Sister Heywood

Natalie in the Iowa Iowa City Mission

Driving You to the Provo MTC, July 15, 2026

July 15, 2026 · Herriman to Provo, Utah (Provo MTC)

This is the drive down. About an hour and a half of recording, in two parts, from the last checks at the house to the host stand at the MTC. All seven of us minus Kaitlynn: me driving, Mom, you, Bryson, Alexa, and Mason. We stopped at Raising Cane's on the way. Much of the audio is a mess and a lot of it did not survive; what is here is what could be made out.

Leaving the house

We opened with banter and somebody brought up Megadeth. Someone asked whether I had replaced my monitor. No: garage monitors. The garage is just where I have been working the last few days, because you had been studying. We hunted for the car keys, which were on the banister. Then the check on what you had with you: your wallet, your cards, your temp, your driver's license, your ID cards.

Photos and the drive out

There was an exchange about never seeing Chris and Lisa again, and about whether someone was going to take pictures, of their house or of the kids. Someone said they were more worried about the kids.

A short exchange about Pez. Someone asked whether we remembered voting for a president somewhere, and that they said "voted" with a v. Someone had seen a Cybertruck pulling a big boat that day, and we got into whether it could do that, its torque capacity, and how the hitch attaches to the body of the car.

Someone thought a door sounded open. We talked about collision warnings and autopilot, and someone said their car does have autopilot, with a joke that Alexa is going to drive that one.

Old family stories

A long run of stories, jumping around.

Someone asked whether we remembered when Xander blew up the toilet, whether it was in Massachusetts, with a reference to Providence Hall. There was the memory of someone first driving and crossing the road to go to Lee's: the driver had always stopped there, then it was her turn, there were cars coming, and the question was whether they were going to stop. She did stop before she went.

Then potty training. Someone asked whether we remembered when you pooped on the kitchen table, and someone said we told him to hurry and clean it up because company was about to arrive. Then the one about the kid who pooped in a diaper in the crib and smeared it over every inch of the crib. That got us to body clay, "I am a creator. That's my calling," and that this is where she first learned to paint, closing with the line that it all started with green beans.

Someone identified a road as the Mountain View extension and said it takes you to the Center extension.

Lagoon

Asked whether anyone had Lagoon memories, someone said lots. She hated the mouse trap; it was traumatizing and made her cry, she was bawling. Someone said that was the one where I was recording the video with my man voice, and we reenacted it: "Did you like it?" "Noooooo!" "Want to go again?" Same answer.

Someone said it was funny that they thought she was dead the first time they saw her at Lagoon, because it was so hot and she was in the stroller with a blanket over the car seat, and when they peeked at her they thought they had killed her. She was probably five days old. They felt bad. The answer came back: "I've been adventurous since the womb."

Assorted banter on the road

A run of short ones: a green booger monster; a guess that somebody's commute was to a studio to film videos; somebody's fat and knobbly fingers; holding hands and recreating a photo; whether someone looked happy in a picture; an offer to get Isaiah to take a selfie.

Someone joked about going back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get turkeys off the menu. There was an exchange about a shirt and about seeing a guy from the sky, and a passing reference to a name, Kai. Then a run of autism jokes, including me wanting a Fourth of July shirt that said "I put the 'tism in patrio'tism."

Someone joked about a future son-in-law. We got into the many flavors of tuna.

Road closure and town festivals

We passed a road that had been locked down. There was speculation about someone getting hurt or dying there, and someone said it was to celebrate Herriman Days. Someone compared it to the corncob days at the Enterprise Corn Fest. Someone replied that it is not corn.

Bryson's dating life

Someone asked Bryson whether he had dates lined up with any of those girls or just had options. There was talk of a girl who would drive up, where she lives, and an offer to call her and have her meet him at Culver's. Her name is Sharai, which set off a run of rhymes.

Bryson then told a story from before we went online. He said he, Calvin, and Rachel were in the car, Rachel up front, him in the back, Calvin driving the Tesla. They were turning left to go to McDonald's and there were two girls in the car next to them, and Calvin rolled down Bryson's back window and yelled out, "Hey! My friend thinks you're cute!" The other girl looked. Then they had to go somewhere and Calvin said, "Meet us at McDonald's!" and Bryson thought, "This is so dumb." Someone said we had just come from there, and asked whether the girls followed us.

Bryson described the girl in the driver's seat with a run of appliance jokes, and we all piled on, including a line about someone who ate the whole turducken by herself. A follow-on stretch about the same encounter, ice cream, and what Rachel said afterward did not survive the audio.

Institute and YSA wards

There was an exchange about an institute, about a ward or class rendered as "thirteen eight," and about YSA age ranges, including whether there is one in between or whether they put the eighteen-year-old with the thirty-seven-year-old, which someone said feels gross. Someone said they had not realized the Herriman Institute was so nice and asked whether we had gone to it. Someone said they now have a missionary from Tremont. The last minutes of the first recording are noise.

Raising Cane's, and send-off meals past

The second recording opens at the restaurant. Someone said that is where he usually likes to go, and mentioned the French toast and the Texas toast. Raising Cane's. Someone asked whether that was Bryson's mission drop-off or someone else's, and whether Raising Cane's even existed before Mom's mission. It did not. Someone said we were in Provo and went to Raising Cane's, and that you had to eat somewhere.

Mom raised Black Bear Diner and thought we did that the night before her own mission, because someone bought a steak there. We went back and forth on whether it was a farewell dinner with everyone or just two people, and Mom said that back then we did not go out to eat. She remembered that when she got back from her mission she went to the gas station with her dad and he told her she could get a drink, and she was floored, and that it was probably the first time she had gotten a drink from a gas station.

Someone said it was a good year and that we had doubled our income, with a joke about breaking that in half because you are going on a mission.

FSY, and the end of Mom's mission

Mom said that the last six months of her mission, every time she called home her mom told her to do FSY and then she could come home right now. Someone said that was true, that she needed to get home earlier and it would have got her home about three months earlier, but that it was not what they said to do. There was a joke that she would be married by now. A stretch here about a fourteen-year-old and about you being there that year did not survive.

Then an exchange about Mountain Berry Blast.

The Cane's order

We sorted out the order: a value basket, a missing fry, whether there were fries in the boxes, kid meals, who was missing what. Someone said they were missing their fries. Someone said to take Alexa's fries and we would give Alexa more fries. There was an aside comparing protein and fiber content against straight carbohydrates, with the observation that neither are great options.

Someone recalled a night-before dinner at a Thai food place, and said it was just the kids: you, Bryson, Kaitlynn, and the speaker. Someone asked whether that was graduation.

Fish and chips

Looking at the food, someone said it looks like fish fillets, and we got into fish and chips. Someone said fish and chips is really good, that he had some really good fish and chips in Australia, and that when we went to England he got chips with his sandwich and they just gave him crinkle fries, which made him sad, because that is fries to them.

Sizzler and the temple

Someone asked whether, when Mom went to the temple, we went to Sizzler with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Mike and Aunt Kari, and whether that is a true story. Someone said Sizzler used to be where you would go if you wanted steak, steak or seafood, a fine-dining kind of thing, and that then it went to crap. Someone said they have a buffet, but the steak does not come with the buffet, and the buffet is not good.

The dad-bod shirt

I said a shirt would look kind of nice but might feel a bit off, because it is built for dad bods. Asked what that means: down here is wider, around here is tighter, and it makes your arms and chest look better, relaxed around the belly. I do not have many shirts built like that. Someone said I just need my Thor spandex top to take to the gym. I said that today I would be representing the DC universe, the DCEU, with my Flash shirt.

Watches, ties, and socks

Someone said they bought a couple of watches, and that a watch was one of three things he could change about the way he looked: his tie, his watch, and his socks.

Length of Mom's mission, and missionary weight

Mom said she was on her mission for either seventeen or nineteen months and could not remember why. There was an exchange about sisters shaving their heads and running away to live in the woods, and a question about whether someone was being bullied.

I told you that you are going to eat so much food that you will come home and we will call you Pudge, and that this is what happens to most sister missionaries, and most missionaries in general, unless they live in Africa and lose a lot of weight. Asked whether there is time to work out, Mom said there was a time when she was in therapy and started working out more. I said it makes it easier when you have a companion. Mom said they had a half hour or so in the morning where they were supposed to be active. Someone said that when he got with a particular companion, the two of them would work out, that the companion got him into working out, and that they had weights in their apartment.

Companions and driving stories

A stretch about a companion: that he was stupid, that it did not feel like there was another real person there, and that they still feel like a valuable part of themselves because they do serve a purpose. Someone described a companion who always stood a particular way, and that he stood like that right next to him for his own entertainment. There was an exchange about someone saying "Merry Christmas. I don't worship your God," and someone getting mad at them for five minutes as they were leaving.

Someone said a companion got into three different car crashes because he would just turn left and not look to see if anyone was coming, and then would get hit.

I said that in my first area, after I could drive, when we would go down hills I would put the car in neutral and just go down. My companion had never done anything like that before and said, "I want to try it," and when he went down, he put it in neutral and then bumped, and it went into reverse. Someone said they heard such a bad sound.

Odds and ends on the road

Someone found something that looked like some form of tape and guessed it came with the salt packet and fell out of Mom's purse. There was an exchange about a fence or street we had cleaned as a service activity, a name rendered as Robb Brooks, and someone said that was a good activity. I offered a rhyme: "Rod Todd could eat no sod. His wife could eat no greens."

Luggage and getting to the airport

Mason asked whether you have to check luggage on the airplane. Two suitcases and a carry-on. We talked through how you carry them: putting the carry-on on top of one of the checked ones and double-wheeling, and whether all of yours have wheels. Someone said they guessed we could show you, but it would be very brief.

You asked Bryson how he got to the airport and how that works. He said on a bus, that they load you up on a bus. Asked whether it was hard to get the stuff unloaded and whether there were people there to help, someone said they had them wake up pretty early, and that the entire district did not go on the same flight or day, so half of them just helped load into the van.

Y Mountain and hiking

Looking at the mountains, we tried to work out which peak was which. Y Mountain is right there; we guessed it was one to the left or one further back. We talked about two hikes, both around seven point one five miles, one with more elevation, and a twelve-mile hike. Someone said they had never hiked before so that would be really cool, and someone said they had heard that one is the prettiest in the park, so that could be a goal when you get into hiking. Someone said those are the two choices and offered to go with you, and said that if you want to come home, you have to hike.

I told you I would put you in a little papoose on my back, and you would be hanging off my back with your dangly legs and arms, and I would pack you up the entire way. Someone said it would make a lighter meal for Dad.

A passing exchange about eggs, an Easter egg hunt, and a Halloween basement, which someone said was a good one because you could just find your Halloween candy.

Parking at BYU and the MTC

Someone said they park over there a couple of times when going to BYU games, and that the stadium is right there. Asked how bad the walk is: not bad at all, and shorter. Someone said it is far enough away that they do not charge, like a park parking lot. Someone said most of the time he parks at the Tanner Building, about a half mile away.

Coming up on the MTC, I said I thought we were told we could not drive into the parking lot. We worked out where to park, the permit requirement, and patron and employee parking, and I joked that I guessed I pay my typing taxes. Someone said we would get in line in ten or eleven minutes and there was no reason to get in line before that. Someone asked where all the people had come from and wondered whether they could be FSY kids, and someone said it is the wrong day.

The sacrifice passage

Mom read a passage aloud:

"The true measure of sacrifice isn't so much what one gives in sacrifice as what one sacrifices to give. Faith isn't tested so much when the cupboard is full as when it is bare, and these defining moments - the crisis doesn't create one's character; it reveals it."

Someone said "Boom. That's really good." Mom agreed it is good and said it was from her lunch. She said the widow of Zarephath chose to let go of everything, and because of that choice, miracles happened. A short exchange followed about the widow of Zarephath which did not survive the audio.

Hair, blow dryers, and power converters

There was an exchange about whether you knew how to curl your hair or whether Mom had been doing it, about a plug transformer or converter and whether the power is different there, and a joke about Spanish power that ends in o. Someone said you do not do your hair curling very much and your hair is straight naturally, so that is good, and asked whether you took a blow dryer.

MTC memories

Someone asked whether the MTC has a hair dryer in the bathroom like a hotel or temple bathroom. Someone said the MTC was such a blur to him and asked whether it was for Mom too.

Someone told you that you had gone to the MTC last week and asked what you could tell us about it. Mason answered instead: they have a lot of people in there, it looks like there are a lot of toys, it is pretty big, and there is a hanging glass thing like its own little world. Asked why he does not go on a mission, Mason said he will go with the flying preacher.

Asked whether I remembered any general authorities who came and talked to us, I said I remembered David B. Haight coming, and that he was such an old man that he was basically like Grandpa up there, just telling everyone how fun it was to be there, which I said was sweet. I said I really liked the devotional, that I volunteered to be in the choir, and that I am not a singer, so it was a lot of fun. Asked about whether you would join the choir, someone said they thought so and that it would be awesome. There were questions about whether they let you choose where you sit at devotionals or whether you go by district. I told Mason to get his feet off there.

My prayer

I said I would say a final prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank Thee for this day. Thank me that we're able to have such a fun time together with Natalie before dropping her off at the MTC. Please watch over and help her as she gets settled and gets leveled up in the gospel in the MTC. Please help her and her companion to have an enjoyable time together. That she'd be able to understand the things being taught, enjoy her experience, and please help her to be safe. And to be able to be sensitive to the feelings of the Spirit, that she might learn how much Thou dost love her. And know that she is not alone and that she has such a fun experience ahead of her. And while she is also in the MTC, she gets to experience so many fun things. Please continue to hold her in the hollow of Thy hand. Help her as she grows. And these things we say in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I then said I almost said "grows from boy to man" but decided against it, and joked that Heavenly Father was saying, "Jason, no, don't say it."

Mom on kindness

Mom said it is good to learn how to think of what other people are going through and not just try to be perfect, and that this is one of the values in our family, just to be kind.

Starbursts and the sisters

Mom asked you whether you had an extra Starburst pack so you could give it to your sister, using a name rendered as Jillian, and greeted someone as Sister Lily. Someone said they thought that would be cute and that it is like a welcome, and asked whether they wanted to see the other five.

An uncomfortable joke

Someone told another person never to say that to anybody, and to think about what they are saying, noting that things like this can be uncomfortable. Someone said this is the picture after they made everyone uncomfortable. Someone joked about five million pictures.

Someone asked whether we took pictures of Bryson when he was on a mission. "Nope, not this one. I only needed one."

Root beer and Shobies

Mason told Bryson that whenever he drinks root beer he expects it to be salty, because of the salt Bryson put in his drink at Shobies. He said he kept that through the whole day and was drinking it, that it was the grossest thing he had ever had, but that it was better than the red chili flakes he had. Asked whether he did not put them in his drink, he said he did not, that he had them in a pocket, put them in his mouth, and swallowed them.

In the line

Someone said this is fine, that we are in the line, we were there on time, the staff are aware of the situation and do not mind. Someone made a joke about a tapeworm named Provo.

There was an exchange about Mexican missions, and about whether you can drink the water in Chile; someone said it is one of the few places you can. Someone said it is disabling to live in a country where you cannot drink the water, because then you are not used to the other water and cannot go to the other places.

Check-in

At the host stand I joked that I was going to show them my Costco card. Asked for details, I gave the last name as Heywood, and the mission as Iowa City, Iowa. The host asked me to spell Heywood, and I spelled it out. The host said that after the umbrella we were to take a left and then just go straight.

Someone read a sign as "Got phone, give to family now." Someone said "It's gonna be so fun" and "You're gonna love it." I said I was going to rear-end the person ahead and that the arrow should point up, not through the car.

There was an exchange about whether people were there to pick up and whether everyone gets to pick up somebody, and a question to Bryson about whether he got to help and whether he had a memory of it; someone said this place was a blur.

The host directed us to unload there, said to turn up the car, and that our host is right down on the right. The recording ends with an exchange about someone's walk and gait, and "That's so cute. Thank you."

Cleanup Notes

Carried forward from the cleaned canonical at Sources/02_processed/transcripts/2026-07-15_transcript_natalie-mtc-dropoff.md: