Hotel in Frankfurt, Germany 3/20/2013 before getting 1st area assignments

"The picture of the soap dispenser is kind of an inside joke of a few Elders who arrived that day, especially Elder McGinn. It was in the bathroom of our hotel room and although we were all in different rooms, (I was actually the odd Elder out, so I didn't get a roomy that night) we all could not get the soap out, like we had NO idea, even with the diagram on the front because all the soap/handsanitizer dispensers at the MTC are either automatic or there's a tab to pull on the bottom. Actually, you just simply squeeze squeeze the middle, but when I finally did try that after about 10 minutes, I squeezed really hard and got a nice fat glob of soap that was probably enough to wash whole floor with.

The light switch in the room was also really cool. There was a slot right next to it to slide your key into, and nothing would turn on without it in place, and just the same, everything would turn off immediately when you pulled the card out. It was fun. Oh, yea and the box right next to the card slot is the actual switch for some individual light. They work just the same, it's not a button, they're just fat squares instead of skinny rectangles."

LEAVING the Provo MTC and the United States 3/19/2013!

                                      "That was us packing up onto the bus to go to the airport."

"I thought it was funny how ALL of the pay phones around in the Salt Lake airport were occupied by missionaries calling home."

Provo MTC District, classroom, teacher, etc.

[These next pictures we recently got are more in a group of pictures from Mark prior to leaving the MTC.]

                                   Elder Mark Standring with his MTC teacher, Brother Cannon.

                                                     "My MTC Teacher, Brother Cannon"

               This is Mark's district and their teacher Brother Cannon in their classroom at the MTC.

 "This is a picture of the Noorda twins from my German class at BYU who reported to the MTC the same day as I did. The one on the left is going to Frankfurt, and the one on the right (black suit) is gloing to Berlin."

A few more pictures of Mark with Elders from the MTC (see also the ones just posted previously)

Mark says: "This is an Elder named Elder Rock, so I thought Jason my find that interesting." [Mark's brother Jason's middle name is Rock!]

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 "This Elder Smith. We call him Bruce sometimes because he looks and talks like the shark on Finding Nemo."

                                    "This is my Bud Elder Thomas going to the Alpine mission."

Some pictures prior to leaving the MTC

 These next several pictures are some we got that are from prior to Mark's leaving the MTC.  This first one is him with Elder Malmberg from his BYU Helaman Halls Merrill Hall freshman ward.

 This second one is of Mark with Elder McGinn who worked at the BYU Carpentry shop with Mark's brother David (and probably Garrett, too)...most all of the Standring boys have worked for the Carpentry Shop there! (The stamped dates on the pictures are wrong, by the way...perhaps Mark hasn't figured out or taken time to change the date!--They are super busy there, you know!)  Mark says: "This is Elder McGinn, who David knows from the Carpentry shop, he's actually in my same district right now, so I see him now and again."

 This is Mark and another Elder in front of the Provo Temple--if someone knows the Elder's name, let us know!  I couldn't read the nametag!

Mark says about this one: "This is a picture of the German Elders in my room and the crazy Russian Elders who also lived on our floor. We're buds now. :)"  [I think it's great to see that at least one of them is brushing his teeth while away from home!!  :) ]