On our email before Mothers Day I ask Tyson for detailed instructions for our Mothers Day phone call. All he said is that he would call me on Saturday! I ask if he was sure it was Saturday and he replied, yes! He said that he would call the house phone and then try me cell phone.
I had spoken to several mom's with missionaries in Brazil and they said that missionaries don't usually call home they give us a telephone number to call them on. Brenda Wilson's son Brian is in Brazil and she told me to buy an international calling card at Costco. I am so glad that I did! While I was at Costco though I didn't know that Tyson had called the home phone and left a message. When I got home and played the messages Tyson said to call back the number on the caller id., but there was no number just out of area on the caller id. I paniced of course and was bawling and frantically looking for the mission presidents phone number when the phone rang. I jumped up to answer it and it was an out of area call. (Our phone not only displays the caller but also tries to pronounce who the call is from which can be quite comical at times) When I answered the phone it went dead! I paniced for a second but then it rang again and I let it ring twice and then answered it and heard Tyson's voice and I broke down crying because I thought that I had missed him! He told me to write a phone number down and I read it back to him because I didn't want to make a mistake and he sounded funny, partly because he has a cold and partly because he had an accent. He said to call between 5:10 and 5:15 the next day and I varified the time difference with him just to be sure we were on the same page. They are three hours later than us right now.
We went to church and they gave all the mothers white chocolate roses. I don't know what happened to mine, but I am not a fan of white chocolate. They were too pretty to eat anyway. I picked up Graham before church and he was pretty good that day. Spencer called and said that he would be home around five and we had Chelsea pick him up so we wouldn't miss calling Tyson. At 5:11 pm I made the call to Ty and was so happy to hear his voice I cried again and I apologized for always being such a bawl baby, but I was so happy. I ask him where he was and he said that he was at the ladies that live in the house in front of him that cook for them. He calls them his Brazilian mama's. I ask him if it was mothers day in Brazil and he said yes. Then I ask him if he did something nice for his Brazilian mama's and he said that he and his companion gave them a pot with flowers in them. He always speaks very highly of this mother and daughter. He has invited them to church before, they are catholic and he said they came but slept through the meeting.
He said that he has had four baptisms but that he was not concerned with his numbers but the conversion of the people that he taught and he wanted to make sure that they were truly converted and would be active members of their wards or branches! He said that they work hard and walk a lot. Ty's mission is a walking mission and he has gone through a pair of shoes already, but that he is going to have them re-souled with tire rubber.
Its amazing the maturity and growth that he has gone through already. Spencer and Chelsea got here about 5:30 and joined the conversation. Tyson told us a lot about
Brazil and the people and the food. He said that he has made many friends he hopes to stay in contact with. He is on his second companion. His trainer was Elder Andrews and I believe he was from Riverton. His new comp. is from Hurricane, Elder Smowden. Chelsea has a Hurricane year book from 2007 and found who we think is his sister. Tyson said that he has a sister that is her same age. I ask how the language is going because he doesn't talk about it and he said that he understands better than he can speak and he and his companion try to speak portuguese to each other so they can converse better with people. Tyson tried to talk to us in Portuguese and he sound so good! His new comp I think he said has only been out three months longer than Ty.
The longer we talked the more he sounded like the old Tyson. Laughing and telling us fully stories about the crazy drivers etc. in Brazil. Graham was here and said Hi to Ty and he thought that was great! He said he really misses Graham especially when he sees little kids that are his same age. I told him no to worry that Graham will be three when he gets home and talk more and they will have a chance to bond again.
He told us that he has been dizzy, but tried to assure us that he would be fine. They are taking him to a doctor however to see what could be causing his dizzy spells. He said that it usually hits him in the morning and he can't walk straight.
He has such a sweet spirit and it came through during our conversation that he is working hard and listening to the spirit.
It was time to go and we all said our goodbye's'!
