After the group had been going for a bit, a mom shared a photo of her son with the Mission President and his wife. It seems like everybody who's ever served a mission has a picture like this. I know I have one from way back in the day, and I really wanted one of #1, but I hadn't seen one.
Seeing this photo gave me hope.
I asked the mom where she'd gotten it. I'd heard that we'd be receiving one by mail, but I hadn't received one yet.
She replied that all I had to do was find the Mission President on Facebook, and she was sure he'd send me one.
What?! Find the Mission President on Facebook?!
Umm….Okay.
I did a little search, and sure enough, there he was. I, very tentatively, knowing what a busy man he is, sent him a private message on Facebook asking if such a photo existed and if, by chance, he'd be willing to share it with me.
I received a reply the next day!
He had one. He would find it and send it on to me. Within a day. There it was. I was so happy!
After this came about, knowing that he was on Facebook, we added the Mission President to the Facebook group.
When we first added him, I was a bit concerned. There are always parents who are overly concerned for their kids. Traditionally, before we were all so connected technologically, parents very rarely, if ever, contacted a Mission President. It just wasn't done. I have to be honest, this move made me quite nervous. Would parents overstep their bounds? Would he be far too accessible, and would they make his job much more difficult than it needed to be?
I turned to the Warden and asked his opinion. He warned me against doing it. At this point, though, I had already added him. Yikes! What could I do now?
I went forward with the idea that #1's Mission President has his right to choose, and he could leave the group at any moment. I wanted to be sure he knew that, so I sent him another private message telling him that if he chose to leave, our feelings would not be hurt in the slightest but that we understood and didn't want him to feel that he had to be there and had to participate….We respected his calling as our kids' Mission President and wanted him to be able to do his job without parental intrusion.
Surprisingly….he stayed. Not only that, but he added his wonderful wife to the group as well.
In hindsight, this was the most wonderful thing that has happened to our group. I will explain more of why I say that tomorrow.
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