The Ben Vacation 2015 - Missionary Shopping

Today Ben's mission became even more of a reality as we entered a local Mr. Mac store (definite symmetry here as I got my missionary clothing from a Mr. Mac store) and bought missionary clothing and accouterments for him.  We already have the one suit we purchased for him to wear for his prom, so we only needed one additional suit and the other clothing items listed in his missionary packet.  The Church issued new guidelines for missionary attire about a year and a half ago (give or take) which included gray and brown as acceptable colors for suits (black and blue used to be the only accepted colors).  A few months after this change, Elder Jones came into our area as a "greenie."  One of his suits was brown and Ben really liked it.  Over the last couple of months, Ben's been telling Jennifer and me that he wanted a brown suit.  Jennifer has been a bit dubious about the idea, but I told Ben that I would be okay with brown as long as it was a good suit, it looked good on him and we weren't buying it "just because" it was brown.  Ben accepted this stipulation.  There were two brown suits in the store.  Ben tried them both and liked them (Jennifer and I liked them too) because they did accent his hair well and, yes, they looked good on him.  The suit Ben choose was the best of the two, but the following exchange helped me understand how much he had taken my earlier stipulation to heart.

Salesman (after Ben has tried on the suit we all liked): "Which of the two suits do you like?"
Ben: "This one." He then turned to me. "Dad, do you like this one?"
Salesman: "That's up to you to decide."
Ben: "No," nodding at me, "that's up to him."
Me: *Chuckling* "I like it.  I think it looks very good on you."
Ben: "I'll take this one." ☺

From there we moved on to shoes.  Good grief!  Both pairs over $120 a piece; these things better be best shoes he's ever walked in!  Then it was shirts, shoulder bag (Jennifer and I asked about the 3 types of shoulder bags; the most expensive one was quite nice, but as she and I considered the possible arguments in favor of the other two, the salesman said: "We'll let the missionary decide." Of course, "the missionary" picked the expensive bag, but it has a strap that connects around his waist that will better distribute the load off his shoulders, so what can I say? ☺), ties, coat (a three-in-one that should serve him well in Colorado), and socks.  Okay, yes, I had a moment of "sticker shock" (I always do in situations like this), but the important thing is that he is properly accessorized and sufficiently prepared temporally to enter the field to begin his missionary service.  More important is his spiritual preparation and I think he is doing well in that category also.  I'm thankful the missionaries in our ward have been taking him on appointments—sometimes twice or more a day.  After Ben's graduation, we were having our missionary correlation meeting and the Elders asked if there was anything they could do for us.  "Use Ben as much as possible," Jen and I replied.  This is a luxury I did not have since I don't recall ever seeing missionaries in our little town.  I came into the field completely clueless.  Because of the opportunities Ben has had, he has a better idea of what to expect.

Ben will receive his temple endowment on August 8th and our plan is to also take him to the Los Angeles, San Diego and Salt Lake temples before he enters the MTC.  The Denver Colorado Temple is close to, but not a part of his mission.  We are hoping he is able to attend there to partake of the blessings of the temple while on his mission (something I was not able to do while I was in the mission field until days before returning home).  Spiritual preparation is so important for the Elders and Sisters and I am glad Ben has worked diligently in this area.  Meanwhile, as far as the temporal is concerned, his suit doesn't need much tailoring (actually, just the pants need adjusting).  We will be able to pick up the suit tomorrow afternoon after 3 pm.