Your editor here. Elder Tonkinson asked that I give an update. The past four days have been busy and emotional. Sunday began with Gideon delivering a message during Sacrament Meeting (the main Sunday Service), which I will post separately. After Church, we went home for a few hours, ate our last meal together, and played some games. I remember when our oldest son left on his mission, and the feeling of each activity being the last of its type before he left and the profound sadness of that. With Gideon as our third, this was much less pronounced, though still present. It is hard to prepare to part for two years. I cannot imagine the challenge to the early Latter-day Saints when husbands left wives and children for two, three or even more years in order to share the gospel. Their faith and sacrifices are inspiring.

At 4:00, we went back to the church to attend the baptism of our bishops youngest daughter. Because many people were at the church for the baptism, Gideon had the opportunity to say goodbye to many of the friends and families he loves so much.

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At about 5:15 PM, President Malone of the Buena Vista Virginia Stake (as stake is a geographic collection of church congregations similar to a Catholic Diocese), having been authorized by the Prophet of the Lord, laid his hands on Gideon’s head and set him apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to labor in the Everett Washington Mission. Thus, Gideon became Elder Tonkinson until he is released from his mission.

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We returned home and Elder Tonkinson packed. It was a tight fit, but he was able to fit everything into one suitecase, a roll aboard, and a should bag. About 9:15, Mirella, a neighbor, came to wish her goodbyes, and about 11:00, we finally went to bed.

The day started about 3:50 AM Monday morning, so that we could leave the house by 4:15 and get to the Lynchburg airport and check bags prior to the flight to Charlotte, which departed at 5:29 AM. The whole family came, although Addie was not at all happy about being out of bed that early. Elder Tonkinson and I flew together to Charlotte, enjoyed a breakfast biscuit from Bojangles in honor of his friends Drew and Carson, and then visited together at his gate until he boarded for Phoenix about 7:25. I then hustled off to my flight to Pensacola. I shed a few tears.

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Elder Tonkinson arrived in Salt Lake about 12:45. He spent Monday and Tuesday with his brothers (Caleb and Mark), their wives (Hillary and Whitney), his sister (Taryn) and his four nephews (Elliott, Bennett, Collin, and Owen). They had a dinner with cousins on Monday night and one with the Stewarts, good friends from our time in Illinois. Elder Tonkinson was clearly anxious. On Wednesday, he talked with Cameo, Nathan, and Addie in Virginia, and me in Florida before enjoying sushi for lunch and ice cream from one of the best places in the country (Rockwell’s Creamery in Provo). Then, the time arrived and they dropped him at the Missionary Training Center (MTC), where he will spend the next six weeks learning more about how to share the gospel and honing his Spanish. He sent a quick email letting us know that his p-day (Preparation Day, the day in which the morning and afternoon are available for taking care of things like emailing home, buying groceries, doing laundry, and other similar activities that they don’t have time for when missionaries are busy studying and teaching the gospel) will be Saturday while he is in the MTC.