Mission Beginnings . . . MTC

Danielle entered the Provo MTC today—Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at about 12:25. She left our Peoria, AZ home at 4:50 this morning to catch a plane. Her bags were packed and weighed—one was 49 pounds and the other weighed 50.5 pounds. She has packed and repacked them to meet the weight requirements. It has been a comedy to see what would go and what would stay. The required mosquito repellant stayed as did the ace bandage, the cold medicine, and her favorite brown shoes.

This missionary journey started after college graduation when Danielle returned home to prepare for her Boston internship at the JFK birth home as a history interpreter for the National Park Service. Danielle has always wanted to serve a mission, and after deep contemplation, she decided to serve, preparing her mission papers and squeezing in all of her medical visits in less than 2 weeks.

By the time she arrives at the wooden Indian statue outside customs at the Vancouver International Airport, she will have logged 12,300 flight miles in 6.5 months to prepare for a mission. She has moved from Provo back to Peoria, Arizona, logged 2 trips to Boston, dropped into Utah to see loved ones, landed one final time in Phoenix and returned to Salt Lake, driving 50 minutes south to Provo to do what she really wants to do.

She has completed her internship, taken multiple tests to obtain teaching certificates in two states, filled out mountains of papers, and completed 3 more classes for her Arizona credentials all while working full-time.

In this whirlwind, she worked for a nearly home-bound Bostonian ward member on her days off, served as the compassionate service leader in her ward, visited as many New England history sites as possible, spent time delighting in her cute and crazy nephews and dear sister Deidre, throwing in a hurricane flood clean up day in Vermont, spent time with her friend Jamie Gu—a newcomer to the LDS church, and other friends in her Boston ward. And now tonight, she rests her head at 10:30 pm in the Provo Mission Training Center, doing what she really, really wants to do—talk to others about the role of Christ in her life.