Well, today was the day. The day we have
been looking forward to and dreading all at the same time. The week leading up
to today was a crazy mix of emotions; excitement, sadness, anticipation,
exhaustion. You name it, at least one person in the family felt it. It took
much preparation to get to this point. Besides the spiritual preparation and the purchasing of all the physical items that were needed,
it seems that there were mountains of paperwork required to get this boy on his
mission. Multiple copies of his birth certificate needed to be ordered for several different agencies, at least 30 passport type photos were sent out to
verify identity and then as soon as we thought we had sent out all the photos required, we had to
retake the passport photo and send more out to France because the requirements
had changed, finger prints and FBI clearance were needed, the actual passport,
two visas; one for France and one for Belgium, and an International Driving Privilege Permit. Most likely more was necessary, it has
just escaped the brain for the moment. This is the most paperwork that we have
heard of from any other mission. It is quite possible that Trevor can work for
the CIA, Secret Service or FBI when he gets back!
After a tearful evening of being set apart and having a family testimony meeting, major packing beginning at 11:30 pm and very little sleep, we woke up to puffy eyes and let's just say, Trevor's luggage was not the only thing packed in the morning.
We had a calm and relatively uneventful morning with a nice drive down to Provo and a great lunch of burgers and fries at JCW's. We had a few minutes until Trevor needed to be dropped off, so we walked around the grounds of the Provo Temple along with every other missionary that was reporting today...around 500, PLUS today is the day that BYU freshmen move in and attend orientation. So let's just say, it was a BUSY place!
Here we are trying to kill some time, take pictures and not break down into a pile of tears.
It was quite the feat to take a picture with no one else in the background.
Besties ... brothers and friends.
Sorry about the steeple coming out of your head, Blake. Hope it doesn't hurt!
Notice the glasses to hide the lack of mascara from tears and the packed under eye bags from a sleepless night of packing.
See what happens when we give Blake the camera. He takes creative license.
Trevor ready to go! And who can blame him. Two years of eating French pastries, perusing the Louvre, strolling along the Seine, gazing out at the Eiffel Tower from his apartment, watching the construction of the Paris Temple next to Versailles, walking on the beaches of Normandy and oh yeah, being an amazing missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Good luck Elder Wilson and
Bon Voyage!
