The Adventure Has Begun!!

Missionary Week #T minus 1 – (Recap of the week prior to leaving) 

September 9, 2018 – Sunday – Our Farewell in Lyman Ward.  What a fun day that was. Church, setting apart and luncheon.

September 11, 2018 – Tuesday -We went to Springerville, to have dinner with The Friedens’ for the Twin’s birthday at a Pizza place.  They were so cute dressed up as a Cop and a Robber!



 Then we drove home and went to a few of our close friends to say a quick “good-bye”.  Then to The Frieden’s for Cake and Ice Cream.  That’s when we said our “last goodbye” to family.  We all hugged, and then went around and hugged everybody again and then one last time for good measure!  It was so hard but we soaked it all in!  We said our goodbye to Jaylen that night because he leaves so early in the morning to get to Snowflake/Taylor.

September 12, 2018 – Wednesday – We were up pretty early to pack the car and say goodbye to Blaire, Lucy, Edwin, Max and Millie and JR.   Then we drove to Jenn’s to pick her up so she could take us to the airport.  She wasn’t quite ready so we were able to get a few more hugs in from the kids and then off we went.  We were listening to a “Marco Polo” video from Sister DeAnn Baker, going out of town when we saw a car on Grover’s Hill and Jennifer said “Hey, What’s This?”  So we looked and there we were, passing Jon & Rachel and ALL the kids!  They had posters and were waving madly at us for a grand send off.  It felt like we were  “Going to State”!   I tried to open my window to wave and then Elder Richardson pulled the car over and we got One Last Hug from everyone to last us for 18 months!


 The reason Jenn wasn’t ready when we got to her house was that she was biding time for Jon and Rachel, they had to get the kids all ready and go pick up JT out of early morning choir and get to the top of the hill before we left!  Great Memories.  Then we drove straight to the airport and Jenn left us off at the curb side check-in for Delta Airlines and she was off!  Upon our arrival at Salt Lake City airport we were met by Richard Price.  Who took us to their house for the rest of a relaxing week.

September 13, 2018 – Thursday – We were picked up by Heather Price to go get the Bridal Bouquet for Jaclyn Price and then headed to the Provo Temple.



 Attended Jaclyn & Evan Tjaden’s sealing and then to a beautiful luncheon.  We are so happy for them, they are a great couple!

Another fun day, and we were able to see the Prices, and All of the Holts. 

Missionary Week #1

September 17, 2018 – Monday – September 21, 2018 - We were up early and repacked – and loaded up the Prices Truck for the trip to Provo from Lehi.  We arrived at 10:15 and were greeted by 2 Elder’s that told us to park and come in and that our guests could come with us throughout our check-in procedure!  That was fun to have them with us.  We got our badges, cards, keys and a lot of paper work, and then Richard and Susan were able to drive us over to our Residence building S2-338. (Baker’s were in S2-339 in July!)  The men unloaded our luggage and said our last goodbyes.  Then we were escorted to our room and told what to bring with us to our first orientation meeting!  There we were put into districts which comprised of 4 Senior Couples.  We became good friends with all of District couples, The Esplins’ from Utah are going to Monterey Mexico working in the office, The Bullocks – From Canada are going to the Philippines working in the office and our District Leader the Dabel’s are going to the New Mexico-Albuquerque mission but assigned to El Paso in Records Preservation! 

Teachers on Far left and Far Right.  Couples Left to right - The Bullocks, Us, The Esplins ad The Dablel's

  As we went to our classes each day we had wonderful teachers – return missionaries – who enjoyed working with us old folks!  We learned a lot – our manual was Preach My Gospel.  For the rest of the week we were busy – all day – we ate in the cafeteria or “ZOO” crazy busy but so fun to watch the Young Missionaries.  The Cafeteria serves 2,000 people at breakfast, lunch and dinner!  Pretty smooth, lines are long but it moves fast!  We found a boy from St. Johns on about the third day there. 

We were put with another Senior couple the Lyman’s as our companionship couple.  We could not believe how much in common we had with them and they have become best friends and will stay in touch – they are from Clinton, Utah.  Each day of this week was a blur, but one highlight was going to the evening devotional where Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke to all the Missionaries.  They say there are about 2,100 of us here.   That was a quite the experience.  On Thursday the Lymans’ drove us to the Provo City Center Temple in the evening and then to the “Creamery on 9^th.” for ice cream.  We finished out our Friday with a sigh of relief that we had survived one week at the MTC!  We have learned so much.  We know that we will be learning so much more and know that if we aren’t being challenged to get out of our comfort zone we won’t progress ourselves. 

September 22, 2018 – Saturday – We did homework and had lunch and then Janese came and picked us up and took us to her house, and we had a very enjoyable afternoon and evening with her and Kelly.  They brought us back to the MTC about 9pm.  Lights out is at 10:30! 

September 23, 2018 – Sunday – We enjoyed our meetings – we each had an assignment either in Church or Sunday School and it was nice with only about 15 of us left!  We had 65 Seniors when we started Monday.  Some of them went to their home over the weekend or left on their mission.  We attended several devotionals that evening.  Great way to end our first week!

Hope all is well with you – we pray for each of you and your families every day and miss you but enjoy being able to stay in touch with you. 

 We love you!

Mom and Dad

Elder and Sister Richardson