Stuart to the MTC

Yesterday was a big day for the Himmer Family as we delivered Stuart into the MTC in Provo, UT. This is our 3rd son to serve a mission. He will spend 3 weeks in the Provo MTC learning Spanish and then fly to Madrid Spain where he will spend another 6 weeks in intensive study learning ‘Spain’ Spanish along with the concepts of Preach My Gospel. (He will return speaking Spanish with a lisp.)

We landed in Salt Lake on Tuesday and headed to Temple Square only to learn that the Temple was closed. So we picked up some things at the Distribution Center and ate lunch.

Stuart hasn’t been to Temple Square since his early youth. We had a great time walking around the Temple looking at the symbols on the edifice of that magnificent structure. We toured the Visitor’s Center and watched the movie on Joseph Smith the Prophet in the Legacy Theater. They just finished a remodel on the Tabernacle and it was open again to the public so we watched a demonstration of the phenomenal acoustics. Perhaps I should say we listened to the demonstration.

We stopped off at Benchmark Books and picked up a few nuggets in print for my library, a book by Thomas Stuart Ferguson on the Book of Mormon lands from the 1950’s and a book on the Nag Hammadi Library. We spent the night for the last time with Stuart at my mom’s house and then headed down to Provo to bid him farewell.

W. Edwards Deming stated: “94% of all failure is a systems malfunction.” The MTC is the perfect example of a successful system in action. After breakfast, we pulled into the MTC driveway and we were greeted by the Lord’s Senior Volunteers that directed us where to park, unloaded our car, pointed the direction to take Elder Himmer’s luggage, told me where to park, and made Stuart feel like a million dollars.

After we gathered again in front of the MTC and took our pictures, Stuart entered the left doors and we entered on the right.

He was again greeted by the LSV’s, who gave him some instruction and handed him his Black Name Tag.

Cheri had the honor of putting his Black Name Tag on his lapel and we snapped a few more pictures. It was now time to descend into the inner parts of the Training Center for the long-awaited orientation meeting.

We sat on the 2nd row and watched 30-minutes of church commercials all ending with the famous “Isn’t it about…time?” Very enjoyable. Then the Mission President, (President Boone) and his wife, along with a counselor entered and started the meeting. We sang “Called To Serve” and an Elder from Denver Colorado offered the invocation.

We heard 3 talks, watched the movie “Called To Serve” and had to endure that moment again. We’ve been through it with Charles and Andrew. We knew what to expect and we got what we expected. It is always hard saying good-bye to a loved one. We will miss Stuart, we’ll miss his sweet spirit, his idiosyncrasies (of which there are many), we’ll miss his bass playing, his singing and his presence.

But, we know what he is doing is far better than staying home with us. We are saying good-bye to a Stuart, full of teenage thoughts and ways and in two years, we will greet Stuart, the Returned Missionary. The system hasn’t failed us yet.

To those who would like to be on Stuart’s e-mail forwarding list, please respond to Cheri and let her know. (cherihimmer@gmail.com)

Fare Well Elder Himmer, “God be with you ’til be meet again!”