Deseret News: "Son's honorable return from Mormon mission brings with it sweet blessings"

Long-time fans of BYU Cougar football will certainly remember Vai Sikahema (pictured with the Y banner).  As a freshman, Vai returned a punt 83 yards for a touchdown in the 1980 Miracle Bowl (here's a great highlight video).  After serving a mission to South Dakota, Vai returned to BYU in time for the 1984 national championship season.  He later spent several years in the NFL, where he played for the Cardinals, Packers, and Eagles, twice securing a spot in the Pro Bowl, mainly as a return specialist.

Brother Sikahema recently contributed a story to the Deseret News, in which he captures what it means to be the parents of a missionary.  His son, Leonard Trey, returned this week from a mission to London.  Leonard Trey was the third missionary son of Vai and his wife, Keala.  Brother Sikahema's words will resonate with missionary parents.

Few things are as satisfying as seeing your sons return honorably from missions. When they were infants, I didn't bless them to be college grads, although they're all destined to be, nor did I bless them to become CEOs or NFL players. I blessed them to live that they may serve honorable missions and marry in the temple. Their missions now complete, we're confident they'll follow LJ's example and marry in the temple.

I recently read a quote from Harvard business professor Clayton Christensen that being a Mormon missionary "is the hardest job in the world." If it's not, it's pretty close to the top. And because it was such a seminal and life-changing event in my life, we've been single-minded in preparing our sons to be missionaries.

Our logic was this: If we could help get them on missions and if they did it for the right reasons, we wouldn't have to ever worry about their college major, their chosen vocation, work ethic, job security or unemployment, whom they'd marry or where they'd live and raise their family, or their commitment to God and country. Nothing else could help them be enormously successful or help them deal with disappointment, failure and rejection. A mission would prepare them for all of that.

Brother Sikahema concludes his thoughts with a description of the reunion of a return missionary and his family.

Into the wee hours of the morning, we stayed up and heard of Trey's extraordinary experiences in England, the wonderful people he met, his many companions from whom he learned so much and to whose parents we are so indebted. Leonard Trey regaled us with stories of the gifted leaders who taught him important lessons and the people he taught the gospel to that will sustain him throughout his life.

We laughed till our sides hurt over the memories of growing up together in NFL towns throughout the country and the little quirks unique to being a part of our family. It was a slice of heaven. Through it all, my wife Keala and I reveled in what is truly one of the most gratifying moments in LDS parents' lives — the reunion with faithful sons who have served their missions honorably and with distinction.

It's much too early in Elliot's mission to begin thinking about his return (only 13 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days to go!) but we remember well the day our older son Keith returned home and look forward to the same wonderful reunion with Elliot.

And just for fun, enjoy a video of a 2009 interview with Brother Sikahema after the jump.

Elliot's May 23 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot, along with some new pictures after the jump.

Hey!

Tell Alyssa congrats on everything! That's super exciting. I couldn't hear the singing on these library computers, but it looks like it was awesome. [Alyssa is wrapping up her senior year at Hart High.  On Friday, she sang a solo at the spring concert.  She graduates Wednesday and heads to BYU in August.]

We did get a lot of rain and crazy thunder and lightning and everything! We were okay, it actually never was raining while we were out, but we were under a few tornado watches and stuff. Oklahoma is exciting!

My new companion, Elder Derrick Nield (from Smithfield, UT) is awesome. We've been having a good time and the work's going pretty well. He's definitely adjusted to the routine of missionary work quickly. We're getting referrals and working hard!  [I found some pictures of Elder Nield from his high school basketball days here.  And here is a link to his page on missionsite.net.]

We had a tougher week. We took one of the recent converts in the ward to a set of 3 appointments we had set up, all of which fell through. It was a mega bummer. But I've learned that when something seems to go wrong, 5 things go right. We headed up to Noble after, and finding we had about an hour of free time, went tracting. We prayed to know where we should go, and looking at a map of the town, felt inspired to go to a block on the complete opposite side of town from where we were. But, of course, God knows better than we do, so we went. We tracted a street and didn't find anyone wanting to hear from us, so we walked back towards the car, and saw a guy working on his car around the corner from where we were parked. We offered to lend a hand (even though I don't know how in the world to work on cars), and he politely declined. We got to talking though. He was from Guatemala, had talked to missionaries there a few times, but never got a chance to learn much. The Spirit was strong though. He was very receptive, took a Book of Mormon, and we have plans to go back and visit later. Finding those that you're supposed to is the greatest feeling in the mission, I think. Later on we had a lesson with one of our investigators who said she really didn't feel ready to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ in her life, though she was quick to recognize us as representatives of the Lord. It was hard, seeing her unwilling to read, pray, attend church and do the things that would make her life so much better, but that's how it goes. We left feeling we did all we could, but a bit disheartened, understandably. Just then a member calls us a gives us this awesome referral. The guy had been going through a real tough time. His house burned down, and all that wasn't destroyed got stolen. He expressed to the member that he was unsatisfied with his current church, and the member promptly invited him to come to ours. He did. After church yesterday, he said that he felt right at home as soon as he entered the building, and he knew that's where the Lord wanted him. He wants to come next week with his family. We're visiting them tonight, and are going to invite them to be baptized. 

I guess that's why the mission, this inspired work, leaves me so happy in the end. It seems like no matter what, the good outweighs the bad in the end. It's tough, humid, sticky, slow, but awesome.

I love you!

Elder Elliot Adair

Oklahoma sports report (sort of)

It's a bit of a stretch to call this an Oklahoma sports report, since it doesn't involve any games played by teams based in Oklahoma, but there is a connection.  First, however, the bad news.

Five days have passed since the Cougars played the Florida Gators in the NCAA Tournament.  After 32 wins, a conference championship, and a trip to the sweet sixteen, the magic finally ended as the Cougars lost 83-74 in overtime.  Jimmer Fredette scored 32 points but was an uncharacteristic 3 of 15 from three-point land.  No other Cougar scored more than 9 points.  My philosophical side says it was a great season and the team was extremely fun to watch, but my other side imagines how great it would be to have made it to the final four and maybe even win the whole thing.  But only one team can win it all, and this year it will not be the Cougars.  So life is good.  And the awards keep rolling in.  The U.S. Basketball Writers Association selected Jimmer as the winner of the 2010-11 Oscar Robertson Trophy, annually presented to the National Player of the Year.  He was also selected to The Associated Press All-America team and the 2011 Lute Olson All-America team.  The list of personal honors for Jimmer goes on.  And in recognition of the team's dedication to academics, DegreeeSearch.org conducted its own postseason tournament for college basketball called the Student-Athlete Championship and declared BYU men’s basketball the champions.

So what's the Oklahoma connection?  BYU coach Dave Rose has decided not to pursue the head coaching job at the University of Oklahoma.  Great news for the Cougars; not such great news for the Sooners.

Oklahoma sports report

Time for an update on our favorite college basketball teams at tournament time.

The Cowboys saw their season come to a close Monday night when they lost 74-64 to the Washington State Cougars in the National Invitational Tournament.  Despite 17 points and 11 rebounds from senior forward Matt Pilgrim, the Cowboys came out on the short end of the score, as the Cougars limited OSU's leading scorer, Marshall Moses, to just two points.

The Cougars played the Gonzaga Bulldogs on Saturday, March 19 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.  Gonzaga has family ties for Elliot, since his dad lived in Spokane for several years as a kid.  Elliot's uncle Don still lives there and does some work for Gonzaga.  And John Stockton, a Spokane native who played for Gonzaga and whose son David now plays for the Bulldogs, is a long-time favorite of Elliot's brother Keith.  But Elliot and his family bleed Cougar blue so there was no doubt about which team to support.  The game was reasonably close through the first half but the Cougars pullled away in the second half, winning by a final score of 89-67.  Jimmer Fredette had another spectucular game, scoring 34 points, including seven 3-pointers, some from the next area code.  (Jimmer is also a finalist for the 2011 Naismith Men’s College Player of the Year Award.)  Noah Hartsock made all five of his shots, including three 3-pointers on his way to 13 points, and Jackson Emery tossed in 16 points.  Next up for the Cougars is the number two seed Florida Gators, Thursday evening in New Orleans.

And after the jump, you can watch a great video: "We Are BYU."