All Wrapped Up

What a cute girl. Love getting these pictures!

Halfway Through the MTC!

Surprise! Jill is already halfway finished at the MTC! If you want to write to her, her address is jillian.ackroyd@myldsmail.net

Some excerpts from Jill's latest email:

• My P day is Friday. Somehow this is always a day that slips through my fingers! My companion had a little situation in the laundry room so we spent a bunch of time hunting down the person responsible for moving her clothes without telling her. She's from the DR right so she got pretty spicy about that!! 

• I'm in a district for people who are advance in their language. All of us are going to different language missions and our classes are in English. They pretty much just expect us to work on the language on our own. 

•  I thought when I got here it was six weeks, but then I found out it was four weeks (three plus one visitor's centre) but THEN they told me that because of how the transfers work out for Paris I'm only doing three weeks! My companion and I are so sad that we won't be able to do visitors centre together! 

• My box number is 200.

• We're killing it as Sister Training leaders! We have some other companions that don't get along as well as we do so we have to help them. One sister from Samoa might have pneumonia, but she doesn't understand what the doctor says in English. We're also teaching RS.  We had an awesome devotional on Tuesday with Elder Rasband so that was really cool!! I joined the choir at first but I got kicked out because my companion and I are sister training leaders... so we're too busy!

One of the "pondering spaces" at the MTC.


Provo temple

Mary Poppins!

Tonight Peirce and I went to Mary Poppins at Storybook Theatre. It was so well done! Peirce said he wished it would never end.

Cousin Love

One thing that has always been really great for Jill and Peirce is how well they get along with their Ackroyd cousins. Zoe and Soleil are especially good friends to them.  They get along with all their cousins - but they seem to have an extra special relationship with Zoe and Soleil.

This past weekend Zoe came up to visit. I couldn't quite figure out at first why she was coming up. Usually, it's because something is happening. I asked a few times what they were going to do this weekend, expecting that there was something for school or for the ward Zoe attended here. Nope. Eventually, I realized she was just here to comfort Peirce because he misses Jill so much. She hung out with Peirce and Tony all weekend. Friday they played board games. Saturday then went and took pictures and window shopped and had lunch and went to a movie....a full day of just plain old cousin fun. Tony said it was the.best.weekend.of.his.life!

That Zoe. She's a good egg.

Apparently, P-Day is Friday!

We heard from Jill today! I was so excited to get her email. These are some of the highlights:

About getting to the MTC:

• I got dropped off nice and late because of how long it took to pick up Maren,  but j wasn't worried nor stressed about that st all. haha! It was just nice to spend some time together. She was funny because she didn't want us to cheer when she came out of arrivals! This is why opposites attract I guess. hahaha! We didn't have time to do much so we just went to get a quick lunch. 

About the MTC:

• Once I got here there wasted ZERO time and we started some classes and devotionals! 
• We had some cool interviews with pretend investigators..  It was funny because they had a class pretty much about talking to people like normal humans.
• I'm in a district with people who are learning English so their testimonies can only be expressed simply, and those are the best kind!! 
• My branch president testified of how much you'll be blessed for my service so stay tuned for that.
• We got lost on almost an hourly basis on the campus

About her companion:

• My companion is so amazing! She's from the Dominican republic and she's going to be serving at the priesthood restoration site in Pennsylvania! She was in med school but gave it up to serve a mission! 
• Hermana Feliz and I got called to be STLs so that was wild! We don't know anything yet hahaha! 

And She's Off!

If I were more organized I would have blogged a lot this past month. There have been so many great things that have happened. Alas, with all that happening, I was really pressed for time and so now I will try to catch up.

On Saturday, prior to her farewell, we got family pictures taken. Becky is such a gem! I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures. They make my heart swell!








We had Jill's farewell this past Sunday. She spoke in the YSA ward in our stake and we had lots of family there. All of Allen's siblings who live in the province were there with their kids as well as my siblings. It has been a long time since we have had everyone together!


All the Ackroyd cousins that were there! What a crowd! Jill said she looks forward to being one of the shorter ones when she gets home. No doubt that is how it will be.

After church we had a lunch at our house with family and then that evening we also had an open house. A few of my friends made cakes...but not just cakes. Amazing cakes!! It was beautiful.

I wish I had taken more pictures of friends and family at her open house. *sigh* I got a little busy with food and visiting though.





Good thing Grandma remembers to take pictures!

One of my students, Abigail H, made the Eiffel Tower for her structure project. I asked her if we could borrow it and use it as a decoration. Abigail was thrilled. It was so fun to have her come to the Open House!

Peirce skipped school Monday morning off to hang out with Jill. In the afternoon Jill spent some time with her cousin, Taylor and with Grandma Jensen.






Jill got set apart Monday evening. It was a beautiful spirit-filled experience. It was great to have Grandma there.





That's Sam on the phone. She thought it was happening at our house so we speaker phoned her in.

The stake president suggested that we go celebrate with ice cream. I suppose he doesn't know about Seniore's Pizza, or he would have suggested that. At Seniore's Jill is a favorite. They were surprised to hear she is leaving. They showered us with pop and pizza and even a t-shirt that Jill will take pictures in all over France. We are thinking that Peirce should approach them to be the social media organizer. We do love Seniore's!




Tuesday morning Jill was ready bright and early. On Monday she was nervous, but after she was set apart she was calm and ready to go.

 

She had to do a little shuffling of stuff, but it didn't take too long before everything weighed what it should.



Jill and Sam are soul-mates. So nice to have Sam come with us to the airport!


Erienne is one of Jill's good friends from high school. She is in engineering at U of C and comforted Peirce with it really only being 5 months that it will seem like Jill is gone since when school is in session life is just too busy. Good perspective, Erienne!


Peirce may miss Jill more than anyone will. He sure loves his sister. He was rather despondent the first day. It has been rough to say good bye!


We may look like we're putting on a brave face - but we really are excited. There were really no hitches in her getting going except that her flight was delayed so she ended up with a different connection in San Francisco - but she's a pro, so that really wasn't a big deal. Her grandparents were visiting in Utah so they picked her up in SLC.  I was fine at the airport. Then I went to school. The first thing on the docket was math and we're learning about time....time just made me cry. LOL After a good night's sleep though I was doing better. All of the business of getting her ready got me worn down I guess. 


This was the display on the countdown app on my phone that day:


Another cousin, Maren, came home from her mission on Wednesday and they were able to see each other for a few minutes before Jill went into the MTC. It was fortuitous that it worked out that they could see each other. Mission serendipity!

  

A great adventure begins!!