Sister Mecham

We had a fun few weeks before Danielle left for her mission. She went through the temple for the first time on July 20th. That was a very special day for all of us.

On July 21 she had her farewell in her mom's ward. She did a great job! On July 25th she finished her semester at BYU-I. She came and stayed with us that weekend and her farewell in our ward was on July 28th. She gave a great talk. Her former young women's leader was also asked to speak that day and she said a lot of nice and funny things about Danielle, which made the meeting even more special. Anthon Jr. and I were able to perform a musical number for her farewell. He played the piano while I sang a song called, "How Can I Be." Everyone was really impressed with his piano ability. It was a hard song and he had been learning it for a couple months. This was his first time performing on the piano in front of people. He did really well and it was really special that we got to perform for her farewell.

We had a get-together after her farewell and she had a lot of family and her college friends there.

We spent a lot of time during her last week before she left buying all the things that she will need for her mission. She and I had a lot of fun shopping together.

On the 5th Danielle turned 19. We celebrated in the morning and that night we all went out to dinner as a family for the last time for a year and a half.

On the 7th Danielle entered the Missionary Training Center. It was hard to say goodbye to her, but we are so proud of her choosing to go on a mission.

She is able to call once a week, on her P-Day, and it has been so nice being able to talk to her and video chat with her and hear about her exciting moments and struggles. The MTC was a hard 3 weeks for her. There is a lot of structure and a lot of learning and she said that she was just exhausted all the time. She loved her district and the three sisters she was sharing a room with so that helped a lot. I sent her 3 packages full of treats, notes and a new skirt when she told me that she was already sick of her clothes.

two weeks ago she left the MTC and flew to her mission in Denver, Colorado. She loves her new companion and the family that they are living with. Sometimes we wonder how much missionary work she is actually accomplishing with the weekly phone calls to all her family members and the pictures of her playing basketball with the grandson of the woman she is living with. She is already having some success teaching people the gospel and is doing a lot of service work. We are so proud of her!