A visit from Andy

 A few weeks ago, our friend Andy from law school made a trip out to visit Briant.  They both needed some man to man time together for some deep, analytic conversations about life, etc. before we left for Africa.  Briant was looking forward to this and planning on it for weeks.  Briant met Andy in D.C., and Andy came back to stay the night with us in Thomas' room.  Our kids loved him!  Andy got right onto the floor and wrestled and played with them.

By chance, this was also the weekend I was able to preview the movie "Meet the Mormons" with the kids. It's a new movie put out by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

David Archuleta’s single, “Glorious” -

 as featured in the movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GytW_rgr0RM

The movie features families that share their inspiring stories of conversion to the Church, and the timing of the movie preview and the visit from our friend Andy was perfect.  When we met Andy at the beginning of law school, he was not a member of the Church.  Briant and Andy became close friends and study partners, and one night Briant and I shared a little about our faith and gave Andy a Book of Mormon.  However, the timing wasn’t right and Andy returned the book to Briant.  To make a long story short, after a few years and many emails and conversations about life, religion, etc., Briant gave Andy another Book of Mormon, and this time Andy kept the book and started investigating the Church and taking the missionary lessons.  At about the same time, he also met Bethany, a member of the church, and they started dating; Andy ended up getting baptized, and he and Bethany were married.  Eleven years on, Andy is now a law professor, he and Bethany have three adorable girls, and Bethany just co-authored a beautiful book published by Deseret Book.  We were able to go as a family to her book signing in D.C. the weekend when Andy was in town and to spend time with Andy and Bethany and their family and friends.   Andy has a very agile and curious mind and an honest heart, and while we were privileged to be a part of his conversion process, we know it was Andy himself who studied about and  made the decision to join the Church.  But we were both touched when Andy introduced himself to our children and told them that their dad was the person who gave him his first (and second) Book of Mormon and first introduced him to the LDS church.  He made a similar statement when he introduced us to his three girls later that weekend.  Briant and I talked afterwards about how grateful we are for Andy and his friendship, and resolved to be better about opening our mouths and sharing our faith with those around us as we move towards Africa.  

  

I'm bummed that this pic was blurry!

We found out at the book signing that the artwork for the book has been purchased by the LDS church and is on display at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake.  I can't wait to actually read it with my children--it looks like a lovely book (we bought a copy and immediately packed it to ship to Africa a few days later).