While we were in Utah for Spring Break, Claire got to reunite with her girlfriends. The majority of them have served LDS missions all over the world over the last couple years. As I was caught in the fray of the all the joyous energy of their reunions I was reminded how powerful friendship is. They wrapped their arms around my daughter and welcomed her home in a way that made my heart swell. I was also reminded as these missionary girlfriends reunited one night to share mission stories, about the power one group of girls has to make a difference in the world. It makes me teary to even think about right now.
Let’s back up for a minute though to explain the “beginning.” When Claire went to summer school before she started her college volleyball career, she lucked out to find some pretty special friends. Friends who created a sort of tangible sisterhood of support and love for each other. They are each uniquely humble, positive, self-assured and full of light. Friends who packed into a car and came to visit us in the desert at one point.
And made me fall in love with each one of them.
We are missing one very important friend who we love so much from this picture. Not sure what happened there, but sure love you Caroline! I do have to give some serious kudos to whoever had the idea to take this photo before they all headed out on some pretty empowering adventures all over the world.
You see, nine of the eleven of them chose the adventure of serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The other two had some adventures of their own that were just as important on their own journeys and progression. It has been a pretty beautiful thing to watch from the sidelines as they have all supported each other in so many ways.
A Grand Reunion after Empowering Adventures All Over the World
I think when you have experienced so much depth carving out and growing parts of yourself while supporting each other from afar, it makes reunions all the more joyous.
When Claire arrived to Utah to meet us for spring break after being with her sisters in Palo Alto, these friends came to surprise her at the airport.
Yep, right after Claire and Abby’s reunion, these girls popped out from behind a pillar with their posters and gave Claire the surprise of her life.
It was so beautiful to witness…everyone laughing and crying and embracing with so much enthusiasm and love.
Joy right there.
I love them. Each one with more light and goodness than when I saw them last a couple years before (aside from my niece who I get to see more often and adore with all my heart).
Sharing Mission Stories
I told them I was dying to hear more details of the adventures they’ve been on…missions and life, and they were fully up to the task.
So they came over one night and we had the most truly special night. First they just hung out and we had dinner.
This one had to leave early, but Lucy sure adores her…as she does all these girls!
We were also missing Claire’s cousin who had to work. And one extra friend…the last one still out finishing off her mission and oh! We missed her!
But we took advantage of what we got.
Each friend took a turn to tell some highs and lows from their missions.
All eight of these girls served in all different corners of the world with such vastly different experiences. They served in Florida, Brazil, Philippines, El Salvador, California, Canada, the Adriatic North Mission (that includes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia), Spain, Australia and Idaho.
And as each girl took the seat in the front, the whole room just filled up with thick love and spirit. Everyone was so engaged and asked such good questions.
Those adventures were as rewarding as they were harrowing. Full of sorrow and joy and goodness and heartache. They have each given pieces of their hearts away, and gained them back again in some pretty beautiful ways.
We Write Our Own Stories
The thing that hit me the most as each one of these friends shared their experiences was the importance of the narratives we write in our own lives.
It would be easy as pie for each one of them to have thrown in the towel. To think in the middle of the dark parts that this just wasn’t for them. They could have decided they wanted more comfort or that what they were going through was just too much. But they each decided in their own way to transform those hard experiences into gold. To find beauty in the ashes.
They chose the good parts rather than hanging on to the bitter parts. And their faces told the best stories of how that changed them for good.
As they wrapped up I shared this quote Claire and I shared in our devotional a couple weeks before:
I think each one of them, in their own way, has broken up and transformed so beautifully. I think this is something that has built a foundation for each of them for the rest of their lives.
So grateful for them and the beauty they brought into my life that night through sharing their stories.
Can’t wait to see what lies in store for all these missionary girlfriends reunited going forward.
And can’t wait to get the last one home this summer!
The layers and number of reunions is overwhelming. How do introverts manage this rite of passage?
There is the airport, running off to be released at the local ward, visit to out of state brother, visit to out of state sister, church homecoming with family coming in for that, friends homecoming, team meet up, school return.. There will be no doubt a vacation to Australia with parents within the year.
And before leaving there were similar gatherings.
This is similar to what I asked about with the “hot seat” and she said it wasn’t required. That makes me think that much of this can be trimmed down for those who don’t want a big hoopla upon their return, and hopefully their families are respectful and understanding of their wishes.
Oh of course these reunions happen in different ways for everyone who serves a mission. Every missionary and every family is so different! It’s been so fun to celebrate Claire these ways, and the timing for her arrival home has worked out perfectly for her and for our family. Other families may do this in an entirely different way and that is so awesome!
xoxo
I honestly LOVE all the celebration of her return! As I read this (& the other reuniting posts), I was filled with such a feeling of joy and love. Clearly the Pothier family has relationships with each other that are deep and connected. They miss each other and are overwhelmed with excitement to be together again after a prolonged separation.
I think about different times I was separated from my family for significant amounts of time & wish the reuniting was filled with as much anticipation, love, excitement, joy…. My family was much more the type to simply say, “Hi. Welcome home” and then go right back to everyday things as if nothing really happened. I remember times when I was a new mom with new little babies living on opposite coasts and hadn’t seen family for nearly 2 years, family hadn’t even met the new additions, and the welcoming response (so to speak) was more of a nod and then back to reading the newspaper. Literally. Oh that was painful.
I think it’s wonderful to celebrate the getting to be together again and I honestly hope I can give my own children even one slice of this energetic enthusiasm for their returns when we are separated. I may not be in the same circumstances to do the same number of gatherings/type of reuniting celebrations, but wouldn’t it be a beautiful thing if whenever you were separated from your family you felt this much embrace upon your return? I think the world would be a different and better place if everyone felt so loved and special from their families and close friends. It’s such a fantastic example to me.
I hope to have better welcoming responses because of these and other examples Shawni shares.
I’m sure you have shared this before, but I can’t find it ~ how is it decided who goes where for their missions? Do the kids have any say, or do they make a list of places they would like to go? I didn’t know if they are just randomly sent where the greatest needs are, or if there is any kind of a “matching” process.
Thanks so much for sharing all of the pictures and stories!
Great question, Jessica! It’s pretty amazing how the process works. If you’d like to serve a mission you take the steps to prepare spiritually, physically, mentally. You turn in “mission papers” after you get doctor check-ups and meet with your Bishop (leader of your church congregation) to get all situated. You meet with your Stake President who turns the mission papers into the church headquarters. Church leaders meet and make missionary assignments to anywhere in the world. In your mission papers you can rank how much you’d like to learn a language or whether you already speak a foreign language, whether you’d like to live in a foreign place, etc. But in the end, the sky is the limit to where you can be called. Sometimes it takes a bit to situate your heart to serve in the place you are called when it’s really different from what you expected of hoped for. But I love how it just seems to work out. Grace was all for a foreign adventure and got her call to Uruguay. That got changed to Texas because of Covid and she will tell you all day that mission was meant just for her.
Lots of other questions answered here:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/callings/missionary/frequently-asked-questions?lang=eng
You are a family of nine siblings and all went to foreign missions. Your kids and the Eyre cousins, so far all initially got sent overseas as well. I think one went to a U.S. territory. Someone buy a lottery ticket. What are the odds of this? Taiwan, Australia, Uruguay/Texas, Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico a US territory, Chile.. I’m sure I don’t know about them all. More than half of total missionaries are serving in the US. Just seems more would be stateside.
Do they put where their relatives have served on the forms? Do you put if you travelled out of country before?
Wow great friends. I love that one of her friends signs says I love you in Mandarin.