visitor center with them. His half brother Dave and his family came up to visit for a weekend too. They took Allison to the zoo with them on the day Emilee had a softball tournament. Emilee went home with them for a week and spent time with her cousin Lizzy and then they stayed at our house for a week too.
We squeezed Matthew getting his wisdom teeth out between baseball seasons. He recovered pretty quickly. We were very grateful for that because a week after he had them out Campbell wanted him to take pictures with her for part of her senior pictures and we were worried he would have bruising or maybe still be swollen. He was fine, still a little hard to smile a full smile but the pictures turned out great. Campbell is a sweetheart. She is outgoing and responsible and beautiful. Her and Matthew are pretty cute together.
Allison was not in a hurry to get her learners permit once she turned 14 but I was. Kansas makes them have it a full year from when they get it before it can become a limited license and they can drive themselves to school and work. Allison is young for her grade so I need her to have that before the start of next school year so she can drive herself to school. Matthew and her go together this year- which I love- it is great sibling time for them. So…we braved the stupid DMV to get her learners permit. They tried their best to be difficult. My deep breathing exercises before and during all interactions helped me remain calm. Even though we had an appointment to get a learners permit scheduled through their system they tried to tell me they wouldn’t have time to do it before they closed. Even though their computer stopped working so they thought we wouldn’t be able to finish. Even though my valid drivers license with my current address wasn’t proof enough and I had to find an electric bill that anyone could forge to prove my legal, valid, #1 source of identification drivers license did in fact have my real address on it. Even though the employee had to work until 4:32 instead of 4:30. Even through all that made up stupid drama, we all persevered, Allison passed the test, took a beautiful picture and got her learners permit! When I took these pictures in the car she told me she had used up her one good picture for the permit so this is the best I was going to get.
Ryan had a work trip to upstate New York right as school was starting. I had never been there so I decided to tag along. It is a lot different than New York City. It is a lot like Kansas. We stayed in a VRBO with his boss and a few of the other VP’s of the company. There were some other spouses that came too. There were several nice dinners, and the main work event was a day at the Saratoga Race Track watching horse races. Neither of us had ever been to a horse race so it was a cool experience. We also wrote our names on a table at one of the places we went to mark our spot in history that we were there.🤣 We had a great long weekend. We did a ferry boat tour of one of Lake George. I am glad Ryan has found a place that he loves to work at and feels pride and happiness from it. He works hard and works with good people. I am proud of him and appreciate all he does to provide for his family.
A few years back when Ryan found is biological mom and met her and more of her side of the family, he also looked into his biological dads side. His dad passed away back in the late 90’s and the only family he really has left was a sister and a cousin. Ryan didn’t reach out to either of them because he was a little overwhelmed at the time and was working through the emotions of meeting Sherrie. His information was public on the 23 and Me website so his dads cousin saw the connection and put it together and he and his aunt-Rae-Ann reached out to Ryan to see if he would be interested in meeting them. He talked with them on the phone and a few times after that as well every few months but it never worked out to meet them in person. In August he was traveling pretty close to where Rae Ann lives and he felt ok about meeting her so he reached out and they set a meeting up for an afternoon while he was in the area. He said said it was a nice afternoon and he appreciated meeting her and getting to know her and more about that part of his history from her. He plans on keeping in touch with her and his cousin going forward. Here is a picture of there first meeting. I can see a family resemblance in them.
We didn’t do a big vacation this Summer because we are going on vacation in October together-more about that later- but we wanted to have a mini-cation together at some point this Summer. We have been wanting to do a float trip with the kids for a while so we decided it was time to do it. Ryan had a friend from work that lives by the Current river in Missouri. They have people come stay with them a lot and they have all the stuff you need to float the river. They have invited us several times and it hasn’t worked out so we decided it was a good time to do it.
The week of our trip Allison went to girls came Monday through Thursday. She was actually pretty close to were we were going to be so instead of having her drive home and then all the way back to the same place, we left on Thursday and picked her up at the camp she was at before they left to come home. She was actually at camp for her birthday. We had lots of little celebrations to celebrate her this year. Becky made her a cake and we celebrated with the rest of the KC Terry’s on Sunday before she left for camp. I sent a surprise gift bag for her to open on her actual birthday at camp. Her main gift this year was a new bed and mattress for her room. She wanted a queen bed instead of a twin. She also wanted to but some board and baton on one wall in her room and make an accent wall. We got that put up for her and painted it the blue color she wanted. Then we let her pick a place to eat out for her birthday dinner when we were on our float trip and Matthew and Emilee were back.
Matthew and Emilee came home from their Florida trip late Wednesday night and we left to get Allison Thursday morning and then go straight to the river. On Tuesday Ryan’s work buddy that was going to take us to the river and let us stay with him called and said that his wife was pretty sick with COVID and he would still let us use stuff and take us to the river but it might be best if we don’t stay at their house so we didn’t get sick. I would always rather stay at our own place than with someone so I thought it worked out great. Ryan decided to see if he could find a VRBO even though it was last minute. There were literally two options available. One was a definite no and the second was pretty new but had a handful of decent reviews. Once we gathered our kids from Florida and girls camp we headed to the Current river. We had some time to pass before we could check into our place so we stopped and watched the new movie Twisters on the way. It was pretty good. It still makes me feel old to watch ‘new movies’ that are remakes of movies that came out when I was young. After the movie stop we finished making our way to our little VRBO that the kids quickly nick named the “Crack Shack”. We were a little concerned when we pulled up. It looked a little rough from the outside. Luckily it was clean and not as bad on the inside, and had good door locks. It was literally 30 feet from a Dollar General store which is a little ghetto but very convenient. We settled in and went to dinner at an outdoor burger and ice cream stand. We watched the Olympics and played games the rest of the evening.
The next day we met Ryan’s friend and he hooked us up with all kinds of floating options. Ryan decided to get a kayak and the rest of us went with a tube. He drove us to a spot on the river to get in at and planned to meet us about 4-5 hours later at the pick up spot. Allison was a little tired from her week at girls camp and was a little less than excited about the whole trip. It took some convincing to get her to come out of her room and do anything with us the first night. With a little bit of help from us, mostly her brother Matthew, we loaded up and headed to the water. Once we got on the river it was much better. All of us loved it. The weather was great, the water was clean and a perfect temperature. It was so relaxing. We had the river to ourselves most of the time too because we went early instead of in the evening. We stopped to swim and play in the water a few times. We caught a baby turtle, saw some fun animals, got tan, and enjoyed each others company. I love float trips. It was the perfect length too. About the time we were getting tired and had run out of snacks we saw the pick up point.
After we dropped off the equipment we went home and showered and went to a pizza place that was recommended. It had potential…but they must have been short staffed and had a new cook, and something. It was comical how ridiculous it was. They only had half the items on the menu available…no pizza, which is what we went there for. Once we ordered the waitress (who had to go ask someone else about everything because she was brand new) said it would be about 45 minutes before the food was ready. We decided to try some of the games they had…the only one that worked was the dart board. That after asking almost everyone that worked there only had two working darts. They had axe throwing-another reason we went there… but it wasn’t available. When the food finally arrived it was ok. Nothing great. We decided to see if we could save the meal with shakes for dessert. After what seemed like forever waiting for the shakes we asked if they were coming and our waitress said they were almost ready. Then we watched her walk over to check on them and they must have told her to do it herself because she then went over and made them by herself one at a time. It took a while and we think it was her first time handling ice cream ever. By the time we got the shakes, the first three were liquid, two were the wrong flavor, mine was only half full and tasted like thick milk. It was so ridiculous from start to finish we just all laughed about it. We left and went back to our crack shack. The Dollar Store was still open so we got some junk food and played games the rest of the night. The next day we headed home.
It was a short but sweet vacation. Lots of little hiccups but I will still probably remember it as one of my favorite vacations with the kids. Our season of life is getting ready to change after this year. I have loved this season. I love the kids being older and a little more independent and watching their personalities develop. It is a time they are developing themselves and trying things but it is still a little bubble that their lives don’t have to much craziness or stress. They are all awesome people and I love spending time with them.
For the past many years every year on Matthew’s birthday, he has raced his dad. Dead sprint, about 100 yards, winner gets bragging rights for the next year on being the fastest. Of course when this started Ryan smoked Matthew. In recent years Matthew is more and more convinced it will be the year he will win. Once or twice we have had a false start or some shenanigans that has resulted in a race being disqualified and having to run again. Ryan has been the clear winner each year though. This past year when Matthew turned 16 Ryan had a tweaked neck and wasn’t able to race. Then Matthew was sick, then it was winter, then something else and it was many many months after Matthew’s actual 16th birthday and they still hadn’t raced. Both trashed talked each other and said they other was scared to race because they new they would loose. Blah blah blah. They are both talkers. Finally one nice sunny day this Summer I told them both to get outside and race. I can’t remember when exactly they raced Matthew was closer to 17 than 16 (luckily it was before he broke his arm) but we are calling it the 16 year race. After being a late bloomer waiting semi-patiently for growth and puberty to catch up Matthew finally had some man muscle mixed in with his youth. Combined with his dad having old age mixed in with his man muscles and the perfect storm occurred and Matthew had his day. It was a proud moment for him.
After celebrating Grandma and Grandpa’s 50th Anniversary we had a few days of Summer left before school started. We did school shopping and back to school nights. Aaron’s birthday this year was a pretty rainy day. We decided to go see him anyways. Our original plan was to go to the temple and do baptisms that day but Matthew had some doctor appointments and was still pretty limited to being up and about a lot so we bumped that and did it with Grandpa and a friend of Allison’s later. Ryan’s brother David and his wife Jen came up to KC one night and took us to dinner.
Our house was moving along but not ready to move into yet so we stayed at our rental and started another year of school. Matthew had surgery at the end of August on his elbow. They had to reattach some tendons and bone and he was pretty out of it for a few days. Now he is working on getting back into shape for baseball in the Spring.
My sister Sherri got a big promotion at work so DeAnna and I decided to send her a congratulation gift. We settled on a Potato Parcel. It is literally a potato that we had a picture and message printed on. Can’t get more unique than that. We think she liked it.
Then school started!!! Matthew is a Junior. Allison is in 8th grade. Emilee is in 5th grade. This is the last year with one in each school. Next year will be down to only two schools for a while. It was a bit of a rough start, the girls bus driver was new and it took a bit for her to get the girls picked up and to the right school then dropped off at the right spot after school. Matthew missed some school with surgery and Dr appointments. A few weeks in we started to get into our school grove.
