Utah June 6-20 (before MPS)

I admit I am somewhat ashamed of the fact that I have gone an entire month without updating my blog. I guess it just goes to show us that I haven't been truly converted. I'll work on that.

So I left for Utah on Friday, June 6th. How do I possibly sum up those 3 extremely busy weeks? Where's my planner?-I'll hit the highlights

I had the first weekend off and pretty much spent as much time as possible with my friends before my inevitable return to working/living at the MTC cafeteria. Those first few days were filled with:
*(Fri) pizza & the park with Cody, Melissa & their boys,
*(Sat) dress shopping with Trina & Brittney, and then joining Cody & Melissa again, this time for a ward luau.
*(Sun) church in American Fork with the Bellistons, and then
*(Mon) spending the day with the always adorable and fun-
Amy Tingey, for a little swimming, Cafe Rio, and our failed attempt of a DDR rematch.

....and then it was back to work for me!

I admit I was nervous to return to the MTC. It had been almost 2 1/2 years since I had worked there and most of my co-workers had moved on to other things in life. The great thing about the MTC, however, is that there are always just enough people who stick around working there, that it always feels like home. I LOVED being back! It was an absolute blast to be around the missionaries and to honestly feel like I could just pick up where I left off years before. Not much had changed, and amazed at my ability to "pick up on the system of things" a lot of the workers would ask me when I started working there. I admit my sneaky side found probably a bit too much pleasure in saying "oh today's my first day."

I spent the first 2 weeks back at the MTC preparing for the long awaited Mission President's Seminar (AKA..."MPS"). I don't think people have the first clue about how much preparation goes into this thing. It's slightly crazy if you ask me. Here were just a few of my favorite "prep moments" (and I must credit Floyd for being at my side for most of it): Locking ourselves into a small closet to polish 20 chafing dishes with Briteboy.
(Yes! you could smell us from a mile away by the time we were done and I'm surprised we didn't asphyxiate ourselves), sorting 700 green cloth napkins into separate piles according to their shade of green, continuously rolling silverware into a little napkin set, and taking 3 days to make chicken ambassador (pounding 500 chicken breasts with a mallet, then filling and rolling them all with the pastry shells).

It was quite the ordeal and I thank Floyd for taking it upon himself to be the master of the mallet most of the time! My arm was killing me!

During those days before MPS, I was still able to manage to see a friend or two and enjoy my evenings. Here were some highlights:


1. Visiting my "little sister," Melanie and running into Christina (my other "little sister") on our walk

2. Spending an evening to myself in the Provo temple,
3. Dinner with Laura at Bajio's and then our surprise visit to see "super pregnant" Jolene,
4. Seeing Summer in her play at BYU
5. Orem Summerfest carnival with Cody, Melissa and their boys
6. "Mini mission reunion" with the Gibbs & Martins after Justin's birthday party,
7. Dinner at the Tingey's, after which Steve and I sat mesmerized on a set of bleachers watching his ward members throw softballs back & forth for quite awhile. Apparently we are easily entertained! After laughing at ourselves, We went and saw "Horton Hears a Who." I liked it.
8. Random movie making around American Fork with Steve, and his friends- Matt, Emily & Ann Marie. I'm still not sure exactly what was going on that night, but it was funny regardless.

And that leads me right up to MPS Eve....