Dedication From Mom

He received his call on March 10, 2020 to the Cavite Philippines Mission speaking Tagalog. 2 days later is when the Church closed down and foreign missionaries were being sent home due to Covid. Kycen had to make the decision to delay a years or move forward. He chose to move forward. On June 2nd Kycen was in a  serious car crash. A rollover that injured him and his close friends. Kycen was hurt but he chose to still go. He was the first missionary in our stake to start the home MTC we had no idea what we were doing. 

Kycen didn’t even get a normal farewell. We had it on zoom. He started the home MTC on July 1st 6 weeks of learning Tagalog at home. I feel like those 6 weeks were the biggest blessing in my life. Watching him grow as a missionary. It was HARD! 4th of July is his favorite holiday and he got to spend one more with his family! We did not let him see his friends. It was a very hard trial for Kycen. He made some great friends in the HOME MTC whom he got to get together with a few pdays. Hoping they would meet again in the Philippines. It was a blessing to me as his Mom to have him for 6 more weeks! We hiked together as a family and got precious time with our boy with no distractions!! It was time I will always cherish!! Kycen was reassigned to the Dallas Texas East mission in August. At this time the temples were still closed. Kycen chose to still go without having gone through the temple for his Endowement. 

On August 10th we had a special dinner for Kycen before he left for Dallas.We could only invite a few people due to Covid restrictions. He flew out on August 12. No words can explain how proud I was of him but so completely devastated at the same time. Kycen was so homesick that first week and it was Hard on all of us. We encouraged him to give it a week. He struggled more. It was heartbreaking. After a week he was a new kid. Loving mission life. After being out 2 weeks we got a call from his mission president asking if we would like to fly out to Texas to go to the temple with him! We were worried it would be too hard for him to say goodbye again but he wanted us to come. On September 10 2020 his mom and dad only got to fly out attend the temple for his Endowement. That time in the temple was special to see my sweet missionary. We got to take him to breakfast after and then had to say our goodbyes again!!! We didn’t eat a thing. We were so sick to know we had to say good bye again. It was way harder the second time around. I hugged my sweet boy again. Went and bawled for hours at the motel. We were staying downtown Dallas and it was not something a missionary mom should see. I wanted to bring him home but my sweet husband wouldn’t let me. Kycens whole mission due to Covid was a huge trial. We came home from Texas and bawled the whole flight home. I’m so proud of Kycens decision to stay and serve even when it was hard. His mission had been nothing typical but he served with diligence. I want to send some pics of our hikes and the airport drop off. 

Kycen always had high hopes of going to his original assignment but the Philippines was totally closed. In December 2021 he was called to permanently be  in Dallas Texas East Mission. The Philippines opened in March 2022 but with just a couple months left of his mission he couldn’t go. We hope he can go someday.