Dinner with the Missionaries

One of the great benefits of living here in Ohio is how often we get to have the missionaries in our home.  We have two sets of missionaries assigned to our Springboro ward, which means every week or two we get the opportunity to help feed these great young men.  I figure I am just paying it forward because in just a few years members somewhere in the world will be feeding our boys!    The kids look forward to it as a special event.  Even little Brett knows Elder Rose and Elder Bloxham by name.  In fact, when one of his siblings was playing Wii last week Brett insisted that one of the characters was Elder Bloxham.  We have made it a tradition that when the Elders come we have breakfast for dinner.  Partly it makes it fun and different, and partly I don't have to worry about repeating what other ward members fed them that week because people don't usually have breakfast for dinner when guests come over.  They have all loved it though.  We have had waffles, crepes, skillets, and a variety of pancakes, usually with bacon.  Today we had English muffin sandwiches.  About half an hour before the Elders were to come Brenden asked if he could start cooking the bacon.  I told him we weren't having bacon tonight because there was sausage in the sandwiches.  You would have thought I cut off his arm!  He was certain that Elder Rose was going to get transferred and never get to have bacon here again, or that they would leave in protest and never return all because of the lack of bacon.  As a peace offering we did put crumbled bacon in with the hash browns, and fortunately there were no catastrophes. :-)

Along with the tradition of breakfast for dinner, the missionaries have the tradition of teaching us a fun object lesson related to the gospel.  The kids love this and look forward to it as much as, if not more than, the bacon.  They have lit tea bags on fire, taught them to balance knives, shown how to tear a cross from a piece of paper with one tear (and tell an awesome story from the scraps), and demonstrated repentance with water, pepper and soap.  Tonight they trumped it with a fun activity related to Ether 12:27 and the trial of our faith.  The blindfolded person gets lifted on the board and feels like they are feet off the floor and then are asked to jump.  Everyone loved it, and it was a neat discussion about how God is holding our hands and is always closer than we think.  Fun evening.  Thanks Elders!