March 6th came before we knew it! Why does time fly by so quickly? The night before, the stake president (a local church leader) set Christian apart as a missionary and gave him a special blessing for the next two years. We stayed up late helping Christian finish packing and then got up early the next day to spend as much time with him as possible. At noon, we loaded up our friends' 15-passenger van and made our way to Provo to drop Christian off at the Missionary Training Center (MTC).
Hundreds of missionaries arrive at the MTC each Wednesday, which means that the drop-off time at the curb is quite limited. Like many others, we stopped at the Provo Temple grounds first to take pictures and have a few more minutes of family time. Then we loaded up the van one last time and drove across the street to the MTC to say goodbye to Christian for the next two years. It was such a bittersweet experience, because we are so proud of him for choosing to give two full years of his life to the Lord and there's nowhere else we'd rather have him be. But at the same time, we really like him and are going to really miss him!
Luckily for us, Christian keeps us entertained with his letters. The ones we're not allowed to share are especially hilarious, but the weekly update-for-everyone e-mails are fun, too. Christian will be at the MTC until May 6th, learning Korean and how to teach the gospel. Then it's off to Daejeon, South Korea! Christian is currently a Zone Leader and is learning a lot and having a lot of fun at the same time. You can read along here.
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| Saying goodbye to April and Tasha via Skype. |
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| Biggest little brother and littlest little brother. |
We don't have missionary programs like this in my church, so it is amazing to hear stories of people who are dedicating years of their lives to the Lord! I wish great success to him in his adventures! That note is precious, hahaha!
ReplyDeleteThe note was totally precious ..... made me cry then and makes me cry now. I miss my boy, but I'm so glad he is serving.
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