MTC VIP

Back in the day (when dinosaurs roamed the earth), when you took your missionary to the MTC you would be in for an all day bawl-fest! The family and the missionary would go to a program where the MTC president would talk about your missionary leaving (and you would cry) and how he might get homesick (and they would cry) and this was the last hour you had with them so to make the most of it (if you could stop crying). Then the missionaries got to hug their moms and shake their dads hands and went to one side of the room and out a door (while the family was crying and crying) and then the families would be directed out a door on the other side (still crying). What an ordeal. Due to the H1N1 virus they had to stop the program and have made it quite efficient.

We pulled into the MTC at 1:22pm. As we stopped and Dave popped the trunk and Elder came running down the hill to us. As we hugged Parker, the missionary pulled out his luggage and then said "ready Elder?" and proceeded to walk up the hill. We snapped a picture and Parker ran to catch up with the Elder with his luggage. He turned, waved and said "bye, love you" and was gone. It reminded me of Parker's first day in nursery. I was ready for all the crying and hanging on, but when I opened the door Parker said "bye mom", walked in and shut the door in my face. The rest of us piled back into the car and pulled out at 1:26pm. Jill said it was like pulling off a band aid. Do it fast enough and it doesn't hurt nearly as bad.