Monday, February 18, 2013

MTC Drop-Off

Jarrod and his dad caravaned with me from St. George to Provo, the morning of January 30, 2013. He went with Stephen until we got to Meadow, Utah and switched off to arrive in Provo with me. The plan was to meet with some more West family at a restaurant there, have lunch, then drop him off. As we were walking in, we were hollered at - by Elder Angell... a kid that Jarrod played lacrosse with in St. George. We'd seen him the night before since he was the elder that was set apart right before Jarrod was. (There were a total of 6 that night from Jarrod's stake.) They just happened to arrive at the same time as us and decided to go to the same restaurant as us. His drop off was a half hour before ours, though. We enjoyed a long lunch with Aunt Michelle, Uncle Jim, Bekki (cousin), Grandma Sloan (West), and Stephen's Aunt and Uncle, Nancy and Robert West. Funny little story: when the fam arrived, Bekki rushed to Jarrod and threw her arms around him - but he held his arms straight out... I was so confused at what he was doing - until it dawned on me - HE CAN'T HUG GIRLS!! He was being very good at keeping the rules!! Jim and Bekki needed to head back to their classes at BYU (Jim is a professor of finance, and Bekki is in her freshman year there). Bek was heading back to her mission prep class, but wanted to go with Jarrod to the drop-off point. As we were trying to figure out the logistics, they got the brilliant idea to have Jarrod go along with them, since it was mission prep! We coordinated it to work out a pick up point and Jim accompanied, so that Jarrod would have a companion with him. Stephen, Grandma, and I drove to pick them up.... they'd had a great time! Jarrod said there were a ton of cute girls there! He enjoyed that quite a bit! So we headed out to the drop off point, to do the deed! Showing just a little anxiety. Back of the line to drop off our missionary. It took five minutes to get to the point to turn into the entrance. . They have a guard station where they check to make sure you do indeed have a missionary in the car. Then they directed us to turn the corner and follow the guides... This young gentlemen was enjoying the time to practice a few little entertaining dance moves. The welcoming elders on the sidewalk are mostly elders that are going to foreign-speaking missions and are therefore in the MTC longer than the English speakers. We were directed to an empty spot at the curb and everybody piled out to give their last hugs and snap a few last shots. He rushed the hugs and went to go...but he'd forgotten one person. His mama. He quickly turned at my little mew of, "Jarrod?" And he gave me a bear hug, and we forced back the joyful tears and he was happily on his way!

No comments:

Post a Comment