EVEN AS MY FRIENDS

  

6 a.m. Wednesday, May 5, 2010:  Van and I, Joseph, and Elder Cosby head to the airport.  I love you.  We love you.  Work hard.  Be faithful.  We'll pray for you.  Write.  Take a few pictures for me. Hug me.  Hug your brother.  I love you.  This is the fifth time I've done this.  Joseph . . . or was it you, Seth?  Remember how you cried when your  brother left?  Because he accidentally slammed your head in the trunk when he closed it . . . which brother was that? They do not blend together, my boys, but there is a familiarity to rituals like this, like a musical refrain.   Mom, are you going to take pictures of every single thing?  Yes.  And we will watch you walk away until we can't see you anymore.  Until even after we can't see you anymore.  I don't know French, or Tahitian.  I know a little Spanish.  Vaya con Dios, that I remember, a beautiful lyrical phrase.  Go with God.  Vaya con Dios, Seth, I mean Elder . . .  Elder Cosby the fifth . . .  no the sixth, counting Dad.  Reach for Van's hand.  We stand together with Joseph.   God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again.  Wave.  He is eagerly looking forward, to what is ahead.  Good-bye. This is easy.  Let the boy try, Mom . . . how many times have I heard that?  Let them go.  Let them fly.  How grateful I am that they choose to fly high when they go.  They honor us and the Lord.  I am not a wimpy Mom.   I have six sons, and I want them to grow up to be responsible, faithful, Christlike good men.  Salt water on my face feels good.  Feels like the South Pacific.

Doctrine and Covenants 84: 77-88 (excerpts)  . . . BECOME EVEN AS MY FRIENDS in days when I was with them, traveling to preach the gospel in my power . . . Behold, I send you out to prove the world, and the laborer is worthy of his hire.  And any man that shall go and preach this gospel of the kingdom, and fail not to continue faithful in all things, shall not be weary in mind, neither darkened, neither in body, limb, nor joint; and a hair of his head shall not fall to the ground unnoticed.  And they shall not go hungry, neither athirst.  For consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin, and the kingdoms of the world, n all their glory, are not arrayed like one of these.  For your Father, who is in heaven, knoweth that you have need of all these things.  Therefore, let the morrow take thought for the things of itself.  Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man . . . this commandment is unto all the faithful who are called of God in the church unto the ministry . . . that goeth forth to proclaim this gospel of the kingdom.  Behold, I send you out to reprove the world of all their unrighteous deeds, and to teach them of a judgment which is to come.  And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I WILL GO BEFORE YOUR FACE, I WILL BE ON YOUR RIGHT HAND AND ON YOUR LEFT, AND MY SPIRIT SHALL BE IN YOUR HEARTS, AND MINE ANGELS ROUND ABOUT YOU, TO BEAR YOU UP . . .