Elder Dallin Martin

Well the day came and past. Dallin is now gone. He entered the MTC on Wednesday August 13th. It was super hard to say goodbye to him that afternoon. Keep in mind i was the one who was excited for him to go. I knew i would miss him but, i thought it would be easy to say goodbye. Holy cow was i super wrong. 

The tears started coming the Sunday of his farewell and have not really stopped yet. His farewell was great. He did such a good job. The day was crazy busy, my aunt came to our house at 9 and started making the "missionary ham sandwiches". We got dressed and went to church at 11. People came over to the house right after sacrament meeting and thats when the fun began. It was lots of fun to spend the hole day with the family and lots of friends. The day ended around 10. What a great day!!

The next part of the special time was Tuesday. We had a family dinner with the grandparents and our little family. It was Dallin's favorite meal, Roast beef, mashed potatoes, yorkshire pudding, gravy, rolls, and some veggies. Yum. Then we went over to the stake center and Dallin was set apart as a missionary. This was an amazing expirence. The spirit was so strong. The night was again spent with lots of family. Lots of tears shed that night. 

Wednesday. My mom got up and made our family breakfast. The morning was full of weird feelings. Dallin was busy packing and the rest of us kind of walked around in a daze. My mom gave me a job to decorate the car with window markers, i was excited. The time came that we needed to head down to the MTC for the drop off. I think this was the day that it kind of hit all of us that Dallin was leaving. Emotions were high. My dad gave Dallin a blessing before we left, then my grandpa prayed for us to be safe and comforted and varies other things. We got in the car and were off. My mom brought the Called to Serve CD and popped it in the player. The first song was called to serve, Dallin started to cry and ask her to turn it off. She did.

We got to the MTC and a nice worker said this is where we take the missionary, his baggage and the passengers and the driver will park the car and meet up with the family at the entrance in a minute. We left his bags at spot 36 then walked to the front to meet dad. We entered through the friends and family door and D went through the missionary door. Dallin got his badge and "dork dot". We then went down some halls that led to the "room of doom". They sat us down and we watched some commercials. Of all things to watch it was commercials you see on TV, the isn't it about time....FAMILY commercials. Yeah great thing to watch as you are getting ready to leave your missionary for 2 years. NOT!!!

The meeting started. We were to sing Called to serve as the opening hymn. Stupid song to sing. I think i got two words out of my mouth between all the sobbing. We had some speakers and then a closing prayer. They said it is now time to say good-bye, we suggest you use the "band aide" method, the faster the better. Wow-harsh. We got up, Dad got the first hug then mom then Bry, Cam and then me. According to my brothers i got the longest hug of the siblings. I didn't want to let him go. He told me it would be ok, he was doing the right thing. I said i love you and let him go. Mom gave him a few more hugs and that was that. He walked out his door and didn't look back. 

We left the MTC, all crying. We decided to go to Cabelas so we didn't have to go home right away. I have pictures of that i'll post in a bit.

I miss the kid like crazy. I was driving home from work and singing to the radio when i saw missionaries and i started bawling my eyes out. He is doing the right thing, i know that. It is still hard. He made me angry at times but oh man most the time it was lots of laughs with that boy. We have received 2 letters from him. All is well, he seems so grown up now. 

My family went to the Buzz game the Monday before he left, i didn't go. My job was to hang up the clothes in the dryer. No fair! They didn't tell me it was ALL of his white missionary shirts. Think i cried on a few of them. 

Operation Tom

Last week was my Stake's Youth Conference. I was not very excited to go, because i thought it was going to be kind of weird. It was quit the opposite. The theme of youth conference was Moroni's Quest. We reinacted some parts of the Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong and my testimony has been stregenthed so much. 

Now on to the title of this post, Operation Tom. As you may know i have a small rush/thing for a guy in my stake. This has been going on for the past oh year or okay two. If you know me very well, you know that i am shy and don't like to leave my comfort zone. The mere fact that i dated "The Boy" for so long shocks me! 

So the cute boy is also a youth leader in his ward, so do you know what this means? He was at Youth Conference!! 3 hole days to stare at the cute boy and wishing oh so desperately wishing i could talk to him. A few of my close ward friends and of course my family know that i think he is pretty much the coolest thing since toilet paper. 

So on Friday, we had some ward time for about 2 hours. I had planned on taking a nap but somehow we ended up talking about my crush. There was a circle of camp chairs with a mixture of youth and adults. The youth were the "cool" ones the other kids were playing some crazy game. In our circle we talked how the other leaders had met there spouse. Such cute stories! Then we talked about some ideas to break the ice and how i could talk to him. 

My cute brother came up with the code name of OPERATION TOM. The cute boys last name has the word Tom in it. Hence the code name operation tom. Thank you Cameron. So i think the funniest/craziest idea that we came up with was the following cheesy scenario. Me standing with one of the youth by him and then the youth splashing water on him and saying "Ashlee thinks your hot! Wow!! Crazy kids.

That night at dinner i had the perfect chance to talk to him. I didn't have anywhere to sit and eat my dinner so i was standing up with my good pal Lindsey. Well the cute boy happened to be sitting right by our ward. The people that were sitting across from him got up and left, he however was still eating. Lindsey's funny husband Joseph yelled down to us, "hey there is a seat right here come sit down". Well as luck would have it i was not feeling at all well, like i wanted to puck. So i refused to sit down, hence once again i didn't talk to him. Sad! Broke my heart and i'm still disappointed in myself.

Well Saturday came and went. The time to go home had come and i had not said one word to the oh so cute boy. We were talking about it once again, and this time something happened. Not by me of course. HAHA. Joseph went and told the cute boys mom that a leader in our ward thought that her son was so cute and cool and blah blah blah, he told her that she couldn't say anything to him until after youth conference. AH!!!!! So now someone in his family knows, YIKES!! Don't know if he knows or if she has said anything. I kind of hope she does, makes me nervous to think about it though.  

Why am i so afraid to talk to him? Fear of rejection, nerves, i have no guts? Well i think that it is all of those things!! I am not the prettiest flower in the garden and he is pretty much handsome. How can i get over these fears? Ah please give me some suggestions, any and all are welcome!!