For Wyatt’s birthday:
We went to the cabin. After dinner we gave him his gifts . . . there weren’t many. A few home made cards from the kids, a pink wig (Olivia likes to tease Daddy that he had pink hair in the 80’s), and this:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6AzftVnEME?rel=0]
(We gave Wyatt tickets to the Argentina Cordoba Temple Dedication and a white handkerchief and airline tickets)
For the past couple years every time there was a discussion about temples in church or among friends, Wyatt would talk about how there would be a new temple in Argentina (the second in the country, and the first since before his mission 20 years ago). I know no one else picked up on it, but I could tell he was really excited for the realization of that for the Argentine people.
So back in December as I was thinking of Christmas gifts for Wyatt, the Temple Dedication occurred to me. I looked into it and found out that the dedication was set for April. I called and got tickets for Wyatt.
I knew I couldn’t leave the kids, so I planned to have him go with his college buddy who also served in Argie. He couldn’t go though.
And then the temple dedication got changed (they didn’t have firm dates when I talked to them).
Then the tickets never came . . .
I really started wondering if this whole thing would come together.
Finally the tickets came about 3 weeks before the dedication. I hadn’t purchased flights yet because I didn’t have dates.
But Bishop Trelease (who was in on the whole thing, the Church mailed the tickets directly to him, and he had to sign them) suggested I see if Scott Sparks wanted to go. Scott is another guy in our neighborhood, our age, who also served in Argentina (in the Cordoba mission itself). I talked to his wife and she thought they could pull it off.
So she and I purchased airfare. Scott had to get a passport expedited, it came the Monday before he left (Tuesday).
Originally when I planned this trip my plan was to show up at Wyatt’s office with his bag packed and drive him straight to the airport as a surprise. But then I realized he might want to get in touch with some companions or converts and make arrangements to see people. So I told him on his birthday, about 2 1/2 weeks before he was to leave! He was able to arrange things at work (he happened to have some very big meetings that he had no control over set for right when he was gone. Luckily his partners handled it, and even more luckily, nothing came of those meetings, so he doesn’t have to feel bad for missing them 😀
By all accounts he had a great time on his trip. He told me he loved feeling like he could see the fruits of his labor, not that he single handedly brought the temple, but his efforts had grown, along with all the efforts of the missionaries in Argentina to bring this blessing to the people. He said it really brought things back into perspective.