Craft Mission Blog

Hey all!

This is actually Angela. My mom is having fun in California with her friend, Shawna, who is going to run a marathon on Monday!
Well I have given the blog a face-lift with some of the new family pictures that we had another local photographer take (yes, I was the one to pick them since I'm the one who's too picky ;)

And also today I have had fun making a Craft mission blog for Spencer. All of you who know him or would like to read some of the letters or emails he sends, I thought you might like to know. The blog is: craftmissionaries.blogspot.com

There is a link to that blog on the side. Also you can subscribe to his blog and receive emails when that blog is updated. The letters he sends us may be edited to include only the things we think Spencer would be ok to be viewed publically on a blog.

We hope you enjoy that blog too! Here's a picture taken of all of those able to go take Spencer to the MTC (more of these pictures on the mission blog).

Have a great Memorial weekend!

Emotions

Emotions was the best title I could come up with.  I never thought emotions would flow so freely over practically nothing.  My baby boy is going to serve the Lord for 2 whole years.  We truly are giving the Lord one of our finest.  It all started in church yesterday when I realized that was the last time for 2 years that I would sit next to him in Sacrament meeting.  Several people  in church talked to me about Spencer and I couldn't contain my emotions.  He wrote me a very beautiful Mother's Day card that made me cry accompanied by a very thoughtful gift.  Stan said our couple prayer that night and mentioned Spencer and I cried.  I'm crying now just writing this.  I was folding his garments today and cried on them so I had to dry them again.  I love my boy and am very excited for him to have this opportunity.  I called the mission home today to ask some questions about what would be best in regards to a bike for Spencer.  They acted like they already knew Spencer and were excited to see him on June 1st.  That made me feel a lot better.

Tonight we had our last Family Home Evening with Spencer.  We had Grandma & Grandpa Wilding, Grandma Craft, Brittney & Randy, John & Angela over for dinner and FHE.

Belinda Grace will change the most while Spencer is away.  

Stan bought this huge map of the world and is going to hang it up downstairs and put tacks where everyone went on their mission.

He also bought flags representing where each person has been:  

Grandpa Wilding - South Africa

Grandpa & Grandma Wilding -  California & New Zealand

Grandma Craft- California

John Liddle - Venezuela

Randy Henderson - Venezuela

Stan Craft - Canada

Spencer Craft - Colorado

We then talked about Ammon who was a great missionary in the Book of Mormon.  We all went around and gave some missionary advice for Spencer on how to be a great missionary.  We had everyone that had gone on a mission share an experience they had on their mission.  We sang "Called to Serve, Press Forward Saints , God Be With You & of course Do as I'm Doing" .  It was a nice evening that we enjoyed together.  Spencer then promised the little boys that he would sleep out on the trampoline with them.  What an awesome brother.

We started measuring feet and heights to see the changes in 2 years.  This is Benson & Spencer's feet.  They are about the same size.

We have been trying to cram in a bunch of stuff before he leaves.  The next several posts will highlight a few.  We will miss you Bud.

Moab

We decided to go on a little 2 night stay in Moab.  We had a good time but realized that this would be a great place to come without little kids.  There is a lot of hiking involved and the kids just wanted to go back to the hotel and swim.  We did have an exciting night hike that turned out to be kind of scary for the little kids.  Stan had us all stop while we were hiking back in the dark to tell a story.  You know how one person starts it and then the next person picks up were they left off and so on until each person has had a chance to contribute to the story.  So we were telling this story and I think it was Benson's turn and all of of sudden we heard this mysterious flute playing (kind of like an Indian flute).  There were no other people on this trail we were all alone or so we thought.  That is when the story really got good.  The boys started to get really nervous (Jacob cried a little).  We headed back and lost our way and couldn't find the trail.  Benson was inspired to direct us a certain way and we eventually found our way back.  The Moon was amazing reflecting on the side of the formations.  This place is a photographers dream.

Temples

Since Spencer got his endowments we have decided to visit different temples each week.  The other day we were coming back from the Salt Lake Temple and we could see 3 temples at the same time.  Quite incredible.  This is our visit to the Draper temple

This is our visit to the Salt Lake Temple so Spencer could enjoy a live endowment session.

We also attended initiatories twice at the Timpanogos Temple and did several sessions.  The day before he leaves we are all going to do a sealing session with our family names.  What a great experience this has been.

Farewell Sunday

On Sunday April 26th we had a little luncheon before Spencer's Farewell Address.  Well I suppose nothing is very little with my family.  We had 48 people jammed into my house.  The food was great and we all had a great time visiting with each other.  We were actually early to church that day - what a surprise!  Spencer did a great job on his talk.  I really felt the Spirit.  Justin Mortensen sang "Homeward Bound".  He sang beautiful as usual.  Shantell Kester also gave her farewell address.  She is going to Stockholm, Sweeden. 

Brittney (my daughter), Jennifer (my sister) & Ashley(my niece) all holding their baby girls only 2 weeks apart.

Michelle taking her turn holding all the cute babies there that day.

Eliza trying on everyone's shoes.  These were by far the cutest ones.  She knows how to pick out fashion.

The girls having fun on the tramp

The boys having fun being warriors.

One more week and we will say farewell to Spencer for two years.