Good Luck Elder Hurst!

My little brother, Chris, left to serve his mission in Indianapolis, Indiana on May 13th (exactly a week ago). I thought sending Chris off would be easier this time because I've already gone through the 2 year away thing with my older brother Danny but this time I think it's harder because he's my little brother and I'm very protective of him. The only thing that will make it easier is when I join him in the mission field and get involved with my own mission. We got our first letter from him on Sunday and he is having a hard time, which is to be expected but still hard to hear. I know he'll be a great missionary and just needs to get past the homesickness. Going to the MTC was also a reality check to me--it suddenly made me going on a mission that much more real to me. I can't believe that the next time I go back it will be me saying goodbye to my family. I am still very much excited to go on a mission, but I will admit the nerves are setting in and I'm scared.

More updates on the mission. I finally went and saw some fancy neurosurgeon up at the University of Utah. Good news and bad news. Good news is my neck looks fine--no broken or fractured bones in there, everything is in place. Bad news is that what most likely is going on with my neck is that I have torn/pulled ligaments which unfortunately can take a long time to heal. The doctor says they usually take about 2 years or more to start healing. My accident happened about 14 months ago so best case scenario I should start feeling better in about March. I really hope it doesn't take longer than that! Living with neck pain is....well a pain in the neck, pun intended ;) I am now trying to decide if I settle with Coca Cola now or when I return from my mission. The doctor thinks that I just need to wait for them to heal, which means no more doctors appointments (yay!) so if I settled now I wouldn't need to use the money for future medical payments. But I still worry something else will pop up that will require more doctors/therapy/etc that I will have to use my settlement for....this is a pretty big and tough decision and being the indecisive person I am most of the time, it may take me awhile to decide what I should do!