Katya's mission begins

On Tuesday night Katya was set apart by President Rapier.  He gave her some great advice.  Life is often about beginnings and endings.  Be so involved in the work that you are not concerned about either.  Be obedient and be known as the hardest working missionary in the mission.  As parents one of our greatest concerns was about the language.  We both know it's hard to learn a new language, and Japanese would be especially difficult.  Her blessing addressed this issue.  Now we keep reminding her to work hard, so that her blessing can be fulfilled!

I wasn't too much of an emotional basket case until President Rapier gave me a hug and told me I'd be OK.  That really turned on the water works!  We said our family goodbyes that night.  I don't think it had really hit Tasha and Drew until that moment.  We all needed some tissues after.

At the stake presidencies' office Tues. June 9

She's packed and ready to go!

We had a nice late breakfast on Wednesday morning and Andy gave Katya a father's blessing. Miraculously Katya got everything packed, but one of her larger bags is probably already overweight. We'll see if she can shift things around before she flies out in August.


We had to drive to American Fork to drop off Drew at band camp.  Then we drove to Provo for the big moment.  As soon as we pulled toward the MTC I started crying.  We knew that this was going to be a busy day; I think we heard about 600 missionaries were going to be dropped off.  A man at the gate asked if we had a sister or elder, then we were directed to cone 19.  As we drove by the main building Katya saw her roommate Catherine from the U.  She was one of the host missionaries that was helping.  Catherine had entered a couple of weeks before to serve a mission in the Philippines.

Katya and Catherine at the MTC

Katya yelled to Catherine and she came running down the line to help Katya.  What a tender mercy from our Heavenly Father!  Katya wasn't really too worried after that.  Andy was getting the luggage out, and we were already reminded to hurry it up. We gave her a quick hug. and it was done. Thankfully it was a short process.  Both of us were crying as we left.

We had been told by a sister in our ward, who used to work at the MTC but is now preparing to serve at the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center in San Diego, that 9 other sisters from her mission would be entering with Katya and that 40 total would be Japanese speaking.  We'll be anxious to hear from her.