Farewell and MTC

Shayne's Mission farewell was on March 10th.  It was wonderful.  Julie Howells spoke first then Jan & Andy, Brad & Ashley, Andy, Katie and Bradie all sang "I Am Not Ashamed" by Marvin Payne.  It was incredible.  The spirit was so strong.  Then Shayne stood up and gave an amazing talk on how she decided to go on a mission and the worth of souls.  She, of course, was eloquent and everyone could tell that she was ready to go.  I was overwhelmed of the amount of friends who came to support us.  I really didn't start to cry until after the meeting was over and they all came up to give me a hug.  I have been blessed with better friends than I deserve.  After the block of meetings, we had well over 100 people (mostly family) at our house for lunch.  I was so incredibly nervous about not having enough food.  But the more people that came the more food that showed up.  I have wonderful neighbors who kept bringing over salads and desserts.  By the time everyone left we had less than a dozen cookies left over and half a salad.  It was perfect.  No, it was an answer to my many prayers.  I was so grateful that my entire family was able to make it here.  Not a single person was missing.  We had Jalee take family pictures for us in my front yard since we don't really know when we'll all be together again.  It was a wonderful day for me on so many levels.  Our church emphasizes families for a reason.  I couldn't imagine my life without a single one of them in it.  To have the knowledge that we will be together forever even after this life is what make this life worth living.

Shelton adults out to eat Saturday night before the big day.

Our dearest friend Vince Tauanuu gave Shayne this lei that represents good luck.  It was beautiful.

James decorated the backyard wall with scenes from Australia.  He did a great job.

Shayne and her boys Cashe, Alex and Zack.

On Tuesday afternoon Shayne was set apart as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Our Stake President, Jeff Ellsworth, knows Shayne very well and we had a great little meeting before he set her apart.  He asked some of us why we thought Shayne would be a good missionary and we got to say some nice things about her.  I was glad that Grandma & Grandpa Beckstrand, Brian and JoEllen, Kyle and their kids could all make it.  It was a great final farewell for them.  Then we left for Lehi.

 We went up and ate dinner at my parents with all my siblings that live up there and Shayne said her last good-byes.  That next morning we got up, got dressed, loaded up Shayne's suitcases and headed to the Missionary Training Center in Provo.  We got there with a couple minutes to spare so went across the street to the Temple and took some pictures and enjoyed our last 10 minutes with her.  Then it was time.  We drove over and there were men pointing directions to go and Elders lining the sidewalks waiting to help unload new missionaries.  As we pulled up we were told to pull into parking spot #13 which we thought had to be good luck since it was the 13th of March.  I got out, said hi to the Elder waiting to help, took him to the trunk and showed him where her luggage was and left him there.  I wasn't about to help him because I didn't want to waste 1 second of my last minute with her.  She gave everyone a hug.  No one cried.  We were all excited and happy.  That nervous kind of happy where your stomach feels like your on a rollercoaster.  The Elder said, "Are you ready?" she of course nodded and the started to walk away.  Everyone climbed back into the van and I took pictures as she walked away and said, "Hey turn around so I can get a picture".  She did.  I said bye and they left.  BUT...as I turned around I ran right into Clark Corey, one of Shayne's swimmers from Desert Hills.  I was so surprised that I grabbed his arm and said, "Clark!  Oh my heck!  Shayne is right up there.  You need to go catch up to her."  Then of course I did the embarrassing mom thing and yelled, "HEY SHAYNE!"  Then immediately thought, "Oh I should have yelled Sister Beckstrand...wait, I probably shouldn't have yelled at all!  Oh well."  Then I proceeded to shout, "Shayne here's Clark, wait for him!"  It was awesome.  The thing I probably love most about Shayne is that she never has been embarrassed of me.  She loved it and had the biggest grin on her face.  I knew, in a weird way, that seeing Clark would make everything alright.  A familiar face for her and the knowledge that she wasn't alone for me would put us both at ease and it did.  She wrote us that night from the MTC and told us that she saw 3 other kids from school and was glad to see them.  This is going to be a very hard and incredibly wonderful journey for her.  For all of us.