Taking Zak to the MTC

On August 22, Zak was set apart as a missionary by our Stake President, Keith Walker. The first thing he said in the blessing was giving Zak the gift of tongues. That gave me a good feeling that with hard work, Zak will be successful with the language. Even though he may be frustrated by it at times, when he needed to express himself and teach the gospel the words he need will come to him.

He was also admonished to obey the mission rules, maintain a good diet, learn to love the people. He was told there is someone waiting to hear the gospel message from Zak specifically. He was told to keep a clean apartment, (this should be interesting), to drive safely and obey the laws of the road. And if he keeps his covenants he will be blessed with personal safety. This made Layne and I feel good to hear.

This was a special day because it was Verla's father's birthday, and Zak's cousin Cassandra had a baby boy, Grayson Wayne Monk. This is his first picture as "Elder Terry."

We left for Utah on Tuesday, and stopped in Brigham City to have dinner at Maddox Steakhouse. We invited Layne's nephew, Judd and his wife, Heather to join us. It was nice to visit with them. And we all agreed that the rolls they serve before the meal are worth the wait.
That night we stayed in American Fork and got up the next day and had breakfast and had a leisurely morning in the hotel room. Before we left Layne gave Zak a blessing and surprisingly this was the most emotional part of the day for me.

Then we slowly drove south to Provo. We were killing time because he didn't have to be there until 1:25. So we drove around campus which brought back lots of good memories for me. Although it has changed a lot. Then we drove by the apartment complex I lived in while I was going to school at BYU. It was Monticello and it has two buildings that face each other. The boys were in one and the girls in the other. A sidewalk went down the middle and we called it the fishbowl. Because if you were walking through with anyone of the opposite sex, the whole complex knew about it before long. So Layne walked in with me so I could finally walk through the "fish bowl" holding a boys hand.


This is my apartment #6. The most memorable thing about this apartment was that the shower head was only about chest high. So you had to shower on your knees in order to wash your hair.

My apartment complex was at the bottom of the JSB (Joseph Smith Building) stairs. Every day including Sunday for church we would have to climb those stairs. I can't remember how many there were but it seemed like 300. Layne agreed to climb them with me for old times sake. The kids were party poopers and stayed in the car because it was so hot. When we got to the top I asked a guy to take our picture. It is funny how I don't feel any older than when I was there 23 years ago. I felt like I was asking a fellow student for a favor. But I'm sure he was thinking, "Sure, I'll help this lady, she could be my mom." Ugggg....

We still needed to kill some more time so we went the Malt Shoppe that I used to go to when I lived there. We had hamburgers and shakes and decided it was Zak's, "Last Supper." Then we drove up to the Provo Temple and took a few pictures. Then we found a shade tree to sit under and wait out the last few minutes.

How could this little boy be a head taller than his Dad?

We are very proud parents!

It will be interesting to see how tall Tanner and Karlee are when he gets back.

We had our goodbye hugs at the temple and then drove across the street to the MTC. We were told there wouldn't be any time for goodbyes at the MTC. But everyone was really nice. We pulled up and the sidewalks were lined with Elders. We stopped and unloaded Zak's luggage. We all got one more hug and then he headed inside with one of the Elders. I think it is better for the missionary this way, instead of going inside for the cry fest.

I was really quite proud of all of us for keeping it together. Several days before we left Karlee was crying and Zak told her he was going to send her to her room if she didn't stop. As we started to drive away I heard sobbing in the back seat. He couldn't send her to her room now.