A Letter Is On The Way

I will be now posting my own words in black font and Colton's in blue to help keep confusion to a minimum.  I sent an email to Colton yesterday asking him lots of questions about how things are going.  I just got this response from him:



Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2016 11:27 PM
To:
Natalie Potter


I sent you a letter with answers to all your questions but I'm loving it here at the MTC! It is exhausting but I'm having a great time and learning a ton! Miss you!

OUR FIRST EMAIL

He will spend his first 3 weeks at the Provo, Utah Missionary Training Center (MTC).

There are 19 buildings on a 39-acres site which can train up to 3700 missionaries at a time.  More than 600,000 missionaries have come through the MTC to be trained for their church missions.  This training includes Gospel study, safety rules, health and fitness, and language study in more than 55 languages.  Colton will not be learning a foreign language as he has an English speaking assignment.  Here is a link to a description of a typical MTC schedule: What's Life Like at the MTC

Here is his first, brief email letting us know he has arrived.

From: Colton James Potter <colton.potter@myldsmail.net>
Date: July 27, 2016 at 2:53:08 PM EDT
To: udorn94@msn.com
Subject: MTC

Hey I just wanted to let you know I made it safely to the MTC. Can't wait to hear from you later on. Tell everyone hi for me! Love and miss you all!

Elder Potter

You can email him at this address:  colton.potter@myldsmail.net
He should be able to reply to his emails weekly.  

GOODBYES

We all got up at 3:30 this morning to take Colton to the airport. The girls were pretty tired but really wanted to go with us and see him off. 

It was surreal to think that this was the last time I would see his stuff on the stairs waiting for him for two years.  Here are his shiny new shoes and missionary bag ready to go. 

Ella and Woffy helped take his bags to the car.

He made his final social media posts, turned off his passcodes and handed his dad his iphone then got in line to check his baggage.

The reality of the goodbyes was starting to hit. 

Colton with Alex and Ella.

The last picture of all 4 kids still living at home. 

And there he goes.....with a huge piece of my heart and so much faith and love for Jesus Christ that it makes me so proud to be his Mom.  

Elder Colton Potter was called to serve in the Utah Salt Lake City West Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.