a hard few days

This has been a hard week but one I should write about because there are parts that I want to remember from it.  On Wednesday morning Mario got a call that a missionary in our stake had fallen off a roof and died.  He'd been out for 6 months.  It then became Mario's job to go break the news to his family before it hit the news here.  Just 2 weeks ago when Mario and I went on a weekend get-away, he told me that one of his worst fears was that he'd have to tell a family that their missionary had died.

After he spent time with their family, it then became his job to be the spokesman for all the media and that got out of control really fast.  He interviewed with about 6 different newspapers and news channels and spent the majority of that day doing that.  It then became his job to talk to coroners, morticians and the area authority that investigated the scene and the body.  Then start the paperwork to get all the signatures to legally get the body home.  He didn't eat or sleep much for a few days and then on Friday, he finally had a day off and we went down to the Ogden temple since ours is closed for cleaning.  We finally had some time to talk about it and of course, as parents of a missionary right now, it's hard not to make the comparisons and think about "what if?"  I've never been one of those wives that says the perfect thing at the perfect time.  But Mario was kind of a mess about it and I reminded him of his setting apart blessing when he was made stake president.  He was told that our kids would be protected both physically and spiritually while he had this calling.  We were able to stop crying and reflect on the times that we know that's happened and probably a lot of times it has that we haven't been aware of.  It was a spiritual day in the temple for both of us.  That night Elder Staili came over to visit with Mario and offered to give him blessing.  Beautiful things were said and it was exactly what was needed.

Then the next day, we both went to see the family along with Elder Funk and his wife who drove up from Salt Lake.  I was not wanting to go and actually dreading, but in the end, it was such a testimony builder and an experience that will be staying with me for a long time.  Mostly we just listened to the mom and dad tell so many experiences of tender mercies since the passing of their boy, bare their testimonies, renew their faith as a family, share  their son's journal entries and scriptures, and share many Christlike acts that people have done for them.  Their 3 newly married kids were there and it was obvious that they were a very close knit family who had a lot of fun together.  When we left, I felt like I'd been privileged to be there and I needed to up my own personal bar because of what I felt there.  This is far from over for Mario, he will be busy this week helping the family get through this and especially when the body gets here and the funeral happens.  We just found out that Elder N. Anderson will be presiding.  He's in my top 3 (although I probably shouldn't have a rating system for the apostles), but there it is.