My Brother is on his Mission!

My brother, Daniel Scott Toborg, is now Elder Daniel Scott Toborg!!

Daniel in front of the MTC

Daniel left Washington yesterday to fly to Utah. His flight ended up getting delayed for an hour and a half. Then, when they finally took off he was re- routed to Boise instead of Salt Lake. My Uncle Richard, Aunt Cynthia, and Grandma Tate were going to pick him up at the airport, take him out to eat and to temple square. Then we were all going to go to the temple together. Instead just Uncle Richard picked Daniel up and dropped him off at our apartment. His flight landed about 3 hours late. My mom has a few theories about why his flight was delayed so much :) First, if the flight had taken off when it was supposed to it would have been caught in Utah's awful windstorms and someone could have gotten hurt. Second, if the flight had landed when it was supposed to then we would have been in the temple at the time that Uncle Richard's and Aunt Cynthia's new baby grandson had to go to the hospital. I think she has a couple of other theories, but these are the only ones I remember. Anyway, Daniel doesn't get to fly to his mission after the MTC, but this crazy experience probably makes up for that. Daniel got to our apartment at 630 pm. We ate dinner, took pictures at the MTC and temple, and played Dominion (husband Daniel said that that was okay even though brother Daniel was already set apart).

The next day (today, Wednesday) husband Daniel went up to campus at 530 in the morning to study for his anatomy lab final. Brother Daniel ended up sleeping in until 10, although that was probably because our cat kept him up during the night (oops).Husband Daniel got back from his test at 11. We skyped with my parents at 1230, and we took Daniel to the MTC at 115. Elder Dunfy (or something like that) is the one who took care of Daniel when we dropped him off. I had a hard time seeing my brother wave goodbye, but more than sad, I am so happy and proud that my brother has chosen to serve a mission! He is a wonderful boy, and will come back as an amazing man.

I have to tell you all that I am already feeling the blessings of having my brother on a mission! I have gotten into the really good habit of praying and reading my scriptures every morning (it wasn't like that for a long time). Through my constant prayer and scripture study I have started to feel closer to my Heavenly Father and feel like I am really building a personal relationship with him. Yesterday, when my brother was having plane troubles, was the first time that I realized that I had a strong need to pray for someone else and ask Heavenly Father to watch over him, and I felt like I had a strong enough bond with Heavenly Father that I knew I could trust Him to take care of Daniel. And He did. Daniel made it safely to us, and safely to the MTC.

The next morning (this morning) when I was doing my scripture study, I decided to study what the scriptures have to tell me about missionary work. During that study and those prayers I felt so blessed to have my brother serving a mission. I feel the spirit with me more often now because I have a constant prayer in my heart for my brother. I hope this never goes away!

Daniel will be in the MTC for the next 8 weeks learning how to teach the Gospel and learning how to do it in Spanish. He will then head up to Salt Lake City where he will spend the rest of his two year mission. He would love to hear from everyone!

His MTC address is:
Elder Daniel Scott Toborg
MTC Mailbox # 188
UT-SLCS 0808
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

You can also send letters to him for free while he's in the MTC on DearElder.com. They will print the letter out and put it in Daniel's MTC mailbox. I'm guessing Daniel's estimated MTC departure date is around August 1.

Daniel at the Provo Temple