Josh, Missionary Homecoming!!

Today was Josh's missionary homecoming! I was SO glad that he didn't have to report to the high council at 7:00 am the morning of his homecoming like Jaiden did. I guess it depends on which Sunday the high council meets. Yesterday was busy shopping, preparing food, and and cleaning the house. I was hoping to start cooking the pork roasts in the crock pot Saturday morning, but it was afternoon by the time we made it out to Walmart to buy them. I had two different crock pots and started them cooking shortly before 2:00 pm on low. I thought the roasts would be finished and ready to shred by 10:00 p.m. but they weren't. I stayed up until midnight but they still were not tender. So I finally went to bed. 

At 3:00 am I woke up and thought I had better check on them. By this time they were very tender and falling off the bone. So I stayed up and separated the roasts from the bone and shredded the meat. It took an hour and a half and so it was past 4:30 am before I made it back to bed. Next time I make pork roasts in the crock pot I will have to time it better! Thankfully we didn't have church until 10:30 and so I was able to sleep in until 8:30. 

Jared was the DJ at his school's dance last night up north and so they headed to St. George early this morning and arrived just before church. Everyone headed to church and were even able to get a family picture outside of the church building before the meeting started. This was the first time everyone in our family was together in three years! Jaiden had left on her mission in August of 2023 and then Josh left on his mission August of 2024. It was a wonderful meeting. The meeting was also Ethan's (Jenna's boyfriend) missionary farewell and so that was fun to have he and Josh speak together. Ethan did a great job on his talk and so did Josh.

Jenna sang "Nearer to Thee," with Ethan's mom, Paige Allred, and Ethan's brother, Josh Allred, played the cello. Rebecca Gulbranson accompanied on the piano. It was a beautiful number! Jenna and Paige blended well together and they also looked very beautiful! We were grateful for a spirit filled meeting! We had lunch at our house after. I didn't invite ward members, except for our good friends, the Williams. We also invited the Larsons (Steve Larson went to Korea on his mission. He is the one that spoke with Josh at his farewell two years ago). 

We invited the ASL sister missionaries and then the kids invited several of their friends. So we ended up with a good amount of people. We had pulled pork sandwiches, several salads (potato salad, broccoli and cauliflower salad, pasta salad) and a veggie tray, lots of fruit (watermelon, strawberries, grapes, apples and dip), chips, and dessert. Ellen ordered a cute cake that followed up with our welcome home chant "Josh, it's time, cross the line!" We all got a kick out of that! I made peanut butter bars and we bought cookies. It was fun to eat and visit! 

Later on the bishop and his wife dropped by to bring Josh his missionary plaque. After they left Jared led all of the young adult children in some games on Jackbox. After everyone left we finally got naps! Then later that night it was just Rick and me and Josh and Jenna. Rick taught a nice Come Follow Me lesson and then later gave Josh and Jenna back to school Priesthood blessings. It was a nice day! 

Elder Jensen is Home!!!

Today was the day!! I took work off yesterday to try and catch up on house cleaning. Janelle and Bryton arrived last night and we visited with them for a while and then they stayed over at Bryton's parent's house. Thursday I started interpreting at Utah Tech and so I needed to be there, but it was just a half day. The rest of the day I finished cleaning up Josh's room. Bryton was working remote and Janelle came over and helped me clean. I turned down several interpreting jobs this afternoon. I knew I would be too busy trying to get everything ready. 

I had ordered a nice big "Welcome Home" banner and also a nice yard sign. We headed over to the airport around 5:15. His flight was expected at 6:25. Usually when we have picked up our missionaries, they were the only missionary flying into St. George. But today there were several! The first family we met also had an Elder Jensen coming home! We said, "That's perfect, we will all be cheering for Elder Jensen!" 

Then another family arrived and it was Mark Tarr and his wife, the family we had met two years ago at the Golden Corral when dropping off Josh to the MTC! Mark was in LD Singers with me at Snow. At the time we laughed about how we had also run into them when we were dropping off Janelle to the MTC and they were dropping off their daughter to the MTC! Their son was also going to Korea, but the other mission. So it was funny to run into them again at the airport for the return of both our boys!! 

We also ran into people we knew from our ward and area who were welcoming back a sister missionary. There were also a couple other missionaries coming home from Korea (but the other mission). So there were lots of Korean flags, and posters, and people, and excitement! The missionaries came out one at a time, instead of all at once, which was nice because each one could greet and get hugs from his or her family and then move off to another area to make more room for the other families waiting for their missionaries. 

Josh was one of the last missionaries to come out. He had gone to change into traditional Korean robes, which was fun! A lady who was on the airplane saw our banner and said, "don't worry -- he is coming!" It was wonderful getting that long awaited hug when he finally did come! We all did our hugs and took pictures over by the baggage area and had him run through the finish line! The chant Dad decided on was: "Josh, it's time! Cross the line!" (repeated three times getting louder and louder). You can see our cheesy chant in the video! 

Then we all headed to the house. Josh wanted Dominoes pizza for his first meal, which made it easy! Rick ordered it and Janelle and Bryton picked it up at 7:30. We ate and then Rick, Josh, and I went to the church to meet with President Rowan for Josh's release. Unfortunately the stake president was out visiting people and their visits went over and so we were waiting outside in the heat for thirty minutes! But we eventually made it in and had a nice visit. 

Then we went back and met back up with the rest of the family. We have a tradition for our new returned missionaries where they teach our family right after they get home. At first Josh was flustered because he had brought a phone home with him from the mission, but everything shuts down on a missionary phone after coming home and so he didn't have his notes or anything. But then he went ahead and gave a very nice lesson and then got very real and vulnerable. It was very touching. We have loved this tradition. The lessons of our new returned missionaries have always had such an impact on all of us! 

Jaiden's Missionary Welcome Home Video!!

Rick worked hard on Jaiden's welcome video and I love the way it turned out! It contains some things that are definitely non-traditional and unique, but Mongolia is not your traditional mission! 

Jaiden's Missionary Homecoming

Sunday, February 16: Jaiden had been asked to report on her mission to the high council at 7:30 this morning. That was kind of stressful since we have 9:00 church and were trying to get ourselves ready, plus get everything ready for the luncheon (brunch) afterwards. So Rick, Jaiden, and I had to get up a little after 6:00 to get ready. Branson Averett got home from his mission last Thursday and so he reported to the high council also, and Brother and Sister Bryner, a senior couple who just returned from their mission in Maryland.

I could feel a cough attack coming on during Jaiden’s report and so that was really stressful. I hadn’t brought water with me and vigorously sucked on my cough drop and kept praying that I wouldn’t start coughing. My throat finally calmed down, but I was too stressed to enjoy the rest of the meeting. Thankfully I was okay during sacrament meeting!

We hurried home and Jaiden changed into her blue Mongolian Deel for sacrament meeting. She did a great job on her talk and shared four meaningful stories. I really enjoyed it! Jaiden's best friend, Emily Williams, sang Rick’s arrangement of “Go Forth With Faith,” that Rick arranged and it was such a nice touch to the meeting! Then Branson spoke and did well too. We actually ended about 8 minutes early,  but better early than late!!

I hurried home so that I could pull out the breakfast casseroles that were warming in the oven. I cooked them yesterday, but then just put them in the oven during church on 225 degrees. It didn’t feel warm enough to me and so I turned the oven up to 350 and cooked them a little longer. It took 10-15 minutes for everyone to arrive anyway and so it worked out fine. When I pulled those two casseroles out I cooked another one (that I hadn’t cooked yesterday). We had about 30 people and so 3 casseroles were about right. 

The only ones I invited to the house after were family members and our good friends, the Williams. I told Jaiden that she could invite whoever she wanted. A senior couple, Berkeley and Erica Price, who served with Jaiden in Mongolia came to her homecoming. That was nice of them! As we got talking we realized that Berkeley is cousins with my former missionary companion, Juliette Landsom Holdaway! So fun! We sent Juliette a picture of us together with a little message.

Jaiden’s former SUU roommates did a re-creation of the photo that they took on our front porch for Jaiden’s missionary farewell, which was fun.

After everyone left we cleaned up and took naps and then I fixed Bambido Salad for dinner. Josh was able to talk to Jaiden over messenger for about an hour while I fixed dinner and then after dinner we had our zoom call with Josh. It was a wonderful day!! 

Sister Price, Sister Jensen, Sister Udy (Jaiden's MTC Companion)

Brother and Sister Price (Berkeley and Erica), Jaiden, Lille Bell 

Former SUU roommates: Jaiden, Alexis Avila, Josie Ballard, Emily Williams 

SUU Roommates: Jaiden, Alexis Avila, Josie Ballard, Emily Williams (Jaiden's Farewell 2023) 

Mongolian Nativity 

Brother Price (Juliette's cousin), Wendy 

Grandma Jensen, Jaiden, Julie Yearsley

My brother, Shane's family with Jaiden: Calder, Shane, Alicia, Rella (Adria is not pictured since she is currently serving a mission in Oklahoma)

Cute Everett wearing Jaiden's shoes 

Jaiden is home!!!

Today we finished making posters and cleaned the house (as much as we could family visiting and grandkids around). Then we headed to the airport! Jaiden's flight was due to come at 4:30 and so we left at 3:30 so that we would be there a half hour early. Rick had everyone practice “the chant” and we took some pictures and videos.  We had invited our good friends, the Williams, to meet us at the airport and so waited with them. Emily Williams (Jaiden’s best friend) made a really clever newspaper article about Jaiden which was really fun! All of our kids were able to come, except for Josh of course, since he is on a mission, and Janika and Brandon's family. They are coming next week for her homecoming.  

We waited for a few minutes and then she came! Right on time! She walked out and then started running and I ran towards her and gave her a big hug. We were both crying!! I have waited 18 months for that wonderful hug!! Then everyone came and hugged her and then she hugged her dad and then got to hug the grandkids. It was so great seeing her again!

Thankfully her luggage arrived and wasn’t delayed for two days like Janelle’s was. Then we did the traditional “run through the finish line.” This was a tradition (started by Rick, of course) that we did with all of our kids (except for Janika. Janika was relieved and grateful that this tradition didn’t pop up until after her mission, ha ha). Rick’s chant for this year was “J-A-I-D-E-N finish the mission to the end!!”  Janika had sent a marco polo a few days ago asking if Jared and Janelle had warned their spouses about the “humiliation at the airport.”  Rick was aghast that she would label it as such. Then Jared got on MP and chanted, “Jaiden Jaiden We’ve Been Waiting!” Apparently Josh said that on his last family video chat as a possible option. Then Rick said, “No, this is the way it is done…” and then showed a marco polo of an entire seminary class (that he happened to be visiting) chanting “J-A-I-D-E-N, finish the mission to the end!!” It was so funny. He was maybe going to include it on her missionary video, but forgot, ha ha.

After we left the airport, Rick and I brought Jaiden over to the Stake President’s house for her release. It was our stake conference this weekend and so this quick release happened between the leadership meeting and adult session. President Nadauld discussed goals with Jaiden in three areas: spiritual, physical, and social. He encouraged Jaiden to become an ordinance worker in the temple, take an institute class, go to the YSA ward, continue with her education and graduate – and date. 

We had a really nice discussion, and he had Jaiden share a special, meaningful experience from her mission and shared her testimony in Mongolian. He also had Rick and I share some of our thoughts. It was really nice. He didn’t have her remove her tag right there like the stake presidents did with the other kids. He said that she could take it off when she was ready. Maybe he allowed her a little extra time since she didn't get to wear her badge for most of her mission in Mongolia (except at zone conference). Missionaries in Mongolia are not allowed to wear their tags (unless they are from Mongolia) since they are there on a work visa. So sadly she didn’t have the same emotional attachment to her tag that some of her siblings did. He told her to put her missionary badge somewhere she could see it everyday to remind her of everything she experienced and learned on her mission.

When we came home Jaiden looked around the house and said, "Our house is SO big!! Many of the Mongolian homes are the same size as our garage!" I think she will be excited for consistent hot water and power!! While we were meeting with the stake president Jared picked up the Costa Vida order. Jaiden had requested Costa Vida for her first meal. It was a little expensive, but also took a lot of stress off not having to worry about preparing a big meal for everyone. 

After a delicious meal we had Jaiden teach us a lesson. This is another tradition that Rick started years ago and I love it! I love hearing a beautiful lesson and testimony from our missionaries! She shared a really nice lesson on faith and shared her testimony in Mongolian. Then Jaiden shared some Mongolian “treats” with everyone. She gave us Mongolian chocolate, a Max fun bar (Janelle described this as a “a party in your mouth”), some aarts (curd from sour milk), powdered packets of various flavors that you put in a cup of hot water (not sure what those are called), and Aaruul (dried curd). It was fun to see everyone’s reactions – especially Evan and Eli’s, ha ha! I was surprised that Jaiden stayed up as later as everyone else. In Mongolia she had a 12 hour train ride to the city and then went from there to the airport and then traveled from Mongolia to South Korea (3 hour 20 minutes). She thought, "I am in the same country as Josh!" Then Korea to LA (11 hours) and LA to St. George (1 hour 30 minutes). So 16 hours total in the air, plus lots of hours in layovers! They are a day ahead of us and so it shows her leaving and arriving on the 8th, but she was really traveling for two days. 

Saturday, 08 FEB 2025 Airline Booking Reference :  25OAAS KE 5868 Korean Air Operated by Miat Mongolian Airlines, OM, 301 Check-in 08FEB, 07:45A Ulaanbaatar, (Chinggis Khaan) 08FEB, 12:05P Seoul, (Incheon International) Terminal : 1 03h 20m (Non stop)   Class : Economy (S)     Booking status : Confirmed   Baggage : 2PC

Saturday, 08 FEB 2025 Airline Booking Reference :  25OAAS KE 017 Korean Air Check-in 08FEB, 02:30P Seoul, (Incheon International) Terminal : 2 08FEB, 08:30A Los Angeles, (Los Angeles Intl) Terminal : B 11h 00m (Non stop)   Class : Economy (S)     Booking status : Confirmed   Baggage : 2PC   Seat : 50K

Saturday, 08 FEB 2025 Airline Booking Reference :  FE17J4 UA 5060 United Airlines Operated by Skywest Dba United Express Check-in 08FEB, 02:00P Los Angeles, (Los Angeles Intl) Terminal : 7 08FEB, 04:32P Saint George, (Municipal) 01h 32m (Non stop)   Class : Economy (M)     Booking status : Confirmed   Baggage : 0PC   Seat : 07B

 

The next day Jaiden showed us the game, Shagai, that is played with sheep ankle bones. She had a whole bag of them! We are grateful that Jaiden had an amazing experience in Mongolia and are thrilled that she is safely home!