Danny's last week before his mission

First morning:  hiking Paratutu with me.




Roasting marshmallows (indoors) and wrestling with the girls.


Photoshoot and weight lifting with Dad:



Saturday outing to Three Sisters.  An evening pot luck with the Hillary team.

Oak's shot

Danny's farewell.  The Swansons drove for over an hour out of respect for Danny. . .and to have one last chance to exclaim over his height.

The first time Jack had ever been to a church service of any kind -  Charlotte nearly the same - so I appreciate them all the more for coming to hear Danny.

Danny also gave a youth/YSA devotional for our district on Sunday evening, including his first vocal solo.  Mercy on the way home: "You have a legit solo voice, Danny!"

On Tuesday we drove to Hamilton for Danny to be set apart by the mission president and for Oak to receive his patriarchal blessing.





Then we drove up to Auckland, where we were extremely relieved that Danny and Sage could board the same flight for SLC as planned.

Nana and Gramps sent Noah off to the MTC a couple of years ago, and now they've sent Danny off, as well.  I can't imagine anyone getting a more loving, faithful send-off.  In addition, Danny received a bonus send-off from Andrew and Allison and boys!

I loved Danny's talk about COURAGE, with concrete examples from his own experiences and observations:

• Courage to make decisions.
• Courage to overcome fears.  Make decisions based on courage rather than fear.
• Courage to do what is right.
• Courage to change.
• Courage to be who we really are, or who we really want to be.  Let others see it.  Don't be a hypocrite in either direction.