Chapter 35

I thought some of you might like to read my letter to Shane this week. Be sure to read the post following this to find Shane's letter for this week.

Dear Shane,

I figured out this is our 35th email letter since you left. By the time you come home, we'll have a great documentation of two years years of our lives -- 108 letters in all. Wow! Sometimes it's hard for me to sit and write --not because I don't want to reach out to you, but because it requires so much brain power. You must feel the same way at times. Anyway, today you can indulge me a little because I wrote my letter in 3nd person for variety and practice. Here goes:

Lacie sat with her hands on the keyboard wanting to say the right things to her son, feeling at a loss. His last letter left her a bit discouraged, so how must he feel? So many people too busy to sit at the feet of the Saviour? She realized that it happens all the time, even to her. This mortal world with it's bright lights and promises of fame is a laboratory of distraction. Every day it gets harder to keep our eyes on what matters most. But the Saviour waits. And it came to her. Just tell him to focus on the Savior and His love for everyone. We cannot make people listen to the truth. We cannot make them see. But we can turn to the One who knows what every kind of suffering and hardship feels like and we will always find a patient voice to urge us on--to help us take that step out into the darkness --time and time again. We will want to know how the ending will turn out, but He will remind us that it is enough to live today. 

She liked that advice. It was a nice mixture of the gospel and the best advice her own mother and father had given her. And the truths it contained were simple but elemental. Shane could use this advice over and over again for the rest of his life. 

She missed him. She thought of him every day when she checked the stats on his missionary blog. Sometimes she thought of the blog readers who knew very little about the Saviour, and she was encouraged. She must remind him that those same bright lights distracting the people were also bringing them truth through this new medium, helping his current work in Romania reach to Canada, Brazil, Japan, Germany, UK, Denmark, Ukraine, and Russia. Over 300 people viewed the blog every month. Surely hearts were being touched. Surely the Savior's love was being felt. Even if things were moving slowly in Brasov. Living in a country so recently loosed from the grips of communism was the stuff of novels and history books.

She hadn't served a mission or lived outside of California, so she looked up to her son now and hoped to learn from his experiences.  

She knew Shane -- hard working, obedient, and ever striving for the Spirit's guidance. That should be enough right? People should want to be baptized. She knew she must remind him that this mission experience was for him also--not just others. It would help him become a man of wisdom, faith, and broadened perspective. And they all knew that Romania was his place -- the place Heavenly Father wanted him to be -- and that He would send people to help him, like Elder Vekony.

That wasn't so hard. She looked at the tiny digital display in the corner of the screen -- eight pm . She had been sitting at the keyboard for an hour and hopefully written something worthwhile. But, oh! She couldn't stop without giving him glimpse of home in June -- knee high weeds, hay fever, and ripening blueberries (the best crop in years), lazy cats sleeping through the hours of heat, and Abby's fur wet from her latest swim in the creek. But most of all the love that would wait for him and reach out to him across the oceans and continents.

Can't wait to hear the news of your week! I love you so much.

Mom