When I first got back into the car after saying goodbye to my son at the MTC, I was crying, and thinking to myself, “Why does it have to two years? Why isn’t one year enough?” I just couldn’t imagine how it was going to be not being able to see my son for two whole years! Only being able to actually talk to him four times in those two years, on Christmas, and Mother’s Day! Then only receiving emails once a week, and an occasional letter. It just seemed way too long!
I had heard mothers of returned missionaries say that the two years went by a lot faster than they thought it would, and thought to myself that they must of not been as close to their child has I was with mine! There was no way that two years was going to go by fast for me!
Let me say that if this wasn’t the Lord’s work, and the blessings weren’t just flowing in, then yes the two years would have been very long. Don’t get me wrong I missed my son very much, and there were times when the time did go by very slowly, but for the most part it went by very fast!
The blessings, the MANY blessings that just kept coming, and the growth I could see in my son and in my testimony was the reasons that one point I even said, I am so glad that his mission isn’t just one year, and I’m not even sure two is enough!
Being a missionary mom isn’t something that everyone gets to be, and it is such an honor to be a mother of an missionary, so don’t get to missing your child so much that you wish that amazing time away. Two years really does go by fast, and you will miss the emails, the twice a year phone calls home that mean so much, you will miss those letters. Try to enjoy every second of those 18 months or 2 years! Don’t wish that time away looking forward to their homecoming, because if you do you will miss out on some of the best time of your life!