A Rollercoaster of a Weekend - Friday Morning

This weekend was so special in so many ways.  We originally planned to go up just for Katie and Korey's wedding and that was all.  But, life doesn't always go as planned.  Thankfully.

About a month prior to the wedding we found out that the day of her wedding was also DSU Alumni Day at Lagoon.  They were giving a big discount and we told the boys that if they all earned $40 each then we would go.  So they did.  So we planned to go up Friday morning at 6am and drive straight to 7 Peaks in Provo to go swimming for the last time of the season before school started.  We knew they opened at 10am so if we went straight there we could meet the cousins there, stay until 5pm then go to Steve and Juanelle's for a b-b-q at 6pm.  Then the next day we would go to Lagoon as soon as they opened at 10am until 3:30 and then leave for the wedding which was only 17 miles away at Weber State University.  Stay there until after the dinner, around 7pm, and then go back to Lagoon until 11pm when they shut down.  It was a perfect plan.  Fun, Fun, Fun. 

But in the back of my mind I kept thinking that we should go on a tour of the MTC while we were up there.  So many people had gone, friends, neighbors and even strangers, and taken pictures of Sophie and posted them for me that I thought that I needed to give back and take pictures for other mom's of their missionaries to post online for them to see their kids serving the Lord.   The week before I had checked on tickets and they were all sold out.  People had said that you could stand in the stand by line and hope to get on the shuttle and that they weren't turning people away, but I didn't want to take our chances.  Thursday night as we were packing I threw the idea out to Joel to see what he'd say.  He was all over it.  It was 2am before we figured out that the church had reopened all of the tickets for the tours.  Apparently a anti-mormon group had been reserving all of the tickets so that no one would go on the tour.  So the church now had a bunch of tickets available to go take the tour.  We looked to see what time we could fit it in with our schedule and the tour from start to finish was going to take an hour and we didn't want to hold people up for the b-b-q so we figured that if we drove fast, but safe, we could get there by 9:20am.  We could take the tour and still be over to 7 peaks to meet the cousins to play.  So I was able to get 8 tickets and Joel was able to get 8 tickets and I texted Brad and told him about it the next morning because he was already in Lehi at our parents.  So, was George, Josh, Ben and Evan.  They left the night before.  So, we met Brad's family, Grandpa and those 4 boys at the shuttle at 9:25am.  Jumped on and headed up to the MTC.  It was crazy!

 

We started inside that old part of the MTC that hadn't changed and I took picture's of every missionary that I could.   I had seen picture's of the tour and wasn't really interested in it.  Just those serving. We saw Elder Helske in a classroom.  David tried to wave but he didn't see us.

 Everyone pointed to their mission.  Josh and Evan pointed to Sophie's and David pointed to Madagascar because that's where he wants to serve.

 Here are Sophie's mission Pres. and wife. Bro Jerryl L. Garns and his wife Mary.

 

Then we were walking down the walkway and who was walking by...

 So, we had to take a family picture.

 Sister Goldstein had jammed her finger playing basketball so they were on their way to get ice to put on it.  They walked with us on their way back to class.  I took more picture's of missionaries.

This is the gym.

 This is inside the new building.

 Ashley found her friend's little brother.

 Sophie and Sister Goldstein walked with us through the tour as they went back to class.  They showed us which room was theirs on the 4th floor.  So we watched for them and saw Sophie sit by the window.

 

  This is Sophie in the white shirt.

 She told us that she was on the 4th floor and we watched her go up and Henry started to wave at her but she didn't' see.   But luckily for Henry there were 4 sister's on the 5th floor that saw him and started waving to him.  It was so cute.

 Here are our future missionaries.  Emily wasn't with us.  We are short on girls in this family.  But the girls are definitely the example for these boys!  Might I also add how good my three boys back-2-school haircuts look.  All of them hate them. I told them, "Too bad, it'll grow.  It's still my hair as long as it's under my roof and I still cut it."   They all want to grow it out long and messy.  Nasty.

 Ashley was especially interested in the missionaries going to Japan.  It was so much fun to see her ask them all which mission they were going to and when they were leaving.

This super cute Sister Missionary, Sister Anderson, is going to Houston TX.  I asked her if I could take her picture and she said yes and after I did she asked me if I would text it to her mom.  I was happy to do it.  That's why I was taking them, for that right there.  I knew that it would mean the world to both of them because it meant the world to me when I got one of Sophie.   Afterwards, we were waiting right there, at the end of the tour to go into a room to watch a video and I went back over to her and took a picture of her and her companion who I didn't see standing there before, and sent that to her mother also.   They were bother thrilled.  I could tell she was a little homesick.  I'm sure it helped.  I also connected her mom to the Missionary Momma's Facebook site which is wonderful!  I'm sure Sister Anderson and her mom will both be great.

Then we went in and watched a movie with Sister Wolfgram from Northern Utah area.  She knew Amelia Wolfgramm, a swimmer we knew.  Her compainion sat down next to David and Henry and talked to them for a minute. 

 Then we were done.  While we were waiting for the shuttle Henry was wondering why there was a Y on the mountain.  Brad tied his tie into a bow tie to be cool like the boys.

 If you want to see some incredible picture's of inside the MTC instead of just the missionaries and to learn more click here...MTC.