* Elder Pickering * Minneapolis Minnesota Missionary *: Happy 4th of July

As most of the country was celebrating the birth of our wonderful country, I was celebrating that I once again saw pictures of Elder Pickering when I was least expecting it. The first few I found on the Facebook page for the Mexico MTC / CCM Mexico. Some great person is taking beautiful pictures of the missionaries there in the MTC. It was an unexpected delight to see a few of Ryan.

Then, later in the day, Esteban came through again and posted some pictures of the Missionaries doing service in the kitchen. Right there on Instagram was Ryan in a hairnet making taquitos. This alone is awesome. But what makes it even greater is the fact that I told Ryan that my dream would be that he would meet Esteban and learn how to roll a proper taquito so that it doesn't fall apart when cooking it. (I make taquitos and this is a continual struggle with mine.) Anyway, it happened. I seriously could not believe it. And, Ryan did share with me Esteban's secret. I am still in disbelief that it actually came true.

Even though I joke about all of this, the best part of all is to see Elder Pickering's smiling face and knowing that he is learning and growing and finding joy each day. That is priceless.

Also, as I mentioned in the previous post, there are some wonderful companies down in Mexico that as a service will provide physical letters for your missionary. It has been a lifesaver. On top of that, they also put together care packages that we can send to our missionaries. So we sent Ryan a patriotic popcorn pail for the 4th of July. The company sent me a delivery confirmation letter as well as a picture of the order. It is so cute and nice to know that he can feel a little love from home, thanks to these people.