Two More Elders

This post is dedicated to Elders Harrison (second from left) and Stutz (resting on E) who became part of our family while serving here in Baltimore. We love you guys!
I don't know how to compose this post. I am suddenly filled with deep emotion as I consider things. It's funny how you can plan things one way and they can turn out entirely different than you anticipated and be even better than you could imagined. I was referring to our evening with Elders last night, but as I write this, I realize it absolutely applies to life in general.

We said goodbye to two more Elders yesterday evening. It was a whirlwind day, with much planning to make it all come together.

A little explanation: In the past when any of the Elders are being transferred or going home, we try and have both companionships over for dinner and we play the game of LIFE. (They seem to look at this as a road map for what might lie ahead. It's pretty funny.)

A little hiccup: On Sunday, two of the Elders informed us they would not be able to come to dinner on Tuesday as planned. No other night would work as Jon works Sunday and Monday evenings this month and on Wednesday they would be at the mission home for their final evening before heading home. They had a very good reason for cancelling - a baptism!

A little tweaking: After rearranging times a little, we figured out a way to get all four here, have an early dinner, shuttle off to the baptism with the help of our friend Daniel acting as chauffeur to two, attend the baptism and come back for 16-layers of heaven (see photo). All of that was easily enough arranged and the baptism was wonderful. I am grateful we attended.

Another set of hiccups: When the baptism concluded, there were not enough spots in vehicles to get everyone back to our place. There are too many little details to explain and really they are unnecessary for this story, so in the end we had found rides for everyone who needed them and in the process invited most of the people at the baptism back to our place for cake and ice cream. Love it. (I'm so glad we had cleaned the house earlier.)

A spontaneous party!! This glorious cake, below, is incredibly rich and the piece size needs to be small if you are going to make it through it. In the end, we got 20 slices out of a 9" round. Turns out, that's about the right size after all. Not a piece was left and everyone who wanted one got one. The ice cream too was completely devoured. It felt a little like the loaves and the fishes. More than the food though, we got to have good friends over to visit, the kids played until they dropped and the Elders got to say goodbye to a lot of people. It was wonderful and I loved that it was entirely unplanned and there was no stress.
In the end, we played a quick game of LIFE with the Elders and E creamed us all. We said our goodbyes to Harrison and Stutz, who were amazing, hard-working Elders, snapped a few pics and went to bed with our bellies full of cake, minds filled with happy new memories and hearts overflowing with gratitude for such a perfect day.