A Delightful Dilemma

Our dear, sweet little Himbeere has this hockey stick that he plays with in the winter and often, using tennis balls, in the summer too. And then his friend went to a hockey camp, the same kid that got him interested in hockey and gave him the hockey stick. So Himbeere gave him the hockey stick and asked him to see if he could get it autographed; sometimes they have famous hockey players come to these camps. So hockey great Joe Pavelski was the famous hockey player at this camp. So now Himbeere has a hockey stick autographed by Joe Pavelski that he figures will be worth some $200 or better some time after Pavelski retires (he's only been playing in the NHL since the 2006-2007 season). Be that as it may, Himbeere is pretty excited to have this great piece of memorabilia! But the only problem is, this now leaves him without a stick to knock pucks around with. Pavelski signed it on the stick and on the blade. Bummer.

So Very Far Away

The long awaited day has finally come! Stachelbeere's mission call finally came. It actually came last Friday but his Mom, sister and brother were away at youth conference and really wanted to be there when he opened it. So he was kind enough to wait until Saturday when they got back. So we packed everyone up and headed to Perkins for a celebratory dinner. Blaubeere and her whole family came over and went with us. And his sister, Heidelbeere, had said she wanted to be on the phone when he opened it so we got her on the cell phone, on speaker phone, and then he opened it. We tried to get Erdbeere on the other phone but he was too quick. This was like waiting to hear the winner of a big contest announced; "and now the winner and luck country that gets to have Elder Stachelbeere serve for two years is . . . . . . " The Marshall Islands! Wow! Everyone's first reaction was, "where's that?" Fortunately the call came with a map that showed where it was. Its out in the middle of no where, out in the ocean; longer than wide by far. There are some spots where you can stand on one shore and throw a rock clear across the island into the ocean. The highest point on any of the islands that make up this small country is 30 feet above sea level. Pray there are no tsunamis there for the next few years. He won't enter the MTC until in October so he can get all his shots and papers lined up. Wow - Marshall Islands. Every body had their guesses in but nobody guessed Marshall Islands.

Opening the letter - the moment we've all been waiting for!

Ready to go!

Guess what?! One of the hardest parts of getting everything ready to submit was the picture. But we got it done and everything has been submitted. Stachelbeere has been working on this for a while, now. So now the waiting game has begun. We're hoping his date to enter the MTC will be in mid-August. That would be perfect timing. Then we could see everybody, see our new missionary off and be back in time for the beginning of school. Yeah, that would be great.

Stachelbeere has been working with our Branch President to go on a mini-mission before he goes on the actual mission. That will involve a couple of weeks staying with full time missionaries, doing what missionaries do. That will be an adventure.