MTC week 1

Mural from the MTC

What a happy surprise to get an e-mail only a few days after leaving Kolby at the MTC. His p-day must be Friday! Just a note: Hazel's special name for Kolby is bobo and his special suitcase was over 65 lbs full of Mountain Dew!!

Hello family, it's been a crazy first few days. I'm on the top floor in the dorm building and I had to haul the "special" suitcase all the way up 4 flights of stairs. Now I've earned everything that's in there and will appreciate it more I guess. Tagalog is supposed to be similar to Spanish but so far I don't see the connection, but hopefully I will as I learn more. Wednesday hit like a ton of bricks, especially when we first walked into language class and our instructor started rambling on in Tagalog. There's a lot to learn and it feels like I'm already running out of time.
I have started to learn some of the language though, yesterday I learned that bobo is a derogatory word that means stupid or dumb in the Philippines, so that's ironic. I have pretty nice elders in my dorm, they're all from Utah. I'm curious to see if this food really does make me gain weight also.  It's not bad, but definitely not as good as at home. I saw my friend elder Makaafi and elder Seyfreid and I've never been happier to see those two. It was really awesome and made me feel better about being here. I hope time goes as fast as they say it does and that I survive these next few weeks. I miss you all and don't forget to take care of my motorcycle.

Love, Elder Banister

Kolby and Terrence (a friend from our home ward!) Philippines and Germany!

MTC drop off

We took Kolby to the MTC on October 24th 2018. It was so hard to say good-bye! We still miss Logan so much and now the hole in our hearts seems to have grown. He was so happy to be there though, and so excited about his suitcase full of over 60 bottles of Mountain Dew. He is ready to go, he is ready to learn and he is prepared to do this work!!!

Farewell Boise!

President McMurdie, Elder Banister and Kirk

Kolby gave a talk on sacrament meeting on Sunday October 22nd and afterwards was ordained as a full time missionary by our stake president John McMurdie. It was a wonderful day and we are so happy for Kolby. We left that afternoon to visit family in Utah and stopped by Great grandma Allred's house on the way. 

Elder Banister and his grandparents, Eva and Dennis Golightly

Dallin, Preston, Trevor, Kolby and Tyler

Great grandma Allred

Temple

Kolby went through the Boise temple on September 1, 2018. Kirk was his escort and after the session he was ordained as a temple worker by President Belliston. It was a wonderful day!!

Jean Plaisted, Dennis Golightly, Craig and Carmie Golightly, Jackie and Keri Banister were in attendance.

Opening the Call!

Kolby's mission call arrived on Monday June 18th, 2018 BUT he didn't open it until Saturday!! He has such patience. It was torture waiting!! 

I had plenty of time to plan a fun call opening party! We just had it at the church in the gym. It was really fun to see everyone placing their guesses on the large world map. I had a list of current LDS missions and there are over 420!! I also had a fun prize for whoever guessed the closest! I guess there was over 50 people who came.

Chocolate strawberries, mini cheesecakes, fortune cookies and chocolate nuggets. 

It was finally time to open the call!!! It was so neat and the spirit was so strong. 

Excitement filled the room!! Kolby stood on a chair and read his call.

Quezon City, Philippines!!!!!!!!

Report date October 24, 2018 to the Provo MTC.