News of Bradley's Mission Farewell

For those of you who couldn’t make Brad’s Missionary Farewell yesterday I thought I’d give you a little look at some of the events of the day.

I’m sure Brad worked on his talk for days and days, maybe even months. He was very well prepared and had much of his talk memorized…almost all of the scriptures (many of them being seminary scripture mastery scriptures) were memorized and he had a great command of what he spoke and even more importantly there was a nice spirit about him.

Brad’s topic was on Adversity. He taught us from the scriptures and he shared a couple family stories that I thought you might like to hear…

Brad talked about the family living in El Paso (before he was born) and about some of the adversity the family faced as it sacrificed so that John and Christine could attend medical school. They were considered “poor in things, but very rich in love”, a regular comment from Christine, even today. They lived in a double wide mobile home…all six of them. It was not very often that they even had a spare quarter for “Pickles and Popcorn Day” at school. Every once in awhile they would each be given a dime to spend at the local drug store and that was a huge treat. There was adversity at times but it was a good thing for all of them because they learned, grew and showed their willingness to sacrifice.

Jake remembers this from Brad’s talk—Brad asked his mom “Why can’t everyone be healthy and happy?” Christine taught a gospel principle about recognizing the good from bad and then went on to give this analogy—one that Brad (and Jake) could easily relate to: “It’s like a piece of pie. How do you know if it’s a good pie if you haven’t tasted a bad pie.” Sometimes we are given adversity in our lives so that we might know and appreciate all that is good.

Another experience that Brad shared was his desire to receive a strong witness of the truthfulness of what he was preparing to do. He said that he went to his private sanctuary (the pitcher’s mound on the baseball field) all alone, late one evening. He spent quite a while there asking, pleading, praying for a witness that he should go on a mission. He said he went home quite disappointed because he felt nothing. A couple of days later he said that a quiet peace came over him with a soft but very direct answer to his question—the thought was that “Brad, you’ve known all along that you should serve a mission!” What a great reminder for all of us. The Church is true, prophets are inspired (including in their calls for young men to serve missions) and isn’t it great that we don’t need mighty miracles to know that.

I was impressed with Brad’s ability to remember so many that influenced his life both in the past and today. His Young Men leaders, his Scout leaders. His love for his family is deep. He named all of his nieces and nephews starting with Madelyn and ending with Jonathan…he did not forget one. I know each one of them knew of his love for them not only because he said it at the pulpit but because he shows it whenever he’s with them…I’ve witnessed it many times.

Brad loves his Mom. He said that he couldn’t think of anyone more loving than his mom. I’ve always loved the story of young Brad calling for “the good doctor” whenever he had a wound. Brad loves his Dad. He said that he looked up to his dad the most. Made my heart swell when I heard that because I know by looking and watching Brad that it is true. Many hours of early morning scripture study with John and Christine, lots of baseball games with Christine yelling “Go Bad Brad!”, many family get-togethers with sisters, brothers, brother-in-laws, sister-in-laws have helped Brad to be who he is. A good, worthy man willing to serve the Lord.

After Sacrament meeting we went over to Gunnison Valley High School for a little luncheon. I guess Christine thought that would be the best place for the large crowd of family that came. I thought it was a great idea! The kids did too. They had previously prepared the cafeteria of the school to be a Mexican Fiesta…because Brad was called to the Spanish speaking part of the Oregon mission. Christine and probably many others spent hours previous to the big day making homemade enchiladas, beans and rice, salsa and chips and a “Chocolate Factory” (as John referred to it). We enjoyed the company, ate well, and kept the chocolate factory going most of the afternoon!

After the meal we all pitched in and had the high school cafeteria put back together again for business on Monday. We were then ushered outside for family pictures. Those Jacksons sure know how to corral the bunch for fabulous photos. Christine said that she hoped that at least one of the pictures would be Christmas card worthy for this year.

Well you’d think that the festivities would be over at about this time. Nope it’s that time of the year…the time all kids (and some adults) fear…flu shot time! I guess whenever the Jackson family gets together in the early fall the docs break out the flu vaccines for the entire family. The Chatfields were happy to be in on it this year. Right there in the High School lobby—one by one—every man, woman and child was poked in the arm or the leg by the nurses from John and Christine’s clinic. Some family members made lots of noise and other just grinned as their turn was over. The nurses were amazing, I could hardly feel the little pinch. They even rewarded us with a sucker. What a healthy bunch we’ll be!

It was a nice day and could have only been nicer with All of our loved ones there. We love our family and love being with you.

Brad will enter the MTC on September 30, 2009 before 12:00 noon…after his free IHOP breakfast. We look forward to hearing about Brad’s mission news via John and Christine. Hopefully the email service between Jerusalem and Oregon is reliable and swift.

Love you all…and thanks for giving me the opportunity to write a little…it’s good for my family history!
Kellie