Lend me your imagination for a moment.
Put yourself in the following place and time.

Date:  1 October 2014
Time:  9:00 a.m.
Cast members:   Lance, Teresa, Chick Hislop
Scene:  MTC Parking lot, walking towards doors of Missionary Training Center

Chick:  “Mom, I’m scared.”
Me:  Speechless…………What does one say?    A zillion things come to mind--
Ø  You’ll be fine
Ø  Heavenly Father will take care of you
Ø  It will be a great experience
But everything echoed tritely in my head…
“I know son,” I said lamely, “I know.

WHY?    Why would my incredibly intelligent, amazingly strong, and wonderfully compassionate son go on a mission?
·         He was not comfortable, nor particularly skilled, at chatting with people
·         He would much, MUCH rather spend time with a book than with a human
·         He had a good job in Roy and a room in the Honors dorm at USU where he could “talk nerd” with people who shared his interests

Why would he do something that was so foreign and frightening?

 The answer is described in Joshua
                22:5   “But take diligent heed to do the commandments and the law…to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways and to keep the commandments and to cleave unto him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

 Chick is serving a mission because he loves the Lord.

And, because he loves the Lord, he decided to obey the commandment to serve a mission, to serve Him for two years with his heart and soul.

 And, how has that turned out for him?

Let me share excerpts from his letters….  (Original spelling and lack of punctuation preserved.)

6 October 2014
for the first time i  wAS EXCITED FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE AND NOT AS a time in which i would get to sleep a lot. and perhaps as a consequence I got more out of tyhis general conference than out of any other two.

3 November 2014
I love all of you but I am writing this with one hand because my other had is massively huge and hard to move it happened after I saw my companion get hit by a car his bike is dead he isn't quite yet. I am really worried about him. we have had a lot of problems this week.      okay it isn't like I made it sound but it is all true.

right after I wrote you last week I saw my companion ride out in front of a car and his bike got smashed and crushed like a pop can he just stepped of and out of the way and didn't get hurt in the least. we actually got a member present in part because of it.  

29 December 2014
I know that I am doing the right thing. I know that god lives I know the book of Mormon is the word of god. andi know that familiies can be together forever.

I love you all ,    elder hislop

19 January 2015
dear family and friends.
this week has been very interesting. yesterday I had my first major anti-Mormon contact. and surprisingly it was A MASSIVE testimony builder. the lack of the spirit while he was talking was so incredibly apparent. I knew that I never, never wanted to feel like that again. I feels so good to be always have the spirit to be with me. I love it.

26 January 2015
 I love the scipures and in particular I love the book of Mormon and in that I love the book of moroni. I love the power that comes and is evident in moroni's never giving up at the very beginning of the book you see what he has gone though and the book of moroni has some of the most powerful;  verse and sermon in scripture including moroni's promise and the sacrament prayers and the most powerful sermon on charity that is given. but what I love the most about the book is that he didn't give up though he could of.

love elder hislop


2 March 2015
I have been trying harder than ever to be a open to the spirit. as I try to learn. I am coming to understand faith in a way that I never before understood.

from elder hislop

16 March 2015
on Saturday we were on exchange again. with the zone leaders and during the very first few minutes of our exchange. we had been invited to a party with nothing but non-members….when we knocked on the door someone opened the door and said I don't think we are interested but let me get the man of the house. he showed up and invited us in and we learned that it was basically the entire congregation of another church. we talked with some people and elder cottle, who I was with, and I talked about what we believe. then the pastor of the church came over and started to try and bash with us but in response all we did was testify of Christ and he got frustrated  because we didn't engage. it was a great experience.

sincerely elder hislop

4 May 2015
dear family and friends
we had a very slow and frustrating week our appointments all fell though we spent a lot of time looking for less actives and service and paperwork all of which are necessary but I didn't feel productive while doing it. but we had two amazing miracles we found a family while tracting that is both interested and quite excited and we had a less active come into church and say he wants to come back and make more time for god in his life and that he wants his non-member fiance to learn with him. so it is truly an amazing miracle two in a week god blesses his missionaries and  i am forever thankful for all that he gave us. I know that he lives and it is amazing.

sincerely elder hislop

11 May 2015
dear family and friends
okay I forgot one more miracle on Sunday.  as we were walking to find some one else to help and teach others. we were walking across a bridge when we saw a thre car pile up. naturally we went and tried to help the best we could. and the very first person that we talked to said ( and she had a lot of tattoos) elders and immediately put us to work helping her out…. as we stayed there we learned that she was a member and when we talked to the husband he said Quote " I am not a member of your church

what a incredible blessing to be able to help out a pmf in their hour of need at the exact right time. they even asked us for a prayer. it was a fantastic miracle.

18 May 2015
dear mom
mission has been one of the , if not the greatest experience of my my life I will be foreever greatful that I was able to come. from the fond memories of my first companion's bike getting run over by a car and never being able to get to this one house without getting a flat to this time when I write you to tracting into families that are incredibly anti-Mormon. i am grateful for the opportunity to come. the members who feed us and treat us like family the investigators who want to stay as investigators and not progress. to those that truly do wnat to change and wish to come closer to god. and of course those people. who when they drive past yell out their widows "hey satan"


Because our darling son is not a prolific writer and because I have often have questions that are unanswered in the text of his emails, I send him a weekly set of questions that he has been very faithful about answering.  Here is a sampling of some of my questions and his answers.

QUESTIONS and ANSWERS

§  Are you brushing your teeth every day?
§  yes often twice or three times a day I want my breath to be fresh.

§  Would you rather clean the bathroom or your bedroom?
§  no prefernece they would both be enjoyable.

§  Do you still dislike pizza?  And how often does members feed you pizza?
§  yes about on average twice a week sometimes as much as three times a week.

§  Have you ever been scared on your mission?   If so, when and why?
§  yes i don't like to takl to people

§  What characteristic of Christ have you best emulated this week?  
$ patience.

§  What has caused you to exercise patience?  (See answer to above question)
§  nothing in partivcular but I feelt less likely to push and to resist and to trust though trials. just feelt it grow in side.

§  What three things are great about being on a mission?
§  one the poeple I see so much of teh best of humanity. the time to study. two I have so much time to study I learn so much more about the scriptures than I ever have before three the joy that such little thing bring into my life.

§  If you could trade places with anyone for a day, with whom would you trade places?
§  no one I don't want to be any body else

Finish these sentences please. 
1) The thing most people do not know about me as a missionary is how much I struggle to express emotion
2) The best smell in Washington state is bacon( kinda in  the world to).
3) Four words I love to hear are 7 O'clock sounds good.
4) The thing that frustrates me most in the mission is flakey investigators( darn agency)
5) . The best thing I did to prepare for my mission was decide i was going to go.

Chick (Elder Hislop) went on a mission because he loves and trusts God.  He believed the promises found in Joshua
·        1:5 I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee
·         1:7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou may observe to do according to all the law…turn not from the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whthersoever though goest.
·         1:8 … and then thou shalt have good success.

“Thou shalt have good success"
Elder Hislop has had “good success”

It has not been without trials….
·         He had a companion who was as fanatic about sports as Chick is about “nerd” stuff and who was as disinterested in “nerd” stuff as Chick is in sports.
·         To the best of my knowledge, he has yet to have an investigator that he taught get baptized.
·         Talking to people is still a struggle for him
Nonetheless, and UNQUESTIONABLY, he has had good success.
But his success is not the only success that has come as a result of his mission service.

We, his family, have also been blessed.

I find that with our boy gone, God is taking care of me.   And He is doing a great job.      There is an increased measure of peace in our home and, perhaps most significantly, in my heart; less angst, more tranquility.  Peace is priceless.

God is doing a great job of taking care of me.   He is also doing a great job of taking care of our missionary.  My son—the young man who was largely unfamiliar with the working end of a toothbrush, who spent as much time in fantasy worlds as he did the real world, who would much rather be reading than working—is becoming a man.    He is firmly planted in the physical world and completely committed to helping others understand the spiritual world.   And he is working hard—really hard—and loving it. 

He is in God’s hands and I trust those hands.   Nightly, in my prayers, I thank my Father in Heaven for taking my son, for allowing him to serve, for giving him experience, opportunities, and challenges.  God is doing a much better job with my boy than I ever could.   Thank you, dear Heavenly Father, thank you!

So, what is the take home message from all this?
         NOT that Chick is doing great, which he i
·        NOT that being a Missionary Mom is wonderful, which it is
·        NOT EVEN that going on a mission is the right thing to do, which it is
The message is that we follow Joshua’s council
Joshua 22:5   “But take diligent heed to do the commandments and the law…to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways and to keep the commandments and to cleave unto him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

And, if we do, the Lord promises
·         1:5 I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee
·         1:7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou may observe to do according to all the law…turn not from the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whthersoever though goest.
·         1:8 … and then thou shalt have good success.

The Lord’s promises are real.   Of this I testify in Christ's name.


Love,
Teresa

“Levi is so nice,” Miles told me.  “Do you know why Mom?”  [Questioning look from me]  “Because we had a drawing and he put 3 tickets in and I put 5 tickets in and all 3 of his tickets were drawn out before any of my tickets were drawn and I was really sad and he offered to give me one of his prizes and I said –No, it’s okay, that he didn’t have to give me his prize—and so he said a prayer for me that my ticket would be drawn.    Levi is so nice.”

I love it that Miles has friends who pray for him.

Friday Tanah left the house at 5:30 a.m.   She and her friends went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead.  Two boys in their friend group had been endowed that week and were able to vicariously baptize and confirm the girls.   Friday afternoon Tanah and many of those same friends left for an overnight, “senior trip” [Tanah is not a senior but most of her friends are] to Lava Hot Springs where they tented, hot pooled, and waded canals to pick flowers.

I love it that Tanah has friends who go to the temple together and who I trust to camp together.

Grace went to the bank with a friend this week.   He skipped into the building.   When he was done with his banking, they joined hands and, together, skipped out.

I love it that Grace and her dad are such good friends that they can join hands and skip out of the bank together.  (Grace also has other friends who would skip with her though, thankfully, not any—yet—that hold her hand!)

What a priceless, priceless blessing good friends are!   

I have been blessed by good friends all my life.   At the Glen Vista home, in my pre-school years, it was Susan Connor who blessed my life; we played “horses” in her log cabin house and broke crayons together because her older sister, Robin, got the whole crayons and Susan inherited the broken ones.   It was in Susan’s house that I watched Armstrong walk on the moon.

In elementary, when we lived in the Walker place, Sina Alacano was my almost constant companion; her parents lived across the pasture and we practically lived in each other’s houses.   We played “animals”, Monopoly, and countless imagination games in the tops of trees and the catacombs of the barn.

 Junior High brought a move to Madras where Belinda Close was my soul mate.   We invented a secret language, she doctored my shin splints, and, our freshman year, we stalked the senior guys together.  When the family moved to Idaho, leaving Belinda was the hardest thing I’d done in my life to that point.  

 Idaho brought a new set of friends.   The class of 1983 embraced me as one of their own.   Almost indescribable, completely un-purchasable, and validating-ly life-changing were the overwhelming feelings of acceptance, inclusion, and love I felt when, as a sophomore, they gave me an ovation at the end of track season and when, as a junior, they put me on the homecoming royalty float.  Gina Cliften was my special and best friend.   She guided me through Romrell’s computer class, stood beside me as we took stats together for the football team, and, when I was too vain to wear my glasses at high school dances, sat beside me and told me who was approaching.

Roommates-turned-best-friends blessed my early BYU years and Pioneer Trek-associates-turned-best-friends blessed my later BYU years, my long stretch as a single young adult, and are still blessing my life today.    Now, in Roy, I find myself again blessed beyond measure or merit by great people who are also great friends.

“I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy.”    Charles R. Swindoll

I have always been grateful for the handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy.  My gratitude, and my joy, is multiplied when I consider the handful of friends who fill my children’s hearts with joy.    

Thank you my friends.  I love you.


Teresa

Teachers are people too.    Really.

This week we took 45 eighth and ninth graders to Arches National Park for four days where we hiked to Delicate Arch, stood on top of Double O Arch, explored Negro Bill Canyon, climbed to the base of Castleton, swam in Mill Creek, and peered over the edge at Dead Horse Point.  Let the good times roll!

I let the kids bring their cell phones on most of my field trips but I made it very, VERY clear that electronic devices of any kind (stand-alone cameras being an exception) were NOT allowed on this field trip—no, none, NOT ANY!   I wanted the kids to disconnect from the world and to connect with each other and with their surroundings; to experience life unplugged for a couple days.   Having spent most of my life disconnected (in one way or another!)  I was confident the experience would not kill them.

On the bus ride home I found Jason plugged into a tablet he told me was Karla's.  Really?  Karla?!??!   Over the course of the trip I had spent hours at her feet, literally.   Her poor toes were ground to hamburger by her inadequate shoes.  I cleaned, doctored, and bandaged her feet every morning and every night and several times in-between.     Slowed by pain, she was almost always at the end of the line and I was almost always at her side, encouraging her and lauding her efforts.   Discovering that she brought and used an electronic devise felt like a stab in the back.

Later, on the same bus ride home, I found Karla using a cell phone.   Seriously.   It might have been funny if it weren’t so painful.  (Someday maybe I will laugh about it…..)

Near the end of the bus ride Karla came to me and asked that I give the tablet back to her when we arrived at the school.  “Everyone has electronics,” was her reason.    Everyone?    Clearly not everyone had them but, also clearly, there were many more traitors that I realized…….More stabs in the back.

Sunni also approached me, asking me to return to her the cell phone I had taken from Karla  “My parents made me bring it,” she said, “in case the school was not open when we got back so that I could call home.”   Male bovine scat.    There were four OPA teachers on the trip; we would be able get into the building.    Lying and bringing electronics……more stabs in my back….

When we returned to the school, Annie’s father approached me and asked for the cell phone back.   The cell phone did not even belong to Sunni so her lie about her parents making her bring it was on top of a lie about who the device belonged to… Twist the knife as it is used to stab me in the back….

And….to add to the web of disloyalty and deception,   Sam (my colleague) told me that the night before he overheard plans to sneak out of the tents after “lights out”.   He had to stage a silent stake-out, late at night, waiting for them to initiate their escapade.    “It was hell,” were his exact words.

Kids will be kids, right?   Wrong.  I refuse to accept that.   Some kids will be kids but these are not some kids.  These are MY kids.  Every class period I shake their hands, look them in the eye, and welcome them by name as they enter my room.  I spent the last year developing relationships of trust with them.   I took them skiing in North Fork, experimenting at the University of Utah, exploring at the Museum of Natural Curiosity, and tree planting at Mount Ogden Park.   We’ve gone on walks, ridden trains, and been to concerts together.   In every instance they trusted me to do as I promised and I trusted them to do as I asked.  And it has worked well for us.   We have each other’s backs.   We are quality people.  We are the OPA family….which is why their deception hurt so badly.   I was not betrayed by just any students; I was betrayed by MY students.    Ouch.

I know that eighth graders are not exceedingly mature, still developing good judgement, and prone to making choices that are less than laudable but I also know that they can be noble, loyal, and trustworthy.    I recognize the importance of acknowledging the “nature of the beast”, so to speak, but I also recognize the importance of NOT settling for “beastliness”; children will be children but that does not make childishness acceptable.

So, in the complex geometry of student/teacher relations, I need to find an angle of repose.   As I see it I must either 1) accept errant behavior has inevitable, 2) find a way to more effectively create loyalty, or 3) quit taking kids on overnight field trips because I am unable to do the first two options.    I am not sure what I will decide but, thankfully, the decision does not have to be made right away.

In the meantime, I am making the decision to focus on the trip’s bright points and there were many, MANY of those (not the least of which was we had wonderful weather…the rain started as we were driving out of the Park on our way home---certainly a tender mercy!)

Ø  Doug, our bus driver, was FABULOUS.   He hiked with the group, teased the kids, and shared his snacks with me.   Perfect!

Ø  Everyone came back alive---certainly a bonus!    As I watched the kids sit on the top of Double O Arch and again, as I scrambled, scared, across the loose talus slope at Castleton’s base, I thought “It is a good thing that some parents cannot see what I let their children do.”    “SKETCHY” was the word of the day at Castleton.  “Teresa must have been really praying for us,” Andrea said, “because no one was hurt.”  True and true.

Ø  “Mrs. Hislop, I tore a hole in my shorts,” Brad told me as he showed me a four inch, three cornered tear in his swim trunks.    We had finished our Castleton hike and were headed to our Mill Creek adventure with no scheduled stop at the camp ground in-between.   “Wrap in a blanket,” I told him, “and give me your shorts.”    Obediently and discreetly he shimmied out of his shorts and handed them to me.   Using my blister-popping needle and some spare thread, I quickly sewed the hole shut and he was re-clothed before anyone realized that he hadn’t been.

Ø  When Lars saw me at Delicate Arch he said, with obvious pleasure, “You made it!”  I am not sure what made him think I might not have made it but I am glad that he was glad that I did.

Ø  Megan and Sienna fed me popcorn.  I love popcorn.

Ø  Sam and Talyn fed me blueberries.  I REALLY love blueberries!

Ø  “This is the first time I have ever been camping and hiking,” reported Marion. “I love it!”

Ø  The week before the trip, Heather’s grandmother (who is raising her) found me at school and expressed her concerns.  “I am so scared,” she confessed.  “This is the first time she has been away from home.  I know that it will be a good experience for her but it is really, really hard for me.”     It was a good experience for Heather…..and probably for her grandmother as well.

Ø  On the way from one hike to another, the kids had a “rap off”.  Carson, who struggles a bit for acceptance, won the contest and enjoyed some time in a the limelight.

Ø  “The trip was great,” Allison said, “except the hiking.”   When I asked her why she came on a hiking trip if she did not like hiking she said, with a smile, “Let me put it this way…..After the Castleton hike, my legs would have hurt less if I’d cut them off.”

Ø  Manual, a not-athletic appearing boy, led the pack everywhere.  He climbed to the top of the highest point, sat in the bottom of the biggest mud hole, and strode confidently across the sketchiest slope.  Who’d have thought?

I truly love these kids!!

Teresa

P.S.  On the home front……..


While I was in Arches with other people’s children, my children had some adventures of their own.

·         Miles won a GOLD medal in Krypto at the Weber County Math/Science Olympiad.

·         Tanah earned a HIGHLY PROFICIENT rating on the SAGE Chemistry test that she feared she would fail.

·         Grace fouled out of her basketball game.

·         Miles crashed riding his bike to school and had to get four stitches in his knee.

·         Tanah was named 2015-2016 Roy High Drama Club President.