Seminary Graduation

Parker 1st & 2nd Ward kids

I put a sticker that said "censored" in the middle of this picture. It is seminary after all.

Zak's first day of Kindergarten

Zak's first scriptures for his 8th birthday

We just got home from Seminary graduation. They randomly called on about 20 kids to bear their testimony. They had all the seniors bear their testimonies on the last day of seminary and warned them that they may be called on again at graduation. Zak said he nearly started bawling in seminary and thought sure he would be a mess if he had to do it at graduation. He had a feeling he would be called up and sure enough he was. It was my first glimpse of "Elder Terry." He looked so handsome in his suit. He spoke with confidence and bore his testimony that he knew seminary had been a good influence in his life and that it would help him and his friends when they served their missions. He bore a powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and the importance it has been in his life. We are so proud of him.

Last week I made a "Senior Spotlight" poster that they showed in seminary. These are a few of the pictures from the poster, and we sent a letter that was read in class. I have included a copy of that letter here.

Dear Zak,

It’s been almost eighteen years since you made your dramatic entrance into this world. And you are still amazing us by breaking out of your box doing things like participating in Mr. S.F. Now if you can just take that attitude of no fear and not worrying what anybody else thinks into your future adventures your will see a lot of success.

As a toddler when a jet flew overhead you pointed to the sky and said, “Dad, look at the hair plane.” Now as you are about to close a chapter in your life the sky is the limit on where you can go and what you can be.

You have been lucky to have many good friends around you throughout your life and as parents we are proud of the choice of friends you have made. We are glad that they feel comfortable being in our home and we feel like they are our kids as well. Even though we give you a hard time about them eating us out of house and home, we wouldn’t want you to be anywhere else.

Being part of an avid dirt biking family you have come a long way since your first KX80. You have had your share of spills and bumps and bruises. But now that you can look at the hill climbs as a challenge and not an impossible task, you take them on with excitement.

Your life has come with a few hill climbs. Most kids born with crooked knees that make it difficult to run would never have become the athlete that you turned out to be. We are proud of you for pushing past the pain and going the extra mile to keep up to the rest of the team.

When your family faced the rocky hill climb of divorce you were solid as a rock and gave your dad the love and support he needed to keep the family strong. As hard as this experience was to go through it will serve your life well in the future because you already know how to survive hard things.

Zak, we love you and are proud of the life you have lived so far. We look forward to watching you grow into the successful and honorable man we know you will be.

Love,
Mom & Dad