Week 3 - Goodbye MTC

This week was a busy one for Elder Beattie, lots of classes helping him feel more confident in his teaching and a lot of studying which he said helped with his knowledge that God loves each and every one of us. He also mentioned that his district was getting even closer and getting to know eachother better as well. One of the Elders in the district ended up sick and in quarantine for a few days so he missed all the Thanksgiving fun. We did notice that he was being facetimed in on some of the pictures we were sent so at least he was still included. Poor guy. 

Thursday was American Thanksgiving which meant he was able to call home and tell us about the day. Elder Quintin L. Cook was at the MTC to give a devotional and taught about the importance of relationships, how relationships of trust lead to people wanting to hear your message. 

The missionaries were able to watch a movie titled "Ephriam's Rescue" which he recommended to watch. It's about a man who was able to provide blessings and relief to those that were a part of the Martin's handcart company that got stuck in Martin's Cove. It was cool that we had just visited that site a few months ago and to hear another true story about what happened only makes it more real. They also did a service project for Thanksgiving making bagged meals, over 300,000 bagged meals for people in need. One of the members of the Piano Guys performed for all the missionaries at a special musical devotional before the MTC turned on all the Christmas lights starting the season.

Today marked Brayden's last day at the MTC and the journey to Australia has begun. He mentioned 15 of the missionaries left the MTC to the airport all Australia bound, 5 to Brisbane. It started with a train ride from Provo City to Salt Lake City airport and according to his email home "getting to the airplane was really fun because everyone was so stressed that they weren't thinking properly. They were going all over the place. It felt like me and my companion were the only people that knew what we were doing, so we lead everyone around the airport. I ended up eating a Cafe Rio burrito that was delicious."

He left a blizzard in Salt Lake City to be greeted with a little warmer weather in Los Angeles before the 15.5 hour flight to Sydney Australia. From there he only has a short flight to Brisbane and is scheduled to arrive there the afternoon of Nov 30th. We were able to speak with him before he boarded and he sounded ready to get to Australia and start this next phase of his mission, although I think he's going to miss Elder Mecham as his companion. They seem to get along really well and plan to hang out once their missions are over.

Hopefully between the few of them on the long flight they'll keep each other busy and get some sleep.

One other thing from the past week that Elder Beattie and his district got to do was welcome all the new missionaries getting dropped off at the Missionary Training Center. He mentioned it was emotional for a lot of the people that he greeted and welcomed into the MTC and he had the opportunity to test out his Australian accent. He used it for one Elder from the start to finish but was disappointed when the guy didn't even Brayden where he was from. I'm not sure if that means the accent was so good he 100% sold it or the guy just thought he was crazy?

The last few pictures shared are: Elder Beattie posing with Jesus Christ and really enjoying that embrace. Next is one of his last pictures with his district before they all start going in their own directions. Some to Australia, some to Guam, one to Edmonton and some to different States in the USA. Notice the phone attached to Brayden, video messaging the Elder in quarantine so he can be a part of the pictures. The last picture is with Kya (Sister Marsden) who started in the MTC the same day Brayden did. She is in our Stake in Calgary and was assigned to Ryan and I's Moroni's Quest family the first time we were able to be parent's. She is going to the St. George Utah mission, primarily at the Temple Visitor's Center and she is going to ROCK IT!