Victoria returned home from her mission about a week and 1/2 ago. After being in Mexico for only one transfer, I'm truly amazed at how much she grew spiritually and in her Spanish. The MTC contributed to lot of that growth as well.
She had some amazing experiences that I feel like totally satisfy mission needs; however, some experiences led her to follow up through prayer at the suggestion of the Mission President to come home, at least for time, and take care of her health.
While she felt an extremely strong prompting to go on a mission, she felt just as strong a prompting to come home. She's continuing on her mission here as a service missionary and while it's been a little difficult navigating this completely new path, there's a lot of potential.
It's almost like the best of both worlds. She can still work with the full-time missionaries here, and believe me, they're all excited to work with her. She can also participate in any service opportunities, develop her own talents (like teaching dance and yoga), and work in the temple.
Her first Friday here, she attended Zone Conference with all the full-time missionries in the area and many different companionships from our area have reached out to her many times for help, including the Spanish-speaking missionaries with whom she helped with Spanish.
She can attend the Spanish Speaking Branch whenever she wants, Jason and I try to speak Spanish with her at lest once day, and next weekend she's going to the Spanish Christmas Devotional for all the Spanish speakers in our whole area (there's more than I thought!)
Her schedule still needs to be ironed out as there are so mnay avenues she can take and it's actually overwhelming, but with Thanksgiving this week, it might be til next week when things get figured out.
We're so happy to have her here for the holidays and for however long she wants to be. If she wants to go back to Mexico and feels ready, she can. She could also be reasasigned somehwere else if she waants to go back out full-time. It's really all up to her.
We'll enjoy her for as long as it lasts!
(Erik was sick when she returned home, but since his birthday is today, we'll get some good pics of them together. )
Austin's XC banquet was Friday night. It was a potluck, like they usually do. (Kade finally realized the track and XC banquets are actually potlucks and was shocked since all the cheer, orchestra, and marching band banquets were catered at some kind of hall. The runners are really casual, which I don't mind!)
It was fun to look back on the season at all the accomplishments, which I have posted here before. No surprise, but Austin won the "Most Outstanding" poster since he was consistently the #1 guy on our team. He was also the only one to win the "Sub 16" shirt, though there were a lot of guys who won "Sub 17" shirts and one who won a "Sub 18" shirt. Progress all around! And no surprise that his friend Jack will be the team captain next year, and his friend Sam won the "most improved" award. They're all such great kids!
Austin and Coach
The State Team (sweet story about two of the guys: one qualified, but ended up being sick, so another, who is the team captain this year and a senior, got to run in his place. It turned out to be the Captain's best race all season! And the one who qualified, his name is on the shirt, and he still got a patch. Everyone was happy!)
Best Friends and "Jovial Juniors"
The outstanding freshman and the outstanding overall.
All the juniors!
The next day was Austin's final cross-country meet of the season, even though it wasn't connected with the school. The runners have the option of competing in the Meet of Champions, which is for individual runners, but their times can count towards their season. So if they get a PR, it will be recorded as such for that season. They also have a fun tradition for those who hit a time of 16:09 during the season can be drafted onto a team coached by some incredible coaches from the area. Austin and Jack were drafted onto different teams. Austin was on the Ann Arbor Running Company with mostly seniors. He was the 3rd guy drafted. The draft is a big deal with runners tuning in from all over the state. His coach specifically mentioned the first 3 runners on her team of 7. She just said that she'd been watching him all season and was excited to have him on the team, especially since he's in the same area as her (we're only 20 minutes from Ann Arbor).
The posted list of the team.
The other thing about this meet is that anyone can run in the "open" runs. So I registered Erik and myself. They had alternating races between the Elite teams (Austin was in 1 of the 2), the Elite Open races, which included all his other teammates, and then the open men's and women's. Erik was in the 1st of the men's with some former teammates of Austin's and a freshman from his team. I was the only female runner from our school, but it was fun and in between Austin's and Erik's races.
Erik was the clothing collector for the Elite Open.
The race is held at Shepherd HS every year, 2 hours away. It's a gorgeous course with some pine trees, woodsy areas, and it is very flat, so many PRs are made there.
Austin finally got another PR- 15:39, by 1 second! He was the 3rd on his team to come in and his team won! He was only 1 slot away from winning a medal in the top 30, which he says he didn't know they were giving out medals. He assures me that he wouldn't have let the guy pass him at the end if he knew. But I think his PR and a winning team are pretty awesome! I ran pretty well myself with those young girls, considering I make better time on a 10k. I ran it in 23:28. Coach gave me some good advice of breathing more since I looked tight-lipped, which I was happy to have since I've never run with a coach before! Though I do think I wasn't very loose this race because I had a bit of a side ache coming on, and I know that too much oxygen breathed in can cause that, so then I stopped breathing in too much and then ended up not getting enough in. I had a headache to prove it, too! Finally, Erik got a PR of 19:51 and looked great for his first competitive 5k (middle schoolers run only 2 miles), especially since he hasn't run, besides soccer, since his XC season ended 3 weeks ago.
Warming up and focused.
In the race!
I look much slower!
My pace, while still below an 8-minute mile, looks very slow to me now!
Erik looks pretty good!
After Austin's race, before mine.
After Erik's race. I had finished only 25 minutes earlier.
The Open Men's runners. 3 Seniors, 1 Freshman, and 1 8th grader.
Austin was the shortest on his MITCA team, whereas with his school team, they're all close to the same height.
He got to hold the team trophy.
They got shirts and a plaque, too.
Austin and Jack with their team bibs of the day.
It was an enjoyable, full day, and finished off with some great food at the Blue Shamrock. We drove Owen up and back, and his brother started the Blue Shamrock tradition when he first raced in MITCA a few years ago. We're happy to carry it on!
The last weekend in October means Halloween and the XC State Championship race. I don't know if it was like this everywhere, but here on Halloween, on a Friday night, I hear so many people say they hardly had any trick-or-treaters. Even the radio DJ I listen to said, as opposed to 27 last year, they got 8 this year. I expected there to be more since it was on a Friday. Also, the weather here was pretty decent. A little chilly, but no rain, so that's saying a lot!
It was a different Halloween for us since Kade is in college now and probably would have gone trick-or-treating if he weren't. So he went to a couple of parties with some of his high school friends. He said that there were many cops around patrolling, and they even shut down a few parties for being too loud. Kade assured me he knew to be extra on guard because there were so many cops out. One actually pulled him over, not for any driving mishaps, but because the party they were headed to had just been shut down, and the cop perceived they were headed that way. The cop was complimentary of their music and costumes, so he was pretty chill. I'm just glad to hear they were keeping extra sharp that night, especially after the terrorist threat that occurred in Dearborn, just 20 minutes from us!
Kade was Chicken Joe from Surf's Up!
Austin had States the next day, so he went to Sam's with Owen and Jack, all runners at States, and they handed out candy to the 4 or 5 kids who showed up there. Sam's mom said none of them ate a piece of candy! Way to stay healthy, runners!
Austin, on his way to Sam's, let me take a quick pic without his MF Doom mask on.
We took Erik to trick-or-treat with friends. He had a blast and got way too much candy as everyone sensed the lack of candy collectors and dumped those who went with more. Since Jason and I went to the Kish's to have dinner and play cards, we left a basket of candy out with a sign. When we returned at 9, we still had half the basket left! Austin is happy and gladly claimed that for his own after the race.
Erik and his buds!
Jason and I had a blast with the Kishs and then got to visit with the Farnsworths, whose house Erik was at, on our way home. We didn't take hardly any pictures though, just had fun memories.
Saturday's meet wasn't too early, so Austin got to sleep in. He and his teammates rode a bus to MIS (Michigan International Speedway). Jason volunteered to drive the truck with the team tent, which worked out so well. Sam's dad drove with him, which was equally good since he's very tall and much stronger than me. That tent needs height and muscles to get it up! I rode a little later with Sam's mom, and we all agreed that we're volunteering for the tent job next year! It's a very long walk to the field from the parking lot, so having our truck on the field as a place to sit for warmth, or to store stuff, was so nice!
The race itself was a big improvement for Austin from last year's State meet. It really helped having a team there to support each other. Their team got to start on the very end, the same side they were to turn for the first turn, which was a benefit to us. Austin was determined to not get in a bottleneck, so he went out really quickly. Unfortunately, it may have been a little too quick for him, especially because he was in such a good spot that he couldn't see just how fast he was going out. So his first mile wore him out a bit, then his second mile was much slower than it should have been. For his 3rd mile, he got back in his groove, and the last .1 he passed a bunch of guys, per his usual style. In the video of him at the finish, I was yelling so loudly because I knew that he low-key wanted to get top 30, which was very possible for him, and I also had been counting the guys coming before him, so I knew he would have to pass more than 10 guys right there. He did so well and passed a few at the very end, but I think he was a little disappointed that he didn't get in the top 30. He got a 15:50 again, which is still 10 seconds off his PR, and still incredible considering he did have the flu last week. He placed 40th out of 253, so I say it was an outstanding race! Also, Sam had jokily said that he didn't want to wait around for Austin to claim his medal, so no one had to wait. More than just Austin can win one next year! Our team placed 15th out of 27 teams. We were very pleased! The team went to Subway afterwards, and then upon returning and showering, Austin joined some of his besties from his team and other friends from other teams who were at States for more food at Chili's. One kid ordered 6 Dr. Peppers! He got 7th at States, so I guess that's his secret!
It was so hard to get good pics as Austin was surrounded all the time!
Here's his finish, passing some of these guys!
All these pics are actually taken from the videos at the end. Then you'll see him in real action!
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