July

Britton was all set to start home MTC on July 15th so over the 4th of July weekend we went to Park City for one last family hurrah.  We stayed overnight in a 2 bedroom condo in downtown Park City on Friday, July 3rd where the kids were delighted to have Panda Express for dinner.  Masks were required every time you went outside for anything, but everything was still open so it didn't slow us down.

The next morning on the 4th of July we went on the "Freedom Train" (aka Heber Creeper) to start our celebration of America's birthday. 

There were a lot of hot air balloons in the area that morning.  While waiting for the train to start we watched one of the balloons land in the parking lot across the street.

They had patriotic music playing and gave everyone flags to wave. They even had live musicians walking through the train cars putting on a patriotic mini-concert.

We went to the outlets for a little school/mission shopping and then stopped at In-and-Out Burger for a truly American 4th of July meal on the way home.  All 4th of July parades and community activities were canceled because of COVID-19 but there were still some fireworks in the valley to watch that night.

The next week Britton was in full mission prep mode. He spent a lot of time going through all of his stuff and packing up his room. While he would be doing home MTC we decided it would be best to have everything packed up and put away and only have what he would take in his suitcases still in the room.  

Church meetings started again in July, but our ward has been divided into 3 meeting groups so we can safely socially distance. Masks are required, and there is no singing to the hymns but with a smaller group and only 1 speaker the meetings end up being about 30 min long which is just right for the youngest members of our family. Too bad this won't last forever. haha 😊 On the Sunday before Britton started his mission instead of speaking in church and having family and friends for lunch afterwards he simply invited his closest friends over for a goodbye party on Monday, July 13th. I'm not a fan of big missionary "farewells" so I was more than happy to simplify and forgo all of cultural expectations placed around sending a missionary off.

On the evening of Tuesday, July 14th we headed to the President Zollinger's office so Britton could get set apart as a Missionary.  We knew he would be reassigned to a mission within the United States until Peru opened back up for American Missionaries, but we still didn't know where that would be.

Elder Campbell and President Zollinger

Britton's first day as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

After his first week of being in the MTC we got a message from President Zollinger to call him because his new temporary reassignment had been made. Britton called him as soon as he was out of class and learned that he has been assigned the the Iowa City, Iowa Mission and will leave on August 26th.  He is really excited and happy that he will be going straight from the MTC instead of getting released and having to wait for awhile before like some other missionaries.  Another missionary in his MTC district also got reassigned to Iowa City so he is happy about that.  His MTC companion from Wyoming who was called to his same mission in Peru has been temporarily reassigned to Las Vegas, so they are hopeful they will eventually get to serve in the same mission when Peru opens again.

With all summer camps canceled Jameson and AJ spend a lot of time playing with the the neighborhood kids outside.  Lemonade stands are almost a daily occurrence around here. 

Jameson had his first Taekwando belt test this month and received his yellow belt.  He was really excited about breaking a board at the end of the test.

Congrats Jamo!