Mission Prep - The Final Countdown

Earlier this week was the last chance to get things sorted out before Seth started in the Missionary Training Centre. Normally he would have flown over to the MTC in New Zealand, but the Covid-19 travel restrictions meant that he would be doing the MTC classes virtually from home.

With Monday being a public holiday, things got started on Tuesday where Elissa, Seth and I met down at the bank in Tuggeranong to sort out his bank accounts. Half of Seth’s mission money was put into a 12 month term deposit, whilst Elissa and I were made signatories to the rest of Seth’s accounts. This will allow us to pay his monthly expenses whilst he’s on his mission. In the afternoon Seth had to head down to the pharmacy to pick up a Hepatitis A vaccine. It was the last vaccine he needed to have as a part of his medical checks. Seth would then be spending much of his spare time over the next couple of days sorting through and packing away the stuff in his room.

Things really started to ramp up on Wednesday. In the morning Seth had a 90 minute virtual MTC orientation in preparation for his starting the following day.  Straight after this he had to head on down to the medical centre in Tuggeranong to be given the Hepatitis A vaccine. A surprise rocked up in the mail during the day – his missionary tags – one clip-on, and one magnetic tag. I texted an image through to Elissa – which got her emotional. It was her “This is happening” moment – Seth’s going on a mission!

For dinner Elissa made up one of Seth’s favourites – Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas, as we then waited for the Stake President, President Michael Stuart, to come to set Seth apart. I’ll write that up as a post in itself. After being set apart, Seth went and created a post that he went and put on his social media accounts to announce the start of his mission.