My heart skipped a beat when we saw a sign for Provo and Brigham Young University. In a few more minutes we arrived at the front entrance of the missionary training center. Dad went to park the van as the rest of us proceeded in the building. In the lobby, a lady placed a red sticker on my suit jacket lapel, indicating I was a brand new missionary. Dad joined us and we continued on our way. We were ushered down the main hall. We passed by the cafeteria and saw for the first time the missionaries that were eating. White shirts and ties. Elder Kyle Hunter came out of the cafeteria. He had entered the MTC just a week before. He welcomed me. His smiling face will forever be etched into my mind. There was a large room on the left and we were instructed to put all my luggage in there. A lot of other missionaries’ suit cases were in there as well. One of my sisters placed an ice cream bucket full of left-over cookies from the open house on top of my suit cases. We then turned and went down another hallway. It was lined with tables and at each table was a person who gave each missionary a packet of something or other. One packet had my address on it. Mom quickly jotted down the address so she’d know where to send my mail to. Another lady gave me my black missionary name tag which said, “ELDER LOVELESS.” And then the name of the Church in Portuguese, which I recognized, yet couldn’t pronounce, yet. We turned left again and went down another long hallway. We went in a room which was actually two large rooms with an open divider that was normally between them. We were ushered into seats near the front. I was in the back of my family’s group, but everyone sat on the same long row. Dad was the only family member that I sat next to, Mom and the rest of the family were next to him. We waited for more missionaries and their families to come in. When the room was full, the orientation meeting began.
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