The Mortician's Daughter: Welcoming the Brinkerhoffs

Remember our FAVORITE missionary, Elder Brinkerhoff? Well, he recently wrapped up his 2 years of service as a missionary and came through our area with his family. He's been busy this past week showing his family all the areas where he served in Tennessee and Kentucky and we were lucky enough to make it on his list of "families to visit" during his whirlwind end-of-mission-tour!!!

We spent the afternoon after I had my wisdom teeth pulled (OUCH) bowling with the Brinkerhoff's...because everyone loves bowling ... and no, the pain meds did not help my bowling game in the least, but they did make me very, very HAPPY. Seriously, I can see how people get addicted to those wonderful little pills (wink)!

And then we invited the Brinkerhoff's to join us for dinner on Sunday evening. Jolien and Elder Brinkerhoff's sisters make a lovely four-some.

Below, you can see Per is keeping Elder Brinkerhoff's parents and grandparents entertained with his "stories" (is Elder Brinkerhoff's mom sleeping??) ;-)

We followed dinner with a pool tournament. Per has this bootie shakin' dance that he does to distract his opponents whenever they are making a shot ... and yes he used it on Elder Brinkerhoff and his dad ... and yes, as you can see from the photo below - it worked. Brinkerhoff was laughing to hard to make the shot. Even the Lord's anointed aren't above Per's antics (you have to know Per, he's constantly joking around).

For those not familiar with the LDS missionary program let me fill you in on a few of the basics. You voluntarily choose to serve a mission - without pay. You can be called to serve anywhere in the world (you don't get to choose - that is up to the Lord) and you serve to 2 full years. While serving your mission you are focusing on sharing the gospel - FULL TIME. This means no TV, no trips to the movie theatre, no phone calls home - except on Mothers Day and Christmas when you can call your Mom and talk to other family members. You give up your first name for 2 years and go by "Elder". And finally, there is the NO DATING rule - yes, no dating for 2 years!!!! In fact, you can't even come within arm's length of a girl while on your mission - I mean how are you supposed to focus on the Lord's work when you are busy flirting with all the girls, RIGHT?

As you can see in the photos below, Brinkerhoff took his mission very seriously. Here he is posing with Jolien ... but ensuring he's not breaking the "arm's length" rule ;-)

Well... handshakes are allowed too...