I find myself with a couple of extra minutes this morning and thought I would take a moment and share with you some thoughts.  They will be brief, but they have been meaningful to me, and hopefully to you as well.

I spent Thanksgiving with my family in Wyoming, where I had occasion to bask in the joy of a miracle all week long.  As some of you know, Thanksgiving marks a year since my brother James visited me for Thanksgiving last year.  He came because he was in a dark place and wouldn't speak to my parents.  I have been very blessed to maintain, even through his most angry and rebellious times, a good relationship with my brother, and my parents thought perhaps he would agree to spend Thanksgiving with me - he certainly wasn't willing to spend it with them.  

I knew this was an opportunity, but I also knew that if I tried to tell James that where he was going was leading to misery, in the wrong way or at the wrong time, when he wasn't ready to hear it, I would not only entrench him further, but risked hurting my relationship with him - the last strand linking him to our family.  I prayed long and earnestly for the right moment.  

That moment came as I drove him to the airport to go home.  The entire time he was here, I simply loved him and remained silent.  But he began to ask me about some of the things going on in his life, the issues with my parents, and so on.  I don't remember well what I said (but I do believe I wrote it in my journal), but I remember being amazed at the conversation we had, and his willingness to hear hard things.  

Shortly after that he informed me that he had gone to talk to his bishop because he wanted to go on a mission, and needed to change his life. He confessed he was worried that he couldn't maintain a righteous life for a whole year (he had developed some really bad habits) before he would be eligible to go.  I told him I would write him a letter every week to help remind him of why he is doing what he is doing.  I have done that (with a couple of missed weeks where I had to write two letters the next), and have received so many blessings.  It has been beautiful to share this with him, and I have become so close to him.  That is one blessing.

But the miracle is his change of heart.  His testimony of the Atonement is real and personal and powerful; his desire to serve is deep and tender.  He is by no means perfect, and still has some of the tendencies toward arrogance and anger that led him down the wrong path before.  But he is recognizing it and growing toward better things.  

Before I left him (he leaves on his mission in two weeks), I had the opportunity to ask him what kind of missionary he wants to be, what he wants to be remembered as.  He told me, and I encouraged him to write it down, put it somewhere he would see it frequently, and live to become that every day.  I also shared with him Ether 12:27 and testified that as he comes to the Savior (which is what a mission is about anyway - truly coming to the Savior by doing His work: bringing others to the Savior as well), he will find his weakness all over the place, in everything.  It will be difficult and frustrating, but if he will bring it to the Savior, he will become strong.  He will become the missionary and man he wants to be.

Today (at this very moment, even), James is in the Temple receiving his endowment.  I can hardly believe the blessings.  He will enter the MTC in less than two weeks.  He could still use all the prayers we have to spare, but I truly believe he will be a powerful servant in the Lord's hands.  I also have great hope and faith that his brothers will follow suit.  Tyson is talking about the possibility, and Cisco is trying to figure his future out, but both are on a fairly decent path.  I loved being with my family, and I love the closeness I have felt to my brothers of late - I haven't felt that ever, not really.  But now I can and am so happy.  

Anyway, thanks for sharing in my joy.