Day Two.

At about midnight I called my brother Jacob, desperate to talk to someone and stay awake. He was the only one I could think to call... I was surprised and glad that he was awake. He was preparing for his talk and, by the sounds of it, having a little midnight snack. So for the rest of my drive I talked to my brother.

I got to the house at about 1:45AM. I said hi to my dad, who was also up preparing for his talk, and then I went to bed. ...Well, after I stayed up talking to Jacob about the wedding reception he just attended hours earlier. I went to bed closer to 3 o'clock.

We managed to get to the church about twenty minutes early -a very rare thing for my family, getting to church early. And we practiced our song. Then church started and my parents gave their talks, and we sang, and then Jacob gave his talk. It was really good. The whole meeting. It was very spiritual.

During my brothers talk he mentioned an outing he had had with his cousin Marshall (who just left a week earlier on his mission) and our eldest brother Joshua. They were going to go caving but the overload of rain made that impossible. The cave was completely flooded. So, instead, Jacob informed the ward, they decided to scale a steep cliff-side not too far from the cave. It was probably a stupid thing to do considering they were alone and had no equipment for rock-climbing. But, boys will be boys. Jacob continued the story by saying that they climbed the wall and that at one point he was stuck at a place where the wall curved inward and he had no way of progressing. The wall just wasn't built for climbing.

He said he looked up at Joshua, his older brother, who was farther up the cliff than he was. Joshua had no trouble with the untamed wall. He saw that Jacob was stuck and he reached out for him. He grabbed his arm and held on tight. "I will not let you go, " he said. "I will not let you go." -At this point in Jacob's talk, Jacob started to tear and I was hopeless. I couldn't help but think of the love my oldest brother has for his younger siblings. To think of the symbolism this had concerning our Saviour.

Often times in life we find that we lack the ability to progress. That we are in such a place where pressing onward seems impossible. But our brother is there, scaling the wall beside us. He is always there when we need him, to reach out and take our hand. To carry our weight when we can not. The Saviour is always there. He will not let us go...

I am so glad that Jacob has decided to take two years of his life to serve his mission!

After church we had lunch and dinner at my grandparents and spent the time reminiscing with cousins, siblings, aunts and uncles, and of course, our grandparents.

Today was a very good day.