Missionary Homecoming and Cake

Just before Thanksgiving, our nephew returned home from his mission to the Marshall Islands. Being so remote, his contact with family was hit and miss. It was a touching reunion with his family, and I'm happy James and I were able to go to the airport too. 

 First hug with Mom and Dad

 First Grandma hug

 Hey Uncle James!

 Yeah, so I was trying to take a picture of us together, but I dropped the camera right as I hit the "picture taking button".  This picture was the result.

 One big happy family!

Having Dalton come home was a big deal. I don't get to make many cakes anymore, so I kind of forced my services on the family, asking if I could make a cake for Dalton.  James had an idea for the cake, remembering that when Dalton had been out for 9 months, he'd had a dream that was very special to him. James suggested that I try to recreate that dream into a cake. I did my best, but it is difficult to put a dream into a cake! Just so the cake makes a little bit of sense to you, I am including an excerpt of Dalton's letter where he described his dream.

 So I have been sick and I was getting really bad

so I told my companion, "I gotta go get some rest man." So we headed

for the house for a one hour nap and then would be back on our way to

teaching lessons. I went and pulled out my Kie, lied down on the floor

and was immediately out. Then I had a dream. I was walking down this

long gravel road with rows of beats on each side of me (kind of like

Bishop Poteet's road) as far as I could see and then beyond that I

could see sparkling blue ocean water. As I continued to walk down this

road all of a sudden I came across this sidewalk in the middle of the

road. The very first block was so nice, perfectly square, and started

off perfectly. The next one following that was pretty good but the

third and fourth squares were pretty cracked and crooked as I walked

past the them. Then I came to the fifth one which wasn't as bad and

started straightening out and looking more like a sidewalk again.

Followed by the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth ones progressively

getting better as i passed by them. When I got to the ninth one there

was no more. The sidewalk stopped. All that was there was a bucket of

cement and a leveler with somewhat prepared ground in front of the

rest of this ninth square. The prepared way for it was perfectly

straight and narrow going on for what seemed to be forever. I looked

up and down the road wondering what was going on and who placed this

sidewalk here. I yelled, "Hello, is anybody here!" I looked up and

down the road once again and saw nothing. Then out of nowhere I see

this man coming towards me. As he confronts me i say, "Excuse me, what

is this cement sidewalk doing here." He looks at it and replies, "Why

do you ask me? You are the one who is building it." As he told me this

a realization came into my mind that those 9 blocks were the past 9

months that I had served out here on my mission. I quickly replied,

"If this is my mission what happened to the third and fourth blocks

sir?" Once again he said, "You are the one who has been laying this

sidewalk, you tell me." Another realization came to me stronger than

the first. That I had been laying this path and depending on how good

my works were would show in my path. I then said with a heart full of

sorrow, "I am so sorry," for I knew I could have done a much better

job than i did. He then looked at me with love in his eyes that

pierced me to the heart and said, "You are forgiven, you need not

worry about it anymore." I then felt love and happiness from him as he

put his arm around me and said, "Now it's gonna be hard here at times

okay, but if anything ever gets too hard you call for me. You call for

me." Then pointing far up ahead he said, "I'll be right up there

watching you. I've given you the tools and you know what needs to be

done with them." With love stronger than I had ever felt before I

shook my head and said, "okay." His last words were then, " I love

you, you can do this. Now you've got to get back to work. There is

still much that needs to be done." Immediately after this I woke up

and went and recorded it in my journal. I waited for my companion to

wake up and then told him of what had happened. It was a pretty

spectacular thing that happened to me right there and i don't know if

I explained it the best over e mail but it was amazing. I had never

had such a clear vivid dream and one that made so much sense to me. I

am so thankful for the mission and all of the experiences it is giving

me. Oh it is so great guys.

I liked how this cake turned out, but I keep thinking about how much better I could have made it if people wouldn't have minded TONS of cake.  I am rarely completely satisfied with how my cakes turn out, and this one is no different. *sigh*