Be Good, Be Wise, Be Wonderful

Last week I registered for a free event at the Conservation Garden Park in West Jordan titled:
"Quality on Any Budget, Selecting the Best Home Furnishings"

A home blogger from RC Willey is the keynote speaker so I wanted to attend, grab some tips to share on my blog and possibly meet new friends.  If you are reading this and can make it, you should go!!

REGISTER HERE

Unfortunately I won't make it tomorrow.  I'll explain why.

Four years ago, I was a proselyting missionary in Brazil for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Each mission of the LDS Church (I think there are over 300) in the world is directed by an older married couple who are also missionaries; generally known as the mission president and his wife.  They make sure that all of the younger missionaries like me are safe, happy, and healthy as a missionary.

Lots of things happen to missionaries when they're far away from home.  There is very little contact from the missionary to the family so if anything happens to the missionary, the first contact for families of missionaries is through the mission president and his wife.  A special thing about mission presidents and their wives is that they are second parents to the missionaries, they care a lot about how the missionaries they're responsible for are doing.  They even care and wonder how you're doing and even after the missions are completed.

My mission president's wife, Sister Shawcroft helped me a lot when I got very sick on the mission, it was always comforting to talk to someone in English because trying to explain your symptoms in Portuguese was stressful.  I always enjoyed her hugs and her brownies that she made as a birthday treat for missionaries.  There wasn't brownie mix in Brazil when I was there!  

That being said, Sister Shawcroft, passed away on Veteran's Day due to a rare form of cancer in the brain that she lived with for four years.  I won't be able to attend her funeral this Friday because of work, but there is a viewing at the same time as the Garden Park event, so I felt I must go to that to pay my respects to the Shawcroft family and to see her for one last time.

She was a very kind and gracious lady, and definitely had a Christ-like demeanor, which is evident in very good missionaries. 

I have a picture of me and her on the mission but it's in my old PC and the battery's dead  >:-(
Once I retrive my files from the old computer I'll post the picture here.  

Sister Shawcroft always had a phrase to share with everyone

"Be good, be wise, be wonderful"

Sister Shawcroft certainly was a good, wise, and wonderful woman!

One last story I'll share before I went to bed about her being all of these three things.  After the mission, I was engaged to another guy and that didn't work out.  It really sucked notifying everyone six days out from the wedding.  On June 5th 2011 (my defunct wedding was June 3rd) she emailed me this:

Dear Sister Riquelme,
Please know you are in our prayers. The right one is still waiting!
Com Amor,
Sister Shawcroft

She was right!!!!!  I really appreciated all of her kind words and optimism as well.    

I was privileged to meet this lady as a missionary.  

The last time I saw her was on my wedding day on June 1st, 2012.  I was so happy she came and I'm pretty sure she was very happy knowing that I ended up finding my "right one"  

You can read her beautiful obituary HERE

I can't wait for tomorrow, it will be tough, but there will be strength too because of all the love everyone had for her.