Debbie was set apart as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Sunday, January 16, 2022. She began at home MTC (missionary training center) on Monday January 17th.

She used Joseph’s desk and office for all her zoom meetings with her new MTC district. She had 8 hours of online meetings a day! But she enjoyed it all. There was companion study with her companion, Sister Snow. District meetings with the other missionaries in her district. Then some days there were devotional speakers or meetings with multiple districts. All the other missionaries were brand new like Debbie. She said it was great getting to see other young adults her age who also had desires to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

She did at-home training for just a little over a week and then Joseph and I drove Debbie to Provo, Utah on Wednesday, January 26th. We officially had to say good-bye for the next 18 months as we dropped her off at the Provo MTC so she could do in-person training before heading out to serve in the Texas Lubbock Mission.

One funny thing about going to the Provo MTC, there hadn’t been mask mandates for a while and then at Christmas there was a Covid outbreak amongst the missionaries. Sister Chen, who helped Debbie when we dropped her off, said a missionary in her district broke his ankle playing basketball. He was taken to the ER and that is where he contracted Covid! Their district found out on Christmas Day that he had it and everyone else had been exposed. Thankfully, the spread was controlled because of the safety measures everyone followed but she did have to wear masks while there.

One really neat thing about Debbie starting her mission is she got to share the same starting day as my parents!

They were called to serve as executive secretary (my dad) and assistant executive secretary (my mom) to the South America Northwest Area Presidency based in Lima, Peru.

On our way to Provo we were able to meet up with my parents and get a picture of all three missionaries. My parents spent the first week at the Provo MTC (senior missionaries are on a different schedule), then started their service remotely at home while waiting for their visas. They were able to fly to South America at the end of April 2022 and have been thoroughly enjoying their missionary service there.

We sure love having three missionaries from our family out serving the Lord and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with others.