Day 340

Today's the big day - the 3 Rwandese young men fly from Kigali to begin their missions. First stop: Uganda to be set apart by the mission president. Tomorrow, they will enter the MTC in Johannesburg. Here, Brad gives last minute tips on tickets and immigration cards.

Emmanuel, Fidele, and Jean PIerre...they told us that they didn't sleep last night because they were so excited.

This was their first time to even come to the airport. They were all up and dressed by 4 am. We took Fidele from our house, picked up Emmanuel by the side of the road near a taxi stop (2 of his brothers and his sister were standing there in the dark with him waiting - it was so tender to watch him give them hugs good-bye, and then they walked off down the road), and then Emmanuel directed us far down a dirt road to a village to pick up Jean Pierre. He was waiting outside on the dirt road with the person he has been staying with. Wow - can you even imagine what they must have been feeling?

Last group shot. Jean Pierre told me that he was quiet on the ride because he was so filled with joy. Fidele told us that he was so grateful that we helped him to be able to become a missionary. This has been one of the great privileges of our mission - to help these 3 as they prepared for their missions, filled out their papers, received their calls, attended missionary prep class, attended temple prep class, worked in the missionary garden, made their contribution. How great it was to see them depart this morning, each one looking every bit a missionary!