Goodbye Elder Zmoos...for awhile

Last week I went down to South Jordan to visit with a bunch of the Monson clan because one of my "boy cousins" went into the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT and then on to Chile. He and his three brothers live in Iowa so we rarely get to see them. Because we had a family of almost all girls, and the Zmoos's had all boys, we were the "girl cousins" and they were the "boy cousins." :-)

Jesse is the last of his brothers to serve a mission for the LDS church. He is so cute! About 2 feet taller than me but so cute! I think one of my fondest memories of my little cousin Jesse is when his family came to our house in Oregon. His older brothers and mom told us if we really wanted to see something funny, we should start the movie "Rescuers Down Under." It didn't take more than two minutes to find out why. I've never beheld such a dance in all my life. He was a fairly beefy young lad and full of attitude. When the movie began he stood up off his chair and stood extremely still and didn't say a word (at that time in his life that was rare). As soon as the fast drumming music started he absolutely freaked out! He ran in place and jumped in the air so fast it was like Billy Blanks ordered him to go triple time! It was crazy. He then expanded his running in place to running all around the living room. If only we would have recorded it. I'm sure the Zmoos' have it somewhere.

It was great to see so many family members that we don't see often enough, but mostly it was good to see again how much little Jess has changed from that intense toddler to such a sweet and mild-mannered young man. He'll be a great missionary and we can't wait to see how much more he'll grow over the next couple of years.