To the MTC

Last Wednesday, our family dropped off Elder Colter Anderson at the MTC in Provo, Utah.  We can't believe he's already gone!  Before dropping him off, we took pictures of him with us in front of the Provo Temple, which is across the street from the MTC.  Here are some pictures from that morning:

After taking many pictures, we drove down the street to the MTC.  It used to be that families would walk into the MTC with the missionaries, and there would be talks and a dramatic farewell where everyone would sing "God Be With You Till We Meet Again", and then families would leave through one door and missionaries would leave through another.  Now, because of the swine flu thing (and apparently they decided to save everyone the torture of the melodramatic goodbyes in the MTC) we drove onto the grounds and pulled up to the sidewalk in front of a side entrance, where there were MTC missionaries that greeted us and helped to get his luggage.  We said our final goodbyes there.  As Colter turned to walk into the building, Mom exclaimed, "Okay, just one more picture!"  Colter was obviously exasperated with all the pictures, but allowed her to take one before turning and entering eagerly into the MTC.  Even though he was reluctant to take it, we think that it's one of the best pictures we took:

He just looks so happy to be there! We could tell that he was excited to be starting his mission, and didn't want to be anywhere else.  Even though we already miss him a ton, that's exactly where we want him to be, too.

One last thing.  If you would like your letters to reach Colter faster, be sure to add his MTC Mailbox Number under his name in the address he gave on the last post.  Otherwise the address is the same. His Mailbox Number is:  132-0831