Jan 25

Elder Justin Christensen was safely delivered to the MTC at 12:40 on Wednesday, January 25, 2012. Give or take a minute. I was impressed, if I do say so myself, that we managed to deliver him pretty much exactly when he was told to be there.

I wasn't sure how emotional I'd be about it. We made sure to give all our hugs the night before, and that morning. Josh and Jens went off to school, Dad and I went off to work. Then I went back home and got Justin, took him by the store to get his flu shot. (I don't have the letter with his actual instructions, but Justin understood his instructions to be "wait until the last minute before you go into the MTC to get your flu shot." I understood them to be "Get your flu shot as soon as possible." The pharmacist was a little concerned about reaction to the flu shot. For future reference: Get the immunization sooner rather than later.)

The pharmacist had us hang around for 10 minutes in order to watch for a reaction. We mosied, bought a few things, mosied some more. Then Justin couldn't stand it any  more. "Can we go now?" We asked the pharmacist and he said fine. It had been 7  minutes. This boy has somewhere far more important to be, and he wanted to BE there!

We picked up the little sister (who had been texting us frantically. I had told her "We might not have time to come get you before he has to be there," to which she responded, "But you're going to come get me, right?" about 5 times. Fortunately we did, in fact, have time.) and headed to the MTC.

Wow! It's changed a little since I was there, almost 30 years ago. We were actually a few minutes early, but getting into the parking lot took a few minutes. It was Very Impressive, seeing all those elders lining the driveway, waiting eagerly to greet the new arrivals. We pulled up, Justin hopped out, "Elder So-and-So! (I didn't hear his name.) I KNOW  you!!!" (Well, THERE's a shocker.) And off he went with nary a backward glance. All righty then. Guess we'll be on our way.

So Jens and I went out to lunch. She had a dr. appt. (Yet another one.) We had a lovely time. Burger King in AF does not have WiFi, in case you were wondering. Dr. visit was productive, and I got back to work at a reasonable time.

And so begins his Grand Adventure. 8-)