My Favorite Elder Tucker

Just an hour after Nathaniel and I got engaged, my brother, Eli, opened his mission call at his dorm down in Provo.  He was kind enough to wait for me to come to Utah so I could see him open it in person because he actually got the letter a few days before that.  And THEN he was so kind as to wait for us to get to his dorm because we were 20 minutes late after I promised we would be 15 minutes early.  I will blame that on Nathaniel for taking so long to propose ;)

Literally as soon as we walked in the door he opened the envelope and started reading.  It was slightly hilarious that my family was on Skype (and had been for the 20 minutes they were waiting for us) and then five seconds before he read where he was going the internet connection was severed and they didn't get to hear it.  Oh boy.  I'm sure it wasn't funny for them but all of us in Utah thought it was!

So where's that handsome brother of mine going?  Santa Cruz, Bolivia!!!!  AND he gets to go to the Peru MTC for his training!  I'm soooooo excited he gets to go to Peru even though it's not like he'll get to go everywhere (or anywhere for that matter) that I went.

World Class Travelers

It has begun.  My friends are finally coming home from their two-year missions!  Not that I haven't had other friends already come home, but the guys that I grew up with and went to school with are in the home stretch and it feels so good!  I miss them more than I let on.  The two that I was closest to are in South America and in a week and a half I get to be on the same continent as them :)  It's a rather exciting thought. Our countries will be next door neighbors.  I've been so jealous of them getting out of the states and experiencing a new culture and leaving school and everything behind to serve.  Now it's my turn.  Not quite the two years and not quite the same service but it's serving nonetheless.  I'll have some "interesting" food stories to swap with them, stories regarding frustrations with a new language, stories about being with people you barely know 24/7, and a slew of other things.  Hooray!!!  Things are going to be so great, and when things get hard I can look to the example of my spiritually giant, amazing friends and know that if they can do it, I can do it.  Thanks to Nathaniel, Myles, Taylor, Joshua, Aaron and Austin.  You guys rock my chacos.

Nathaniel and Taylor-- "The Christmas Carol" 2008

Taylor and Nathaniel-- Graduation 2009

Aaron-- Stake Conference 2010

Joshua and Myles-- Kirtland 2010

Nathaniel, Myles, Joshua, Taylor -- The last week they were all together.   2010

Nathaniel (Sao Paulo, Brazil)

Myles (Guatemala City, Guatemala)

Taylor (Cali, Colombia)

My apologies for not having pictures with and/or of each of the missionaries.