Meditations on a Life of Organized Chaos: Skyping for Christmas

One of the things that people may not know about LDS missionary service is how restrictive communications with home are. Missionaries are allowed to email home once a week during their preparation day, and they really only have less than an hour to do this. During that time they are also emailing their mission president to share their experiences for the week and hopefully having a little time to maybe email a few friends and family who have also sent emails. Try taking an hour to do this someday. It is no easy task. Other than that weekly email the missionaries can only call home two days during the year, Mother's Day and Christmas. That's it. Two phone calls a year. I'm sure a lot of people find this horribly confining and unfair when they hear this, and I will admit that there have been times during Laney's year of service in Chile that I have desperately wanted to give her a call. But ultimately I really do think that this is a good policy. Restricting communication in this way gives missionaries a better opportunity to really devote themselves to the work and tampers a bit of the homesickness that is inevitable. I support this policy wholeheartedly, and we have managed to survive just fine during this year. Laney too. In fact, there is a sort of excitement and wonder that comes from the anticipation of hearing from her by email each week that is super neat. Still, getting the chance to see her face and hear her voice is a great blessing.

That is why Laney's video call home for Christmas was such a great thing. Laney called us at around 9 am. We were still mostly in our Christmas PJs and still in the midst of the excitement and glow that comes from opening presents on Christmas morning. Nandy and Aunt Katrina dropped by to participate as well, so that was nice. We hooked our computer up to our big screen television, pulled the couch around to make room for more people, and gathered around the computer to talk with Laney "face to face."

Some things I noticed during our call:

1. Laney has grown up so much.

During the entire call I was floored by how mature Laney seemed. It was like I was talking to my little girl, but she wasn't my little girl. She was a full fledged adult with experiences that were creating a stronger adult personality. It was still the same Laney, but older and wiser and more settled. It really wasn't all that hard to imagine her heading off on her own to start her own life with her own family someday in the future. Sure, I've always known that this was the direction her life was heading ... eventually. But it seemed like it would be awhile before she was anywhere near ready to be making adult decisions and eternal type choices about her future. Now I truly could see this older life in Laney's future. Kinda freaky.

2. Laney truly loves the people of Chile.

Laney's always sort of naturally been the kind of person that generally thinks well of others. I never really doubted that she would come to love the people surrounding her in Chile. But sometimes Laney sort of talks herself into this love for others. She knows that she should love others, so she does. But during our Christmas call I could see that she had this sort of deeper love for the people of Chile that can only come when you completely devote yourself to serving someone. It was neat to see how much she cared for these people, even those who weren't always so keen on hearing the gospel from her.

3. Laney's Spanish sounds BEAUTIFUL!

Okay, I'll admit that I'm not much of a Spanish speaker. Okay, I'm not a Spanish speaker at all. But I hear it enough that I can recognize when a person is comfortable with the language and when a person is flubbing their way through things. We asked Laney to share The First Vision in Spanish, and she did it so beautifully. It is so wonderful that the youth of the church have this opportunity to be immersed in other cultures and languages in such a way that they can develop these language skills. I know of no better way to truly become fluent in another language. I wish that there were more opportunities in our country to learn other languages in such a way like they do in other countries, but unfortunately, in the US we are excessively weird about promoting dual language learning, somehow believing that this would somehow make us less American. It is a ridiculous and frankly shortsighted view when we live in such an interconnected world. I'm grateful that Laney will have this language skill when she returns home.

4. The people of Chile love and appreciate Laney.

This was actually something that I have seen throughout her time serving in Chile. Thanks to facebook I have been able to see the posts that people in Chile write about her. She served in the same area for almost seven months, and during that time she made a huge impact in her area. She served in a branch, and the people of that branch really came to love her. It makes my heart happy to know that Laney is friendly and loving enough to inspire such love and devotion from those she meets. We had the excellent opportunity to skype on Christmas Eve with a man who served as Laney's bishop in Chile when she first arrived there. Side note ... I am sooooo glad that Herman is fluent in Spanish as well. It made our skype call with Bishop Torres and his wife so much easier. He told us that he attended a Christmas devotional last weekend where Laney participated. The sisters from her old branch were there, and they showered her with love and gifts. The mission president was talking to Bishop Torres about Laney, and he mentioned how special of a missionary she is. He said that if she were an elder he would have called her to be an assistant already. Bishop Torres said that there is something special about Laney. He could tell from the moment he met her. I thought that was super sweet to hear. It is great to know that she is making a difference where she is.

There is nothing quite like seeing the personal growth of your children. I am in awe of the experience. I really am. I can't see how my disjointed and often disorganized life could have prepared my children to become successful at life, but they have. I can't imagine how life for missionary parents was like before the internet when they could not have such personal interactions on these important holidays. It warms my heart and made my Christmas a sweet one.

Six more months until Laney comes home. It seems like forever, and yet it seems like it was only yesterday that she left for Mexico City last year. These six months will fly by. I am just so happy that she is in the midst of people who love her and look out for her. Hooray for that!