Todd in the Mission Training Center

Elder Meada, a longtime family friend who was one of Tim's dad's missionaries in Kobe, Japan, volunteers at the MTC.  

He took these wonderful pictures and sent them to us.

Todd with Elder Maeda

He also got this one of John, so fun!

We also just found out that Todd passed the AP Japanese Language Exam!  Tim is soooo happy!!!

Todd goes to the Mission Training Center!

President Raines set Todd apart as a missionary at the Stake Center the night before he entered the MTC. 

Aunt Cindy popped over to say goodbye and she told us some neat stories about Carson who is serving in Paraguay.

Conner will be ready to go on his mission soon after Todd returns from Tokyo in 2017!

We went on a long walk together the morning he left.  Todd packed up his suitcases and we were ready to go.

It's become a tradition to take some, "grown a foot or two" pictures with our missionaries before they leave.

We will miss this kid, but he will be an awesome missionary!

Dave and Lori across the street waved goodbye and wished Todd the best.

Then it was on the way to Golden Corral

Eric gave Todd this lucky tie that matches his glasses.  He loves it!

We had a nice visit at lunch

Decided to check out how the Provo Center Street Temple was coming along.  It is gorgeous!

Group hug!

They are doing a lot of construction at the Provo temple and at the MTC

We pulled in at 1:30 pm, said our goodbyes, and he was off!

Bittersweet!  We are proud of his desire to serve the Lord .  He's been so excited for this mission and it is finally here!

He wrote us a quick e-mail that night to say he was doing well, busy and he is not homesick! 

Love this boy of ours so so much!

4th of July Fun!

On Tuesday, Amy came back from her trip to Oklahoma.  She had a fantastic time visiting with family there!  She had to fly back all by herself with a lay over in Dallas.  She was able to navigate the train in Dallas and all her connections just fine and made it back safe and sound.

John left for the MTC this week (he entered July 1).  Todd was asked to help do baptisms and confirmations for 450 Korean names in the temple.  He has been busy and just has 50 names left to do.  We did a bunch of mission shopping for Todd and he is almost ready to go.

On Thursday, Matthew (our home teacher) was tying quilts for the Humanitarian Center for his Eagle Project and we went over to help out.  We helped finish two quilts.

Tim and Luke tying quilts :)

Uncle David came over on Friday and we had a BBQ and watched the Tale of Princess Kaguya (a Studio Ghibli film), and Tim put on a terrific fireworks show for us.  It was spectacular.  Amy had a few friends over.  

On Saturday, we went to Stadium of Fire and saw Journey sing, and a big fireworks show and other shows.  See pics.

We decided to get there early and had a bit of a wait.

Luke absolutely loved the fireworks!