Elder Jensen's Mission: Getting Set Apart

Chris (well, I guess its officially Elder Jensen)-- was called to the Long Beach, California mission and was set apart on January 15, 2013. We are all so proud of him :) By "WE" I mean his parents, Alan and Jonell, and his 2nd family - Ryan, Kathy, Madison, Morgan and Kyle (The Erdmann's). Ryan is Chris' biological father and Kathy is his 'logical stepmother' :) Madison, Morgan and Kyle are his siblings. We (The Erdmanns) feel so blessed that Chris contacted us 2 years ago and wanted to meet us. We were further blessed that he was able to come live with us for the past year and a half. We have loved getting to know him and the great young man he has become. A big THANK YOU to Alan and Jonell for sharing Chris with us -- we've loved every minute of it. The girls and Kyle were so excited to meet their new brother -- and Chris was a natural at being a big brother (as you'll see from some of the pics below). We are very proud of him and his decision to serve a mission! Here are pics taken right before he was set apart. We got quite a few -- which is no small miracle if you know Chris and his love of having his picture taken!

The reality that he's going to miss the 2nd Hobbit movie sets in!

Not really sure what he's doing here. Lost his mind perhaps??

OK -- Now I see where Chris gets his photogenic nature :)

Awwww....father and son. Nice picture!!

Its REALLY hard to keep Chris' attention for long!

Mother and son -- love this picture!

Chris has a hard time smiling for some reason.

What an amazing family!

The "biologicals" -- for those who don't know who we are (from l-r)
Kathy, Madison, Elder Jensen, Ryan, Morgan

Begging for forgiveness for something. For the house smelling like snake poop?
For the mountain dew can that was left out....again? Maybe he's begging me to send him cake balls while he's gone?

I don't even know what to say about this one.

Looks like Chris is trying to escape...

Third times a charm. Nice pic of the biologicals :)

Two very happy sisters who are grateful to have such an awesome big brother. They loved going to the zoo and aquarium with him - and even though they'll deny it -- they loved being teased by Chris. They are sure going to miss him!