Cooper Adventures: Oklahoma Tulsa Mission

For the past four months I have gotten teary eyed on and off as I've thought about this day. We took Heather to the MTC yesterday. And as expected, it was an emotional experience...but a happy one too.

Heather opening her call. She originally started reading the booklet

until we realized she was reading the wrong paper. When we had her get the actual letter
out we learned that Heather was called to serve in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission.
She was and is very excited!

As you can see, her mission covers the Tulsa Oklahoma area, the South East corner of Kansas, the South West corner of Missouri, and the North West corner of Arkansas. It's known as "The Belt" of the Bible Belt. I've heard they make good 'Babaque' (pulled pork) there!

Heather, now known as Sister Cooper, (hey that's me!) was set apart on Tuesday night April 8th by President Gesslesin. sp? (Our Stake President) I love that they make house calls! I was expecting to have to go to his office for this. Bishop Steinkopf and Scott stood in as well. It was neat and the Spirit strong. I became a little emotional, but we also had a nice chat with them.

The big day! April 9th started kind of hectic as Heather STILL wasn't completely packed. She managed to get it done on time only leaving a small mess behind for Scott and I to clean up. She ate her breakfast/lunch in the car.

Ryan helped pack up...

Laura helped pack up...

We picked Scott up from BYU and once we arrived at the Provo Temple parking lot, Scott had to see for himself that EVERYTHING was packed up. Three suitcases...how hard can it be? The MTC sends notice that you will only have a few minutes to drop your missionary off once there...so we decided to go to the Temple first. We looked around the parking lot and grounds and low and behold...there were dozens of other "missionary families" parking at the Temple grounds to say their goodbyes also. Here are pictures of our last hour with Heather walking around the Temple grounds and dropping her off at the MTC...

Getting wiggles out!

Apparently Laura needed to get her wiggles out too!

Lots of sister goofiness going on!

Another missionary family was nice to take our picture :)

Water fight!

Scott decided to get involved in the water fight...Heather took off!

We also had some drama from time to time...Heather cracked up

when I showed her this. It turned out that Daniel had scraped his

head on a branch of one of the blue Spruce trees on the Temple grounds.

Combining the pain and then blood...he became sad...

Final goodbyes...Ryan and Laura seem so happy!

Group hug! They were jumping up and down and spinning as they did this.

It looks like Ryan is tired of having his picture taken :)

Tears...

And a lot more tears!

DEEP BREATH...here we are.

But I have to say that the MTC is the REAL "Happiest Place On Earth!" I can't even begin to describe the feelings I felt there. In the midst of all the anxiety, sadness, happiness for Heather, etc. I just felt so GOOD as we entered the MTC grounds. All the cute missionaries, young and old were lined along the parking lot road, smiling and waving at us as we drove past to get to the drop off zone for us. They waved us on and there was always someone there to show us the way. They didn't skip a beat. The feelings of the Spirit were SO strong! But different than the Temple. Better for me. I have forgotten how it is here, but I remember having these same feelings when I was living here as a missionary. I love the Temple and the Spirit I feel there, but this was stronger for me. So much life and happy energy...and...a part of Heaven. I'm so glad Heather is there! I wish I could go back. I didn't want to leave.