May 2, 2012  THE JOURNEY BEGINS

Kristen entered the MTC at approximately 1:10 p.m. today.  The whole "curbside" drop off was pretty uneventful.  We left Alpine around 11:00 a.m. and drove to her old apartment in Provo so she could say her last good-byes to her cute room mate Kylie.

We then drove to the MTC where we parked across the street and met Aunt Becca, She was there with camera in hand and we walked back across the street to the MTC to take our picture at the famous sign that read something like, Provo MTC, only to find that the sign is no longer there because too many people were taking pictures there and it was causing a traffic jam.  We took a photo anyway with the brick wall in the background and thought maybe we could some how photo shop the sign into the picture.  As we were taking the picture, we heard some one yell from a vehicle on the road..."Sister Owens",  it was her friend Kate who was bringing her friend from Maryland to the MTC.  That made us all smile.  From there we returned to our vehicle and drove up to the curb where two Elders met us and took Kristen's bags.  A quick hug and a kiss and she was on her way to the front doors, escorted by the two Elder missionaries.  That was it!  It is done.  She has officially begun her mission.  We will miss her like crazy, but the joy that was on her face as she left us will be the thing that gets us through this next 18 months.  Good Luck Sista!!!