hello, goodbye

we said good-bye to elder hamilton today, dropping him off at the mtc after a fun lunch at brick oven in provo.  evan, mitch and chris johnson, craig and I enjoyed pizza, a last game of slug-bug in the car (which thomas won) and fun conversation before having thomas wrenched from our hands to enter the mtc.  he was like a smug bug all day knowing where evan was going on his mission before the rest of us.  we will miss elder hamilton, but he will be a great missionary in florida.

we said hello to evan's mission call.  he brought a fleet of people up from byu and invited what seemed like everyone left in bountiful that he knows.  they converged on our house and we were delighted and completely shocked when evan said he was "taking his talents" to the japan, nagoya mission.  this is the exact same mission craig went to 25 years ago and one week from the day evan is leaving.  i would have guessed all of north and south america, most of africa and europe and the pacific islands before i would have guessed japan.  i still can't wrap my head around it.  having said that, i know without a doubt that this is the place evan needs to serve and that he will learn japanese and be a fantastic missionary.  it was a very exciting night and i'm so grateful to see all the support he has.  he leaves june 1.