Elder Lillywhite Goes to the MTC

Wednesday, October 31, otherwise known as Halloween 2007:

Josh said that he was putting on his Halloween costume and not taking it off for 2 years! ha ha I was baptized on Halloween, and now Josh goes into the MTC on Halloween. Luckily for him, I'd bought an orange tie for his birthday, so he was very festive on his first day! :)He'd been looking forward to this day for quite some time now. It is always an emotional overload at the MTC - happy, sad, excited, nervous, apprehensive, anxious, etc. Its fun to see so many Elders and Sisters preparing for the next phase of their lives though. And then there's the rest of us who are just goofing off in the meantime ...And what's a visit to the MTC without the last picture of the Lillywhite children together for the next two years ... rumor has it that there are a few people anxious to have this picture grow by 3 spouses while Josh is gone (maybe if we all pray really hard that miracle can happen)!It was really neat to all be together at the MTC experience on Wednesday. Ryan and Matt who were eager to tell stories of their time in the MTC every time we passed anything that they recognized or brought back memories. This is one of my favorite shots - I like to call it "how many hands does it take to put on a missionary name tag?"I held up pretty well until the very end when I looked around and saw everyone else in the room crying. Josh will be a great missionary though - Toronto will be lucky to have him in a couple weeks! Right after we left the MTC (but not before a run by the Creamery for some ice cream), we went straight to the airport and I flew back to Virginia. If I would have thought about that a little better, I probably wouldn't have scheduled it like that - it was a little hard on my mom to lose two kids in one day! Josh is in the right place though and I'll be back home soon :)