Called to Serve

Anyone who has a daughter or son who has finished all the work and pushed the send button on their mission papers knows the excitement of waiting for the call to come in the mail. In mid-July, Brandon sent his papers in and the waiting began. On the day that we thought it was going to arrive, we kind of expected a call from the Post office telling us that they "had a special letter" that they would be delivering today. We had heard that they did this often. However, we didn't get the call. Well, I (the mom) went on a bike ride that day, figuring that it must have been delayed for some reason. As I was riding along, I found myself about a mile from the American Fork post office and decided I would just stop in and check. To my complete surprise, there was a letter from the First Presidency to an Elder Brandon David Reeves. Joy and the others convinced me that I needed to take it home. I told them that I was on my bike and that we would just get it when the mailman delivered it. The man ran and got a bag and said "take it home". As I was peddling as fast as my two legs could go, with the letter, and the rest of our mail in the bag and the incredible rendition of "Called to Serve" was sounding through my ipod, tears started streaming down my cheeks with the realization that "our son" not every body else's son, but ours, was being called to serve, and in that moment, I was filled with an incredible amount of gratitude, a feeling by the way, I have come to know well in the past 4 months since he has received his call.

Brandon wanted everyone here and so it seems that "everyone" came. Again, gratitude to overflowing, as people that he loved and that love him came to our home to share with us this moment that we had waited for for 19 years.

This blog will be for Brandon. I am hoping to make it into a book when he gets home to give to him for Christmas. Something that he can show his children and grandchildren. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy reading about his adventures. The good and the bad, the happy and sad. Brandon has been gone a little over a month and a half and we have been amazed at some of the changes in him already. We hope that by giving him this book, he will be able to see them as well and that instead of a box full of letters and pictures, he will have a book. Who knows, it may make it on the Reeves best seller list.:)

Bran.....words cannot express how much we love you. We miss you! We live for your letters and wanted a place where we could post your "Best Two Years".

XOXOXOX
Mom