5 years ago this week

Five years ago yesterday I entered the MTC. Of course when I remembered that last night, I had to get out my mission pictures, but after 10 minutes, I realized Iwas going to have to limit myself to just a few more minutes or else I'd be going through them all night long (since they're still in one box since I haven't really organized them yet). A few awesome memories (I'll try not to make it boring, nor will I be offended if you don't read it since its so long, and well...aren't all missionary stories the same?) And yep, they are scanned. Can you believe that even just 5 short years ago we did have tons of those fancy digital cameras?


With my mom on the drop off day. Every missionary is sure to remember this first day...with the inevitable precious orange "dork dot" that screamed loud and clear to the other missionaries in the MTC "It'S MY FIRST DAY".

As if our faces didn't already give that one away.

Fast forward through the MTC and to St. George, this Jeff and his sister Sarah Fieldstad in St. George. Jeff was 19 and an ameateur boxer- we would go to his boxing ring every Wednesday night at 8pm for discussions. When I was transferred back to St. George a year later, we found his 16 year old sister Sarah was also baptized (with Sister Yagi from Japan).

I had such good companions on my mish- here's one of my all time faves; Sister Sugimoto (aka 'Sugi') from Osaksa Japan at Tuachan in St. George for a zone activity watching the BYU folk dancers. She was seriously the one sister in the mission who every sister missionary wanted to be companions with- and I got to be her companion on her last transfer! We later were roomates back at BYU-Idaho.
Who says there's no missionary work in Provo? With Sister Sawyer from Sacramento (another fabulous and fav companion- she flew from CA to GA for our wedding) and Kae Sae Chao (and wife) at his baptism. From here on out, you'll take serious notice of the "jody" brand dresses I wore throughout my mission. By the time I went home, I had 7 jody dresses accumulated that I rotated every day throughout my mission.

That's Tyanna on my left and some of her other siblings. She was 9 going on 25 and the most precocious girl I've met in my life. After her baptism, she gave a talk in the next Stake Conference (at least I was impressed.)

This would be Jackie Dudman. She was a graphic designer from Europe who came to the States looking for work. We would teach her in her hotel room- and in return she would teach us tap dance moves on the little patch of entry way inside her hotel room. She was such a fun character.

The Charles family who moved from Holland to Provo. They were golden and asked us if they could be baptized before we could even ask them. We taught them the lessons and set a date to be baptized- and then...yep, you guessed it. I was transferred out of the area 3 days before their baptism took place. Bummer.

Gina Sheffer. Sad story, but good girl. This was my on my 22nd birthday. Her and Sister Sawyer put together a little suprise party for me. They made a barbie cake and then the other cake with frosting that reads "Hey, Joe Rocks" (Joe was her older brother in tatoos from head to toe who we would also visit since he wife was taking the missionary discussions and set a baptism date for...yep- you guessed it again. About a week after I was transferred out of the area. (By, the way, these last 4 pictures are from when I was serving in south Provo. I really do chuckle to myself whenever I hear members say something alson the lines of "We live in Utah- there's no missionary work here." In my two transfers in south provo, we found and taught about 15 people that were baptized).

This cute family we met when I was serving with Sister Isameli (from Fiji) in Vernal. Their 12 year old son (far right) had ben adopted and was being baptized (another plug for Utah missionary work- in the one transfer, meaning 6 weeks, that I was in vernal, we baptized 6 people with another 4 on date for baptism after I left the area).

Sister Isameli (from Fiji) and I at a zone conference. It was probably a good thing that we weren't together for longer than a transfer. You can only get into so much mischef as a sister missionary in Vernal...

This sweet couple is Bev and Harvey Beavers. She was 75 years old and decided to be baptized. I loved visiting with them- isn't she so cute sitting on his lap? That's Sister Kuenzi from Switzerland. If her ambition to be a nurse didn't pan out, then she was gunning to be a comedian. This girl could seriously make me laugh.

With Sean and Candy Jones back in St. George. Such a sweet family- their 10 year old daughter had been killed in a four -wheeling accident just 2 months before we met them. Every time we prayed with them, we would pray for "Bay-o" (Bailey) to be watched over in heaven. Candy was already a member- Sean was golden.

This is Kylie (on the last Sunday before I went home)- she really surprised us by having always having read the chapters in the scriptures when we left them with her. She knew them well. So sad that her family wouldn't come with her to church or could afford for her to even have a dress for her baptism here (I gave her one of my dresses before I came home. Luckily it actually fit her well since it was a little snug on me).

Wow! So many memories this doesn't even cover a fraction of it. There was definately hard times in those 18 months on my mission, but somehow I forget most of them when I look back at memories like these :)