See ya in two!

 This is the last post I will write and then this will become the writings of Elder Bingham. :)   This is mostly a copy and paste from what I wrote in my journal.

Our last couple of days with Luke were fun.  Sunday he spoke in church.  It was nice that it was at the end of his home MTC week, but it was especially nice because McKenna was able to be home.  The Bingham extended family had all been on a little lake vacation that weekend, but they all checked out a little early on Sunday morning in order to be home to attend our church meeting to hear Luke speak, which was really nice.  One good thing to come from Covid was Zoom, and so I was also able to send a Zoom link out to our out-of-town family, and a few other friends.  Luke told me he also shared the link with his MTC district because they asked for it.  (The guy in our ward told me we had 44 people watch the meeting! (which really is a little more.  For example, Craig's phone counts as one person, but 6 of them were watching).  Luke was the last speaker of the meeting.  He had 3 main points to his talk:

1. The atonement of Jesus Christ is the only way that we can be saved
2. Using the atonement daily will strengthen our relationship with Him.  He gave a cute analogy that he and Elder Campbell came up with about the atonement being like driving a car and crashing it.  We do our best to be careful and follow the rules, but sometimes we get in a crash or need maintenance on the car.  Fortunately, the Savior is the Ultimate Mechanic, and he can fix the car good as new.  (he elaborated with some invitations)
3. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith.  I think this was the cutest part of his talk.  He started by quoting his favorite movie (Spiderman- Into the Spider Verse): Peter Parker says to Miles (a new Spiderman): "You won't know when you are ready.  It's a leap of faith."  Having faith in Jesus leads us to action.  He talked about not knowing if he's "ready" to serve a mission--he's 18 years old, he's going to Colombia, he doesn't speak the language, he's never lived on his own before-- but he knows God will help him and he's ready to take that leap of faith.  

Prior to Luke speaking, the boys sang an arrangement of the hymn "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go."  Luke and Tyler sang, along with a small group of friends: Luey Grover, Will Jarvis, Beck Crabb, Ethan Austin, and Sam Blake.  (The Pabst were out of town or Coleman would have also sang).  Friend Chase Owen directed the song.  The song was a TTBB arrangement, and they sang it so beautifully, so powerfully.  We got soooo many compliments on it!   This was so special to me, to see these boys up there singing together, and for Luke to be singing this missionary anthem song with boys who look up to him as an example.

Sunday night we had an open house for people to stop in and say goodbye.  Luckily, there weren't any missionary classes Sunday night because I had not considered that at all when we made these plans.  We had a good group of friends stop by and visit during the 2 hour window, and that group of boys lingered until almost 10:00pm.  I had a girl in our ward make some sugar cookies and they turned out absolutely adorable!  Almost too cute to eat!  😏   

I didn't get pictures with everyone that night, but I got a few.

Bishop Jensen

With Noah, who he's grown up with-- literally since he was 18 months old

A picture with Carson so we can compare how much he grows the next 2 years.

Brad's family

The Engstroms in the ward gave Luke this Colombia tie.

That's a bunch of teenagers on the trampoline!!

Will said, "Gosh Luke, I'm actually going to really miss you.  I mean it."

With Hoopers!  (I was bummed I forgot a picture with the Pattersons!)

Last goodbye to Annie

Ethan V, Kade, and Beck (and Tyler), who all think Luke is awesome!

Monday night we went to Andy's to get frozen custard and Luke wanted his final movie to be his favorite one, Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse.  We allowed some leniency with the movie choice and watched it as a family.  Of course we watched it in Spanish, with Spanish subtitles -- language study!  😊

Tuesday morning was pretty relaxed.  We didn't have to leave for the airport until 11:00am (a perk with the airport being only 15 minutes away, no traffic, and also a small airport.)  Ashley came over (Devin was at work) and McKenna worked that morning from home.  Scott had gone in to work that morning but came home around 10:00am.  Stacy, Lincoln, and Benji came over and brought breakfast around 9:15am.  Luke spent an hour playing with the boys.  They jumped on the trampoline, played with magnets, and shot the airsoft guns.  Stacy had them wear their "peace out" shirts, which was adorable.  They had brought one of their little toy figures, and Benji kept saying "Terry is going to Colommmmmbia!".  There were hugs goodbye and Terry somehow (wink, wink, Stacy) slipped into Luke's bag to go with him to Colombia.  

shooting imaginary bad guys

Playing "the floor is lava"

After they left, we had a quick 30ish minutes to wrap things up at home.  Scott gave Luke a father's blessing, which was so sweet, but also tugged at my heartstrings and had me in tears.  Then we quickly went down the checklist one last time, looked over everything we had packed, and zipped up the suitcases!  The luggage was loaded into the car and we headed to the airport!  

After we got Luke checked in, we stepped over by the escalators.  Everyone took a picture with Luke and then I asked someone to come take a family picture for me.

After that, it was about 11:40 so we gave hugs goodbye and he headed off!  (Boarding on the plane started at 12:05pm) We were all in tears.  Mine were the first to fall of course, the girls' tears followed mine.  The saddest tears for me was seeing Tyler's tears.  He hasn't cried in years-- I don't even know the last time he cried!  He's never known life without Luke in it, they have grown up best of friends, so this will be an adjustment for him!  Scott has gotten more tender-hearted as he has aged, and he was in tears, too.  Luke was trying to be strong, but he had some tears fall as well.  I'm sure it was mostly because he was seeing all of our tears.   Luke is such a blessing to our family and we are really going to miss him in so many ways!    

*Side note: here's fun then and now picture.  This is Ashley and Luke when she left on her mission compared to when he left on his. 😊

I snapped a couple of pictures as he walked away.  He looked back and waved to us.  He made up and through security in about 5 minutes.  He texted us saying he was all good.  One different thing with sending Luke off is that I sent him with his phone. That turned out to be nice so he could check in with us.  (The plan is for Trevor to mail it back to me.)  He made me laugh when he said he had stopped real quick to buy a baked pretzel.  There's a pretzel shop there in the airport that we all love, so it's always a treat to get Auntie Anne's Pretzels. :)  He made it to his gate and then flew to Atlanta, Georgia.  (which is the opposite direction he needed to go, but those were the flight arrangements the travel department made for him.)

Smiling through the tears

When he arrived in Atlanta, there was a tender mercy-- Mark and Connie were also on a layover in Atlanta.  We did not realize this would be the case.  They had even stopped by our house on Monday night to say goodbye.  (They were headed on a European Cruise, leaving a few hours before Luke was leaving.   They found out their flight had changed and so they texted us as we were headed home from the aiport asking for Luke's flight info.) They were able to be there at his gate when he got off the plane.  What a fun surprise for Luke!  They bought him a late lunch and helped him navigate the airport to get over into the correct terminal.  

Their flight left before his did, but they were able to spend about an hour together.  What a fun, unexpected surprise.  A tender mercy for sure!

His flight from Atlanta left on time as well.  It was a 2-hour flight from XNA to Atlanta, but a 4-hour flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake City.  There was one other missionary on the flight, and the guy sitting next to Luke was LDS and had served his mission 45 years ago..... here in the Bentonville/Rogers area!  (Was the Little Rock mission at the time.)  Another little one of "God's fingerprints" on Luke that day.  I tracked his location across the skies and as he neared Utah, it looked like the plane detoured a bit to avoid some storms.  This added some extra time, but he still landed a little early.  My dad was there to pick him up at the airport.  It was also my dad's birthday!   

Once they got Luke's suitcases, they headed back to my dad's house where most of my family was able to come and say Hello/Goodbye to Luke, and have some cake for Dad's birthday!   (Jamie apologized for not being able to go, but she had good reasons!  She lives about an hour away, she got home from work late that night, and was leaving for a business trip the next morning, so she needed to pack and spend time with Caroline.)   I got more pictures!   I just love that even though it was only about an hour of time, my family was able to stop by and see Luke, and that they made the effort to do so!  Trevor came down from Provo to pick him up and take him home with him that night.  (Not pictured: Natalie and Ryan and Val...they left before pictures were taken.) 

With Chad's family

With Trevor

with Dad and Susan

with Brooke's family (minus Megan)

with Craig's family

Luke spent the night with Trevor and Mary on Tuesday night.  Luke's arrival time at the MTC was scheduled for 12:30pm on Wednesday, so Trevor worked from home that morning so he could also hang out with Luke.  They left Trevor's apartment around noon and went over to take a couple of pictures.  The Provo MTC is literally a drive-thru drop off, and it's super quick, so people have learned to say goodbyes across the street on the temple/field where they have a little time to take a few pictures and say goodbye, and then give final quick hugs in the drop off line.  

Luke found Terry! 😏

Missionary escorts are there waiting for you when you arrive.  They help you get your luggage out of the car, let you say a quick goodbye, and then guide you inside to the MTC.  It's a pretty smooth process.  When Trevor was out here month ago, I wasn't thinking about the fact that Luke was going to the Provo MTC and that they would be able to see each other again!  So this was another tender mercy for me-- a sweet experience that Luke's older brother could be the one to drop him off at the MTC.  💙

Luke is going to be an amazing missionary and I know the Lord is going to use these next 2 years to refine him into a better version of himself, to teach him to love others, to serve, to strengthen his testimony.  I look forward to having a front row seat as that happens!