Elder Russell Hiatt Higgins

Others of you have mentioned the send off we gave Russell as he entered the MTC on October 1 for two months of gospel and language training before leaving on December 1 for the Philippines Naga mission, where he will be speaking Tagalog. Thought you might like a few more details and pictures.

He flew into SLC on Sept.3, was met at the plane by his uncle Dennis who brought him to our condo in Sandy. The first thing he did was call home and had a good chat with his mom and dad. Later we took him to Barb's and Dennis' home, where he was surrounded by more family and enjoyed a delicious feast, (Including two kinds of potato chips!!) While there, Elder H. got another chance to talk to his mom and dad, this time in the comfort of a great reclining couch.


On Wednesday morning Barb took Russell and us to Provo, where we met Denise and the five of us attended the one hour meeting for new missionaries. At one point all the new missionaries were asked to stand up. We can attest to the fact that Elder Higgins was by far the best looking one. Then came "the moment": Family exited one side, missionaries the other. We hugged, we shook hands, and we waved goodbye. It was great!! So glad we were able to be part of this wonderful moment in his life.

Give me a few more weeks (months?) and I'll get the hang of inserting pictures where I really want them, and writing captions under them.

Meanwhile, you are all still invited to join us in reading all of the Book of Mormon during the month of October. (And you can do it in English, not Spanish or French or Danish or even Tagalog.) If you started when some of us did you should be into Second Nephi by now; if you haven's started yet, there's still time.

Stay tuned.