Ethan left for the MTC in July. Due to the nature of the visa he was obtaining, the arrangements had some unusual complexity. We ended up having fairly short notice that Ethan would definitely be going to Provo on a particular date. We did a bit of rushing around to make sure everything was in order for him to go, but got it all sorted in time.
Some pictures at the Brisbane airport when Ethan was getting on his flight to Provo. Lots of family joined us. Thank you for coming to see Ethan off! He had no hiccups with his flights, and even managed to be upgraded on the second leg. He was met at the other end by the Edstrom family who took great care of him until he entered the MTC a few days later.
The night before Ethan left, when he was set apart as a missionary.
A picture of Ethan's MTC district in front of the Provo Temple. Five of them were learning Macedonian and two were learning Turkish (I think). Ethan actually spent his first two weeks in the MTC with a Spanish district, as he entered the MTC prior to the rest of his Macedonian-speaking district. They did two weeks of home MTC, but Ethan went straight into the MTC (due to difficulties with time differences). Ethan said he was grateful to have done four years of Spanish at school, so he could still follow some of what his first district were talking about. By the time Ethan left the MTC he was told that he was the 'oldest' missionary there ie - been there the longest.
Ethan with the Macedonian speaking missionaries and their teachers.
Ethan has now collected his visa, flown to Albania, served there for a little while and has now been in Macedonia for about a week. He has been enjoying his experiences there so far. He is serving in a city called Bitola, which he was enthusiastic about as a place to start because he thinks it will push him to better develop his language skills early on (ie - outside of the capital city).
The other missionaries in the picture above have been temporarily reassigned to American missions while they wait for their visas to come through, but it's hoped that they will join the Adriatic South mission before Christmas.
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