Ashlyn Starts MTC

Ashlyn officially started her mission on August 7, 2023.  We can thank COVID for introducing the MTC to remote learning opportunities and now it is pretty standard for most missionaries to do a week of home MTC training before going to a physical mission training center.  Tanner had two weeks at home and that felt a little long, but Ashlyn had just one week at home to begin learning Tagalog and meet her companion and district.

It is always a little bit of a crazy transition to cut off all music, TV, movies, playing and texting on phones and devices, to try to have the Holy Ghost more fully with you.  But Ashlyn was a champ and we looked for ways to entertain her on her small breaks.

We decorated some cookies and tried making Ashlyns favorite macaroons as an MTC snack.

The girls had fun helping Ashlyn pack and get ready to be in another country for 17 months (1 1/2 months in the MTC).

And finally, on August 16th, it was time to take her to Provo to start her mission away from her family.  And she was so ready to go!

We stopped at the Provo Temple to say our final goodbyes before we had to drop her off.

Charlotte sobbed (ok I did too) when we dropped her off.  But when we got in the suburban she calmed down pretty fast and said, "Oh, I got over that way faster than I thought!"  However, we stopped at BYU on the way home and showed Charlotte where the volleyball matches are held.  She sat down in the stadium chairs there and began to sob again and realized that maybe it would take a little longer to get over missing her sister!

We did have fun watching a BYU volleyball player practice her serves and we vowed that we would need to come back and take in a game.