Our family first met the Morans on the first Sunday we attended church in Germany (over 10 years ago!) Jared had been assigned to be our home teacher, and so in true Jared style, he went above and beyond and invited our entire family over for dinner that evening.
Since then, the Morans have been the best of friends. They have supported us through thick and thin, and they love our kids as if they were their own. When we visit Germany, we stay with the Morans. When we travel, we travel with the Morans. When we get unexpected packages in the mail (as we did this past weekend), they're from the Morans.
John and Jared run together whenever they are together, and it's always a hoot to hear Jared's recap of any run with John! Usually the stories involve ... well, they involve a lot of funny things that only runners can appreciate, right Mark?
John has always "encouraged" Jared to run a marathon. Imagine John's delight when Jared called him up last spring and told him he was coming back to the States to run the Air Force marathon with John!
Much to Jared's surprise, the night before he left to come to the US, he met with our former stake president in Germany, President Allred, who extended a call to Jared to be bishop of Jared's ward. Jared had called John before the meeting, and John had guessed that Jared was going to be called as bishop, but as soon as we heard that he was indeed called, we were over the moon! I did feel bad for Jared as it was a bit of "cruel and unusual punishment" to spring the calling on him before he left for 10 days back to the States, and I was thankful that John had been called on the morning that he was sustained--no time for worry! However, we could do nothing but tell Jared that he going to be the best bishop!
There is not a better family than the Morans. If you think of anything good that you think families should be, the Morans are IT! They are stellar examples of living the gospel. They read their scriptures as a family first thing in the morning. They attend every meeting, and fulfill every calling. In fact, it was their idea when we visited them at Christmastime to sing Christmas carols (as two families) to single airmen and airmen in the hospital, bringing a bit of joy to their holiday season.
Too, I told him to tell Sarah that it is such a sweet time in the life of a family of a bishop. I had always heard how terrible it was, being married to a bishop, but our experience had been completely different. For us, there were more blessings than we could count, and in fact, when John was released, I wondered exactly how we were going to survive without all of those blessings in our lives. I hope and pray that this experience will be just as wonderful for them as it was for us.
A side note to the Morans: when Jared is called to be mission president, we're going to come and serve as senior missionaries in your mission so that we can stay up every night playing Siedler together :-)
By the way, Jared and John ran the marathon like the CHAMPS they are. We love you, Morans!
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| About-to-be Bishop Moran, and former Bishop Kennedy Runners Extraordinaire! |
Blogger is finally letting me comment on your blog and I am sooo excited! First Jared got a picture on the sidebar and now a whole post? We feel so loved! I am so grateful that ten years ago we met you, our lives just wouldn't be the same without your family. Love you!
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