21 Things

Today is Matt's Birthday!

And as you have probably assumed by now, today is his 21st birthday!

As he is in my thoughts today and 21 is a stepping stone in age (I guess)

I decided I will make a list of

21 Things I have observed or learned from or about Matt while he has been on his mission in Colombia and only has about 11 weeks left!

Yeah, I'm super duper excited.

Well, here we go:

1. He can't spell worth anything
2. He is more responsible
3. He still doesn't let me whine and complain, he makes me do something about my problems
4. He's more grateful and better at appreciating and recognizing his blessings
5. He's learned to not be as shy as once was
6. He's still a big kid stuck in a man's body. but a more responsible big kid. haha
7. He'll still eat anything and try everything
8. He doesn't like to talk about himself and tell us how he is doing
9. Everyone he meets seem to love him to pieces, I've gotten messages on fb about how they love him.
10. He likes to be fit and has mentioned he's gaining muscle and losing some weight
11. I sent him a story about an Elder who came home from his mission, and how everyone could tell how hard he worked and how he did everything he could do, and Matt has mentioned to me time and time again that he is working so hard to try and be like that Elder to do everything he can do.
12. He still loves to laugh
13. Almost every week he will share with me something he's learned or a goal he has
14. He is always willing and wanting to help
15. He is always encouraging
16. He doesn't like to show when he is having a hard time, he told me that days when his emails are short, those were most likely the hard weeks and he has cried himself to sleep before.
17. He can still surprise me even when he is not here, that takes skill
18. He is self-disciplined, a hard worker, and really good at being obedient.
19. In most of his pictures, he always has his mouth wide open! I think it's because he wants to smile so big, and he can't quite do that, so he opens his mouth.
20. He is becoming better at being even more considerate
21. He has a strong testimony of the gospel and has shared so much time and himself with others.

He loved these "over sized" sculptures...and his mouth is open!