November 3, 2020

Hey everyone!

This is Michelle.  You get me this week because Ethan didn't write a letter home because...he was in the Fort Collins Temple taking out his own endowments...and we were there!  So he was a bit busy to write home so I thought I would give you the update on him.

Ethan is doing really well.  When the Fort Collins Temple went to Phase 2 we were told we would be able to go through with him and we were so excited.  After a couple months of waiting for our turn, we were on a plane early Tuesday morning on our way to Colorado.  

Their zone had Zone Conference Tuesday so the rest of their Zone had p-day Monday, but since Ethan was going through the temple, they did regular work on Monday then took Tuesday as p-day and will attend a different Zone's conference on Wednesday.  Kind of crazy but the temple takes priority.

We were given permission to spend one hour with Ethan so we decided it would be easiest to take him and Elder Unruh to lunch before the session.  So we flew out of Vegas at 6 am, drove to Fort Collins and met them at Smashburger (Ethan's choice) for lunch.  It was so good to get to hug Ethan!!  Elder Unruh said Ethan was so excited to see us.  They had spent the morning doing laundry, shopping, and getting things done that they needed to so they would be ready to go through the temple.  It was nice that the companion was allowed to go too because Elder Unruh only has 3 more weeks left in his mission.  So we met them and got to eat with them for an hour.  They told us all about their area, the mission, and stories that we hadn't heard before.  (They got to help teach an MTC class, which I thought was really cool!)

When it was time, we followed them to the temple.  There were 3 elders going through for the first time.  We waited outside the temple until everyone was there and then we went in.  Since there have been so many fires, the temple grounds had ash all over.  They asked us to clean our shoes really well as we walked into the temple and I was amazed at how much ash was on my shoes that I didn't realize.  

The session was amazing and it was so good to be with Ethan in the temple, finally.

After the session, we took pictures outside the temple.  Then we said a really tough goodbye, but it was so great to see him as a missionary and so happy.  He is doing really great and happy to have finally gone through the temple.

So that's why he didn't email anyone this week.

-Michelle

Pictures from the temple:

Ethan and Courtney

You can see the ash on the sidewalk.