Mama Winn's Place: Brand, Spanking New

Bruce and I got up bright and early on Wednesday, August 11th. It was sort of like Christmas morning, and we were much too excited to sleep! I had a breakfast casserole in the oven by 4:30 am, and was giving marching orders to Bruce to carry stuff out to the car by 6:00. Orange juice, the griddle and pancake batter, chocolate milk, fresh fruit, whipped cream, Snapple, fruit snacks and three kinds of granola bars - we had new missionaries coming and I certainly didn't want them to be hungry! By 7:00 we were at the Mission Office with the assistants, anxiously awaiting the arrival of our very first new-from-the-MTC missionaries. President Winn, Elder Nelson and Elder Campbell stood out on the sidewalk, watching for the bus.

Soon enough, the bus pulled up. It had been full when it left the MTC in Provo, but had dropped most of the missionaries off at the Salt Lake City International Airport first. So the six young Elders that were left on the bus were ours.

President Winn greeted each young man as he stepped off the bus. We had already read all about them, and had their names and faces memorized from the pictures on their bios. We were so excited to finally meet them! They were all that we had anticipated and more! Six handsome young men in their fresh new suits with shiny shoes, and their faces aglow with enthusiasm and anticipation, eager and excited to be off on this new adventure, each one with a firm handshake and a broad smile on his face.

They retrieved their luggage from the cavernous intestines of the bus, and headed into the building.

President Winn had the griddle heated up, and was busy flipping pancakes for everyone.

They were perfect, of course, and we all sat down to breakfast and a little bit of "getting to know you" around the table.

Some of the Senior Missionary office staff joined us for the breakfast. They are the lymphatic system* of this mission, keeping everything running smoothly and correcting the mistakes that Bruce and I make on a daily basis. We are SO glad they are here!

Jarom kindly donated this analogy to my blog. I was looking for a word with a little more pizazz than "lifeblood" and he suggested that the lymphatic system was appropriate because in our bodies, the lymph nodes get rid of all the cancers and other bad things invading our systems. I can only assume that this means he considers dad and me to be the cancers of the Salt Lake City Mission, and the job of the Senior Missionary Office Staff is to get rid of us, or at least disarm us until we become benign. Thank you, Jarom. Your father and I are glad that we had seven children to keep us humble throughout our lives.

Here are our new missionaries on their first day in the mission.

Elder Christiansen, from Virginia.

Elder Vogt from California.

Elder Davis from Oregon.

Elder Judd from California.

Elder Clarveau from Florida.

Elder Moeaki from Oregon.

After we fed them breakfast, and took their pictures, we drove them down to Temple Square to see the temple and other church sites there. While they are missionaries here, they will often take their investigators to Temple Square to help them learn more about the gospel. It's a wonderful resource to have in our mission!