March 12, 1999, was the date of the long-awaited return of our son, Eric, who had just completed an LDS Church mission. The excitement of meeting him at the airport after his long flight from South America will never be forgotten. He had grown up and become a man. The mother's embrace of a son just returned from a two-year absence was never to be forgotten. Watching Eric was fun as he studied how the family had changed, his younger brothers truly a head taller, his sisters and older brother now with so much in common. There was much to catch up on and many fun activities to be planned. Trips skiing and fishing were discussed with his brother-in-law.
And what a command of the Spanish language he had! Eric seemed so happy to be at home and was ready to re-enter school on a Presidential Scholarship. He explained that while his mission was very successful and filled a very important part of his life, he declined a request by his mission president to stay an extra month, telling him he felt an urgency to get back to be with his family.
The activities of the next week, while so familiar to many LDS families, are all a blur now: the interview with the stake president and honorable release, the homecoming, family and friends, and the reacquaintance with our son, brother and friend.
The euphoria was short-lived. Then came the crushing blow. Eric experienced a shortness of breath and tightness in his chest that some suggested might be due to altitude adjustment. Visits with our doctor and an X-ray lab exposed a much more serious condition: a grapefruit-size cancerous growth in Eric's chest.
Our focus changed overnight from fun family activities to searching out the best doctors available and to identifying and curing Eric's problem. Our family had been spared serious medical problems and the "C" word, and the possible ramifications were new to us. While we knew Eric's condition was serious, the process of really understanding how serious took us days and weeks to fully grasp.
We surrounded Eric with love, tenderness and support as he fought for his life. Eric was strong and had determined he would win this battle and would move on with his life. Despite the best efforts of modem medicine and numerous petitions for divine intervention, Eric slipped from this life less than two months after his return home. We were not prepared for his sudden passing, and we were left with a profound sense of shock and disarray. This was not Eric's destiny. It was not supposed to turn out this way.
The months following Eric's death and funeral provided time for healing. We learned to understand the heartbreak and pain faced by many others who have also lost loved ones. Many thoughtful and caring individuals comforted us as we dealt with our great loss. Eric had many friends from his mission who wrote kind words of condolences and support. We especially enjoyed the sharing of stories involving Eric that helped us understand the man he had become. For our family, there were the lingering, wishful thoughts of "if only" and "why didn't we?"
We had his mission journals and photographs that were very special and comforting, but in all of the confusion during the short time he was with us after his mission, we had failed to capture any videos or voice recordings.
Our 1999 Christmas holiday was not the cheerful celebration we had so eagerly anticipated. Instead, our Christmas season was subdued and filled with tears. Eric's personalized stocking was hung with the other family stockings, but this year his was empty.
Christmas Day dawned with traditional present-opening and family visiting. After the midday meal, everyone settled down for some quiet time. I took the opportunity to take a short walk. Passing our mailbox, the thought came to me to look inside. I realized there would be no mail because of the Christmas holiday, but I looked in anyway, and to my surprise, found a stack of letters and an express package. The mail must have been delivered on Christmas Eve and had not been retrieved. The package caught my immediate interest. It was addressed to the family from someone in Arizona. Inside the package I found a short note along with an audiotape. The note read:
"Dear Johnson Family
“My name is Nelson Phelps. Eric was my third companion on my mission in the area of La Pastora (Venezuela) where he was Zone Leader. He and I were together for only about five weeks before he was transferred to San Cristobal.
“Anyway, to make a kind of long story short, one P-day Eric gave me this tape to tape over to send to my family because I didn't have one to send. However, I never used it and forgot all about it until I was packing up to go home about two months ago, I decided that I would send this for Christmas so that you could have a Christmas present from myself and Eric. I hope you enjoy this.
“Love,
Nelson Phelps"
I immediately returned home and gathered the family together to listen to our son Eric's Christmas message to his family taped 23 months earlier. This tape was Eric's first and only attempt to record a message to us. Following the taping he didn't feel it was done well enough to send and eventually offered it to his companion to tape over.
This precious tape had been miraculously kept safe during the remainder of Elder Phelps' mission and then so thoughtfully sent to us to arrive on Christmas Day. We shed tears of joy as we listened to our son share his feelings and experiences and his admonition to his younger brothers to appreciate the blessings of America as they prepare for their future missions. He sang songs in both Spanish and English, including the National Anthem, to express his feelings towards his homeland.
This was an incredible Christmas gift to our family from a loving Heavenly Father who knew of Eric's short earthly mission. By this and many other ways, Heavenly Father touched our lives in love and tenderness to help us through a very difficult loss.
The memory of the special circumstances of receiving this tape on Christmas Day will always be cherished. At every future Christmas I envision bringing out this tape to again rekindle this special connection with our son Eric. In the midst of sorrow and grieving, the receipt of a very special, surprise Christmas gift brightened our family's Christmas holiday.
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