Email from Mom: Friday, July 16, 2021

To: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
From: Mom
Subject: This heart thing

Hey! It’s Friday and we are currently driving on our way to Lake Powell. I have only had two (2) breakdowns of tears because of the lack of kids in tow. It is the weirdest feeling ever to not have you, Brittan, and Christian. I won’t complain about the leg room I have up front in the truck but I would happily go back to sitting in the middle if it meant you guys were all here.
I am currently listening to Brooklyn and Jada behind me sucking away on a caramel apple sucker. Serious slurp and sucking sounds..gross. So so gross.
This week hasn’t had much going. Mostly just a ton of laundry. I have no idea where it all showed up from. And I did some run around with teenagers to get them from point A to point B and then back to point A when they were ready. The golf cart still has plenty of miles under its wheels but it doesn’t hold as many teenagers as she would love it to be.
I went to the temple this week!! I was able to do sealings for an hour alongside Faye and Floyd. It was so so great to be back inside. There was a lady who had done the work for her Aunt, literally from baptism on, and she said she had taken her name to seal her to her parents a couple of times but she said those times she knew her Aunt wasn’t ready on those days. So when she was in the temple this last week it was so so tender as she knelt at the altar, tears streaming down her face, and knowing that her Aunt was indeed finally ready to not just have this ordinance take place but that she was ready to accept it too. It was seriously so rad.
When I was in the sealing room kneeling in as a daughter being sealed to their parents, my heart swelled with the knowledge of forever families and how I long for our family to be forever. I would love more than words will ever be able to say, the opportunity to kneel at an altar in the temple and have both you and Christian sealed to us. Knowing that into the eternities, nothing breaks that bond.
Brooklyn and her friends busted out the masks and thought those were pretty funny. They were hilarious and all ‘how do you breathe in these things?!?’ It was hilarious. After they got done messing around and the rain stopped (it dumped so good!) Tyler took them done to the Iceberg for a shake or cone. They are good kids. Reminds me a lot of you and your friends. And it makes me miss the chatter and laughter around the house. Crazy that you would miss that right?
Tyler and I went to see Laura at the Wild Rose for dinner. She is always so great and asks how you are and ‘how is her boyfriend on his mission? Wait..they are still together right?’ She is hilarious. The weather is being all sorts of weird here this year. Last night it was so windy my furniture covers were blown off!! Like seriously?! I was surprised to say the least. But it’s nice to have some rain around these days.
Jada slept over so we could leave this morning and for the most part it’s been an ok drive. They both got carsick (they were laying down and on phones so not sure what they expected) so some chewable pepto and a stop for real food in Kanab and life seems better again. I guess this is the first time Jada has been away from her parents for this long…here’s hoping we don’t have home sickness because we are so not going home
We were hopeful when we were told Rich wouldn’t be on this trip but as you can imagine, FOMO doesn’t leave him and of course he will be on the boat. Seriously…ugh. But no Andrea and that we know of, no Evan either. I’ll take what I can get I guess. Our plan is to leave the water Wednesday night if we can or first thing Thursday morning. Then home, pick up an Elder, and head to the cabin for the holiday weekend. The Millers are coming up and we have tickets to Bull Wars (no clue what that is), headed to the Rose cabin for Tyler, Elder Garcia, Jason, and Akaela to participate in the horseshoe tournament, and then we gave tickets to the demolition derby that night. Should be a fun weekend. Then we go home and only have 5 days left of home MTC before Elder Garcia is supposed to fly. We haven’t gotten his passport book back from mission travel downtown so I sure hope that arrives at home soon 🏻It is sure crazy to think we will have 2 missing from home so soon. I am not looking forward to it.
My plan is to get up on Monday morning and go find a spot on the beach where I have service so I can chat with you. I am also thinking it will be a good time to get away from Jaime…ugh so much to tell you there. 🤦🏻‍♀️So, I may not have bright and early availability to talk but I will get there I promise. I refuse to not get to chat…no matter what it takes.
We are roughly an hour from the marina. I am already dreading it and have some anxiety building. It’s the group as a whole. I am so looking forward to next year and our own boat. It’s gotten pretty bad. You should count your blessings that you aren’t around to see it all play out around us. I am almost certain the whole city of Herriman knows the name Riddle and there is nothing good that follows.
I love and miss you. I loved seeing your uno card and picture. I love seeing my countdown numbers get smaller every single day. Mostly I just love that I can see happy in your face and that I love that you are on an adventure of a lifetime and I get to come along for the ride. I hope you had some time to get to a tye dye tee ?? Elder Rose sent me a ‘preview’ of how his was started. I’m excited to see what the both of you come up with.
I love you for forever and for always. To the moon and back. 🤟🏻
Mom

I’m sure you can hear B hollering on this one as it plays through the speakers (btw…this was followed by The Git Up which was an even better performance! 🤣🤣)