Mission Rewards

Last night was truly amazing! Matt was able to baptize one sweet sister while he was on his mission in Latvija. Her name is Olga Frolova, and she was baptized just a week before he came home. Talk about the best going-away present! Well, 6 years later, Olga is now getting ready to serve a mission herself to Moscow, Russia. She flew in last night to the Salt Lake airport to report to the MTC and we were able to go and see her. As we were standing there, waiting for her flight to land, Matt said, "It is going to be so hard not to hug her!" Thankfully I was there and able to take on the hugging duties for him. =)

Olga is such a sweetheart! And it didn't take long at all to see what an amazing missionary she is going to be! We visited for a minute before finding out she had planned on just taking the shuttle to the MTC. We said, "No way!" So Matt called the MTC and got permission to drive her down himself, with me along as her companion. It was a dream come true for Matt! We thought we would only get to spend a few minutes with her, but suddenly a few minutes turned into an hour car drive. We took Olga past the Salt Lake temple so she could see it and picked up some dinner for her on the way. Wendy's. Can't get much more American than that. It was awesome to hear how Olga has been doing, as well as how the branches and people out there are doing. Olga was amazed as we pointed out several more temples from the freeway as we drove past. Back home, her nearest temple is in Finland and here we were, pointing out five temples within an hour drive! It was emotional as we said good bye to Olga and wished her well.

(Kalianna decided she wanted to drive us home. I was so proud of her! We spent a ton of time in the car yesterday, and because of the unexpected trip to Provo, she didn't get to bed until 11:00 pm! But she was such a trooper all night!)

On the drive home, Matt was practically glowing! He received the best reward in the world for his missionary service in Latvija. Watching his one baptism serve a mission of her own, and simply knowing the lives that she is about to affect. It's amazing to watch the gospel move forward! We were truly blessed to get to spend so much time with Olga! Good luck Sister Frolova!