Matt

My brother Matthew has been serving in the Sacramento California Mission. We (and he) found out on Monday the 10th that he would be coming home to get surgery on his knee. He'd been walking around on that injured knee for about a month, so it wasn't a complete surprise. We were just surprised that he was to fly in on the 11th! The amazing thing was that Mom was able to get everything scheduled so fast, and with a doctor that came highly recommended. Matt flew in Tuesday morning, went to a doctor's appointment that day, and had surgery on Wednesday. He stayed in the hospital for a few hours, but then he went home that night! We're really sorry that he's had so much pain, but we are really grateful for the miracles Heavenly Father has provided.

We were already planning on going to Delta that weekend for a family reunion (more on that later), so we got to see Matt pretty soon. I was a little unsure of what it would be like. For some reason I've had a hard time writing him because I just feel like our mission experiences have been different in a lot of ways and I just didn't know what to say to him. I know I liked hearing all the "newsy" stuff from back home, but I didn't feel interesting. Anyway, I wasn't sure how changed he would be when we finally got to see him, but a big part of me felt that it would be weirdly normal--meaning we would be just like always even though it's been more than a year since we last saw each other.

And that part of me was right! It just felt good to see him, and we talked just as we always had. Well, at least since I moved out of the house and we started to get along. ; ) He even beat me up the same despite his hurt knee. : ) No, he didn't really beat me up. He just gives VERY strong hugs. The nice thing was that we got to talk about our missions and I realized that a lot of our experiences have been very similar. I made a new commitment to write him better when he returns to the field, and ignore my inhibitions of uniteresting self-views.

I took my camera specifically so I could take pictures of Matt. Much to my shame, I realized when I got home I had none. I just wasn't thinking about pictures while I spent time with him.

But even without the pictures, I'll have some very good memories of this weekend. It was wonderful to be reunited with family and to sense the care of a loving Heavenly Father who watches out for us.