Here are a few photos from last night’s Mission Farewell Party for Aaron.  We had a house full of family, friends and neighbors who came to wish Aaron well.  Today he did a fabulous job speaking in church, sharing his testimony of Jesus Christ and his feelings about being His representative for the next 2 years in Chile.  Aaron is good through and through.  I’m so proud of the good choices he’s made and the opportunities he’ll have to go now and put his life on hold for a while to serve others.

It’s no small thing these missionaries do.  Just imagine saying good bye to life as you know it–friends, family, school, jobs, freedom to do or not do anything you like–and from one day to the next, you consecrate it all–you give it all up because you know that what you have and what you know is worth sharing at any cost.

Tomorrow will be Aaron’s last day at home.  He’ll pack his suitcase and say goodbye to a few last friends, and then tomorrow evening we’ll have one last family dinner after he is “set apart” by our Stake President, who has Priesthood authority to lay his hands on Aaron’s head and commission him to be a representative of Jesus Christ.  From that point on, his life will never be quite the same.  Nor will ours.

I love Aaron Lewis with all my heart.