The MTC

My younger brother Nigel just finished his first week at the MTC. Actually he has only been in for 4 days. He got his call on December 27th of 2008. We had all gone home for Christmas, Steven, Anita, and Jacob and I were all leaving on the 28th, so the timing couldn't have been better. Nigel had been living with Steven and Anita that fall so the call was supposed to be sent there. When we left for Montana it hadn't yet come in the mail, Nigel was getting pretty anxious! While in Montana Steven had a friend checking the mail everyday to see if the call had come. Finally on our last night in Plentywood, we got the phone call. Steven's friend promptly returneed home, opened the call, (he even said that he had a friend who went to the same mission!) and then scanned and e-mailed it to Nigel. We all sat around the living room waiting for him to get the e-mail. My mother was on pins and needles the whole time. I actually video taped it but I haven't figured out how to upload the video from my camcorder yet, sorry! As it turns out Nigel was called to the Georgia Macon mission, which is south of Atlanta. I think my mom was most anxious to hear about how long he'd have to wait to go to the MTC, which was 3 months! He was set to enter on March 25th! So for the past 3 months Nigel has been at home in Plentywood, MT doing all sorts of nothingness. His most recent project was building a 12 foot tall snow man. I wish I had a picture to show it. It was so big that he stood on top of an 8 foot ladder and it was still not tall enough to reach comfortably. It even had snow shovels for arms. This past week was Jacobs, spring break so he and I drove 12 hours to see Nigel off. We stayed with my grandma and my aunt in West Jordan. We arrived at the MTC around noon. After dropping off his luggage we went inside where he recieved his name tag, and then continued into one of the chapels. While waiting for the meeting to start we watched several LDS commercials, most of which were from the 80's. It actually was kind of fun. The elder sitting next to Jacob though really smelled like spaghetti! It was hard to concentrate! The meeting started by singing "Called to Serve". The presidents wife gave some instructions and then the president gave a spiritual thought. Then we watched a missionary movie, I think it was called to serve, but i can't say for sure. Then we had 1 minute to say our good byes. Nigel was so excited he was practically pushing Elders out of his way to get out the door. It was a little sad to say goodbye but I know that he'll be in good hands and that this is where he's supposed to be. We have to trust in the Lord and have faith that he'll be safe and protected.

Here's a link to http://www.mission.net/ incase you wanted to know a bit more about the MTC and missionaries!