What do you say to an Apostle?

Our family had a rare and sweet opportunity to meet an apostle. This particular Apostle also happened to be Chris' mission President, a few years back. He was traveling with Elder Bidnar so didn't have time to come to our home but instead arranged for a meeting with us in the Stake President's office after our stake conference, which he spoke at. What are the chances? Chris was so excited to hear about his family, and where they are now. We realized that when he was with Chris in France, he and his wife were almost our exact same age, and had kids right around our kids' ages. The same "phase" of life, so to speak. I was so impressed as he took the time to ask each child of their interests and then gave each of them a little advice. He seemed to know just the thing so say to each of them. The next few posts are of that meeting. If you know my kids, you know it won't be boring! However, viewer warning, for those of you with weak constitutions towards all things spiritual or "mormonesque" just skip down to "Bob's birthday". For the rest of you, prepare to be embarrassed for me, that is, if I were still able to be embarassed. :)

Dear friends, reunited

I've heard about this man for years. Chris and Elder Andersen were very close in France. I was amazed at personable he was, and the details he remembered about Chris. He recalled the name of the town Chris was in when they first met. He said that Chris spoke near perfect French and out of his 500 or so missionaries Chris had the only birthday he could remember, (it's on Christmas). He remembered Chris' amazing talent on the piano & Chris told how cool it was to play in the mission home (where he spent way too much time) because it had marble floors and the whole house echoed. He confessed to waking their baby on occasion. Elder Andersen told the kids, "Your father had so much natural talent and ability, things came very easy for him, so much so that I always said 'Chris has to marry an amazing woman'." Just then Caleb piped up, in my defense- "SHE SINGS!" I guess the boys felt like their Papa was getting too much credit so they chimed in with a few tid-bits of information that Chris has shared with them over the years, against MY pleadings to avoid such topics. Elijah started with "He toilet papered 15 houses when he was a kid!" Caleb added "He flipped a B.A. to some cars and one of them wa his dad!" From the mouths of Babes.
The advice he gave to Chris was "forget yourself", put your family first.

The teenager

Bob was disapointed to hear, yet again, that it would be a good idea to ". . .watch your mother and listen to her counsel". What a smart guy. She was asked to give a talk about the interview in church a couple weeks later. She confessed that she's been given such advice many times. Now that it came from an Apostle she figured there must be something to it. However, this should in no way be considered a "white flag". Don't worry Bob, I know better. BTW- he refused to call her "Bob". :)

Elijah- "Won't you be dead by then?"

When Elder Andersen asked Elijah what his interests and talents were he replied "I love nature, and I play video games". Nice huh- he also plays the guitar, piano and is an amazing artist but the video games will embarrass the parents the most so he went with that. :) Although, Neil did say that his son (or son-in-law) was one of the game designers at EA games so I guess he didn't mind. Later, we wrote letters to thank him for visiting with us. Elijah's said this; "Dear Mr. Ansersen, thank you for meeting with us. I have been working on my lizard catching skills. I hope that one day you can catch a lizard too. Oh and, I have a new talent, it's being healthy." Elijah hasn't gone to bed this summer without doing his push-ups first.
Elder Andersen said several times "We're going to be friends forever". He said he wants to know when the kids graduate, get married, get their mission call etc. Elijah called him on it- "Won't you be dead by then?" He replied "No, I'm going to be around a while, do you know that MY mission President is still alive?" Caleb couldn't resist. . . "Was HE in the book of mormon?" Refer to Caleb's blog entry for further understanding. . .

Caleb

Caleb's cute comment happened before the meeting took place. I was telling the kids that we were going to have the chance to meet an apostle. Caleb got very excited and asked "Is he one of the three that chose to live forever?" Later he wrote in his journal exactly this, "the eposole asked for our family persinly. But just 10 minets or longer. This might be the only time that I could see him. We will be seeing him after church! the eposle that we will meet might become the profit, I think that he's about 50 or 40. Wate I almost forgot, his name is Elder Neil L. Andersen."
Caleb did the sweetest thing. Our time was up and I knew Elder Andersen hadn't eaten in hours and had a plane to catch. He asked if he could leave our family with a prayer. As he stood, we all bowed our heads and Caleb quietly asked "Could you pray for our Uncle Ted?" He paused, sat back down, put his hand on Caleb's knee and said "Tell me about your Uncle Ted". Caleb informed him that "He's the doctor that delivered me and now he has a really bad disease." He stayed for a minute longer as we told him about my Uncle Ted who has Lou Gehrigs disease. It was such a sweet, tender moment.

Enna's contribution. . .

"I talk in my sleep ALL THE TIME", was just one of the many interjections Ethany felt compelled to share when she thought she wasn't getting enough attention. When he finally did speak to just her, she dazzled him with her nose picking skills, particularly the new flicking method she has perfected that occurs at the end of a successful catch. His advice to her was to look to her older sister as an example. When it came time to pray he reminded her "Now Ethany, you're going to have to be quiet for this." His last words as we left the room, concerning her, were "Boy, that Ethany is a character."

Birthday Bob

Bob had her 15th birthday on June 13th. We took the kids to the "octanefest" in Fallon. No it was not Bob's choice to spent the evening at a white trash convention for her birthday, and she let us know it, but that is how things go when you're not an only child. Don't worry, she has more than made up for it. Her birthday dinner was last night and her friends are coming over Friday to party, she knows how to milk it. We gave her some money in a card last night and I just had to share the little ditty her dad jotted down before giving it to her. It took about 5 minutes I think. Please keep in mind, the man hasn't written a "non-sarcastic" piece of literature since our dating days. I don't expect that to change anytime soon, I love it:

My dearest Daughter-
To Gaze upon your lovely angelic face is to contemplate the eternities.
To wander throught the wonderous maze of your bedroom floor is to unravel the complexities of beauty.
To listen to your soothing voice take upon you the nane of your eyeliner is to fathom devotion.
To hear the enchanting music of your soul thump the floorboards in the ill-formed phrasing & dubious grammar is to marvel at your empathy for things lowly.
To behold you rise like noonday sun (or, let's say 12:30) is to bask in radiance, provided the door is unlocked.
And to donate to your birthday cause this token of our affection is to respectfully forbid any lewd I-tunes, clunky emo footwear, random hair-dye colors, makeup, or bus fare.
We love you- Papa & "Mindi" ( she goes by "Mama")

Yes, tons of inside refrences there. But if you have a teenager I'm sure you can relate to at least a couple. The card got a smile/almost giggle. We consider it a success. Her quote of the week "I swear on my eye-liner!" We love our Bobbi-lou.