Time to Fly to Tampa

Today David goes to Tampa, Florida. He had to get up REALLY early and report to the travel office at 3am! His flight left Salt Lake City at 6:30am. He had an hour and a half layover in Dallas, then landed in Tampa an hour and a half later. He was so excited to finally get to Florida.

Day Two = District Leader !

We get our first email from David and he says just one day after entering the MTC he was called to be District Leader....The day after I got here I was assigned as District Leader. This is like a quorum president. I'm responsible for the other 5 elders and 4 sisters in my district. I get mail, correct any behavioral issues that might come up, and lead the classes we have. It's a pretty big responsibility. I figure I have to be less confident in interviews with the Branch Presidency in order to avoid these kinds of things."

I had asked David about his companion and other roommates... "My companion is Elder Flores. He's a convert of a year and a half from California. He's quiet, but when he starts teaching he gains confidence. It's pretty cool to see the change. My roommates, Elder Gibbons and Elder Radnoti, are from Europe. Elder Gibbons is from England and Elder Radnoti is from Germany. I hadn't really thought about meeting internationals before I came in. They're crazy and entertaining."

He talks about his experience in the MTC.... "The program here is amazing. I had gone on splits with one of the elders in our ward and he taught like he'd been out for a year and a half, but he'd only been out for five weeks. He told me it was because of the program at the MTC, and I can see it now. I've had lots of practice teaching mock investigators and received feedback for anything I need to work on. Before I got here I wasn't sure how I'd perform if I hadn't been to the MTC, but now I'm already confident that I can do some great work in the field."

Entering the MTC

On Wednesday, March 9th, Elder Parady entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. It was for sure bitter-sweet saying goodbye to him. I was happy that as we drove up and pulled at the curbside that a missionary opened my door as if to say "come on mom, you can get out and hug your son again." And I did just that, hugged him, told him I was so happy for him, and said farewell. I was very impressed how organized the whole "drop off" was. The missionary said to me as I got back in the car, "don't worry, we'll take good care of him." "I know you will," I said with a smile... and no tears! I tried hard not to cry. And there he goes!