And she's off....

She is now a Missionary! It's crazy but true, the time has finally come, she is Sister Tribe. I'm going to post some of the picture of the last week before she left. Be ready for a lot of pictures, a lot happened that last week.

She was nominated for and given many awards.

She not only graduated from the College of Education she was their Senator this past year.

She graduated from WSU with her Bachelors in Family Studies with a minor in Child Development.  She graduated with honors and we were so proud of her. 

Jenny Hansen took some beautiful pictures of her for her Mission/ Graduation and Sam Halverson did her hair and makeup. Thank you Jenny and Sam!

I didn't take very many pictures at the farewell luncheon but she made sure I got one of the Holli cake. We love Holli cake and Holli!

Brady asked for a picture so he got one.

I got one of her with Josh's family before they went home that day.

This is Kimmy with Ron's family.

At a YSA auction Kimmy and I had bid on a 30 minute dance party so Monday night Marie made good on her dance party. We had a SWEET dance party complete with disco ball and flashing lights for 30 minutes!

She was set apart on the night of April 30th. President Richards gave her a beautiful blessing but he kept saying she would serve 18 months or longer. Every time he said or longer I gave him a not so nice look. She was so glad her Dad, who had been flat in bed sick for two days, was able to make it. She was also thrilled that Josh came.

 She left on May Day which just happens to be our favorite holiday. She wanted to celebrate in the morning so we had breakfast and decorated flower cookies. We were not able to go a Maying to family and friends but many came to celebrate with us and say good bye.

It was a fun morning but she had put off packing long enough! Everyone but Brian and Sarah left. I told her she had to pack we were leaving in an hour. This is what I found when I went downstairs to check on her.

This is real! Just one hour before, stuff was everywhere and she was on the computer. Sarah and Brian, whom I had sent to help her, were laying on the couch. But she pulled it together. She had a Fathers blessing and we were off to the MTC by noon. Ron was too sick to go with us so it was just Kimmy, Toph and I. As we approached to MTC she started to scream out in short bursts. Toph and I just looked at each other and asked her to stop because people were looking at us. She got over it soon enough and was out of the truck hugged us both turned for a picture and she was off. She didn't even look back. Neither of us cried, it was hard to be sad when she was so excited.

We received our first letter from her today. She is loving it! She did say that the MTC reaffirmed her decision not to go to BYU. As soon as she walked in she had to tell about herself in French! It was crazy but already she can feel the Lord blessing her with the language.  I would post her entire letter but it was handwritten and I don't want to rewrite it. Just know that she is doing great. She did ask me to tell everyone to write her on dearelder.com, it's free and she gets those letters the day you write them. I know she would love to hear from everyone so if you have time drop her a line. On Dear Elder you will need to know her mailbox number, which is #9, her mission, which is CAN-MON and her departure date, which is 6/11. She only has a short time to read and respond to email so if you write to her on dearelder she can respond to it on her P day, which is Monday. As she emails I will post her letters and pictures on here. And so this adventure begins........