When you least expect it

I'm the third out of six children in my family. We have all served missions so far. My three siblings that are younger than me are all boys. One is on his mission in the Ukraine, the other is going to Iowa and went into the MTC today, and the youngest is a senior in high school. So this past week my parents drove down from Canada to bring my brother to the MTC.

Yesterday I convinced my parents that they need to see Christopher Nolan's new film Interstellar, so we all went including my missionary brother to see the movie in IMAX in Sandy. On the way back I was driving and figured I should get my brother to read my personal essay draft and give me some spiritual insight since he has been set apart as a missionary. So he grabbed my phone and read it to himself as I was responsibly paying attention to the road. He laughed out loud during the middle section which I was hoping he would.

Once he was finished he simply said it was good and smiled. I did a bit more proding and he reminded me of the few grammar errors, but said that he really enjoyed reading it and then turned and handed the phone to my dad that was sitting in the back seat with my mom and said "you should really read this." My dad asked what it was, and after my brother wouldn't tell him he began to read it out loud so my mom could hear so she wouldn't have to read it again.

It was an interesting experience to hear my dad read my words out loud. My family is very family with the friendship that I have with brother Miller, but haven't heard all the little stories. His voice went from an almost confused tone, to one of recognition, to laughter, and then finally to tears. My mom was also crying, and I too was getting choked up by their reactions. After a long pause ounce he finished reading I finally had the gumpsion to tell them that I wrote the essay to make people laugh and not cry. We all had a little chuckle, but it was very strong spirit that we felt in our CRV driving back to Provo.

I was reminded that my dad also had a very strong friendship with brother Miller having served as a counsellor to him in the bishopric in our ward before. He too had a great amount of respect and love for this man as I do, and we shared a special moment together. I never would have guessed that this relatively insignificant piece of literature that I managed to piece together.