Coming Home

Mat's plane arrived in Las Vegas this morning at 8:55 a.m.  It was so exciting to watch him coming down the escalator and we were all emotional.  He was released at 10:15 a.m. by President David Day, a counselor in our stake presidency.  What a wonderful experience it was to hear our son describe his experience and love for his mission to a priesthood leader.

Mat looks great!  We all had a few tears of happiness at being reunited as a family.  If I could describe how it feels to see my son again after his completing a successful two year mission I would use the words joy, relief, pride but even that doesn't do it justice.

Mat with his three siblings:  Daniel, Ryan and Valerie.  Mat met his nephew Ty, who was born a few months after Mat left on his mission.  Brother-in-law Tyler couldn't be there with us today, but we will see him this weekend.



Gotta love the Vegas airport.



Walking to the baggage claim.  We are all excited to get home and relax and talk about Mat's experience.

I don't know why Mat made this funny expression.  It's quite an amazing thing to go from being a missionary 24/7 for two years and then in a snap it's over and you're back to living in the world--but not "of it."  Mat's mission to Alaska will be part of his life forever.  "Well done thou good and faithful son!"



Final Email

Again, another great week in paradise. This paradise has a lot of angry people though. North Pole is great, our jackets are off, and it's a peachy 60 degrees today. Elder Bunch and I worked hard this week inviting others to come unto Christ. We found three new people to teach: two through tracting and one from a dinner appointment with a member. We have found so many people to teach these last few months, and it has been a blast. Many baptisms will occur in the near future here in North Pole. I might not be here to see them, but the Lord has started a great work here, and has been preparing the hearts of His children to receive His gospel. I'll continue to work hard and make the most of what the Lord has given me. Love you all!


Love Elder Squires

A Very Good Week

Elder Bunch and I had some great experiences this week. Besides it continuing to get warmer, we were very blessed with more people to teach, and very spiritual experiences. On Wednesday we tracted into a 90 year old man named Hardy. He let us right in, and after offering to delight us with some hot beans, we got talking about the church. He mentioned a member's name, and I thought that maybe he was a member that we just hadn't met yet, but he said he was not a member. Then he told us that he has wanted to be a member for a long time. We taught him the first lesson, and let him tell us some life stories, and we left. We taught him again later in the week, and hopefully we can prepare him for baptism. We invited him to do so, but with his health he is not sure. We will help as much as we can!

This week we also contacted a man that we tracted into over a month ago. He told us to stop by in a month, and we gave him a Book of Mormon. When we contacted him this week, he was very interested in coming to church and learning, and had already read over half of the Book of Mormon. We also taught a lesson to our 11 year old investigator on his trampoline and jumped around after. This week was a blast!


Love Elder Squires

Pictures

Here are some great pictures from Mat's last transfer in Anchorage as an AP.  We haven't received any pictures from North Pole yet--we may not see them until Mat gets home.  Three more weeks and counting!

Busy!

So I have absolutely no time to email today! All I have time to say is that has been a great week as usual, and it just keeps getting warmer. We continue to find people to teach, and we are preparing some great people for baptism. The other news is that I'm speaking on Sunday. My farewell was on Mother's Day in 2009, I spoke in Whitehorse Mother's Day of 2010, and I'll speak this Sunday as well. Crazy!


Love Elder Squires