Your First Night in Iowa, July 28, 2026

About twenty-six minutes on Tuesday night, your first night in the Iowa Iowa City Mission. You were in a hotel room in Cedar Rapids. Mom and I were sitting in the car near a neighbor's house, because that was where we could get enough signal to hold the call. Nine minutes in you told us the time: "It's nine forty four," which was 8:44 for us.

The drive in and the mission house

You said you got in the car with the president and his wife along with three other girls, and you got a picture with them. The drive was thirty or forty minutes and the Stones talked to you the whole way. They took you to the mission house, which you explained is a house the Church owns and the one they live in.

We asked if it was nice. You said it was really nice. They had Jimmy John's catered for you, sandwiches plus fruits and vegetables and cookies, and you said you felt really good about dinner. One of us said finally, real food that was good. You said you had not felt so well four hours earlier.

Dinner, Uno, and the elders

You said it was funny that one of the missionaries from your MTC district came into the mission with you, and that you know him well and had talked to him a lot that day on the bus ride to the airport.

You had dinner and then everybody just talked, and they played Uno. You said you tried to talk to some of the elders but some of them are weird, and you were fine about it: "I'm okay, you don't have to talk to me, that's fine. I'll make my own friends."

The APs

You brought up the two APs and checked yourself mid-sentence, "isn't that assistant to the president?" You said they are so cute and you went up with "Hello, where are you from?" We asked if they had social skills. You said they did. You said one was cuter than the other, and "You're just my type. I just wish you were taller," since he is shorter than you, five seven or five eight.

I said that sounded like a perfect type to me. You said "Me too." I said "Good job, mom."

Three hours of interviews

You hung around the mission house for three hours while President Stone interviewed everybody, and you had your turn with him. Sister Stone interviewed you too and gave you a packet of things.

We asked whether you liked Sister Stone. You said she is not what you expected. A nice old lady. "She's not mean, but she's not over me." Nice, though. And you said you like President Stone, that he is nice.

The dollar and the bottle flip

You said maybe the reason some of them did not want to talk to you is that you had gone around offering a dollar to anybody who could bottle flip a bottle onto their own head and land it. You started with the elder from your district, called him by name, made the offer, then moved on to the next one, and they all tried it. Twelve elders in the room, you asked five or six. Your reason: "Just trying to talk to people because I'm like, I don't want to be weird."

I said it back to you: I don't want to be weird, so I'm going to ask him if he can bottle flip this bottle on their head. You said "That's cute. It was cute. Dad doesn't get it." And you said that every time you brought it to somebody new, the ones who had already done it started laughing, because they did not expect you to keep going with the joke.

I get it now. It was funny.

Stepping off the plane

You said the second you got off the plane you were hit with a wave of moisture. You said it felt like getting off the plane in Hawaii, lots of green but nothing tropical, and that the upside is you will never even have to put lotion on for the next eighteen months. You said when you come back to Utah you are going to get nosebleeds and your skin is going to crack.

We froze up right about there. You asked "Are you still in?" and told us "You're frozen. Both of you are frozen." I said we could hear you. You started your line over.

Wanting Sister Dillingham back

You said you think you and Sister Dillingham will get to be companions again. You brought it up with President Stone in your interview, and Sister Stone told you he is a pushover, so the plan is to keep asking in the weekly emails. You said "I think it'll happen."

You want it at the end, though, so you can just have fun by then, and you want to learn from other people first. One of us said it would be so fun to have you two back together.

The other sisters

You said there are six or eight other girls, you think six. Some of them are chill and some of them you feel do not like you, "which is weird because I've done nothing to make them not like me." You said that is kind of whatever, because you might see them again but you will not be anybody's companion for at least two transfers.

I said you are not out there to get people to like you. You are out there to help others learn about Jesus.

The hotel

They dropped you at the hotel and you said it is really nice, queen bed. Ready by nine in the morning, which you called nice, because you had thought eight thirty, and at the MTC it was usually six thirty. We asked if it was just the two of you in the room. It was, because they had eight or ten rooms and an extra one. Later you gave us the name: Comfort Suites, room 84. I looked at your location and told you that you are right next to an IHOP. You said "We could go tonight," and confirmed there is a breakfast bar.

The historical site and the draft

You said you are going to a historical site in the morning. We asked what it is. You said "It's like the Wheel Wagon," and then ran with it: "Wheel wagon. Neither am I, Wheel Wagon. It's weird. When I was in speech therapy, it's because I couldn't say my R's. They sound like W's. So Wheel Wagon." Sister Morgan's text, which we read to you later in the same call, gave us the actual name: the Mormon Handcart Park. You were right, it is a handcart.

You said at some point tomorrow you meet your trainer, and that people were describing it as a draft, "like a football fantasy football type draft that they make, and it's really fun." You said you will find out where you are assigned then, and that you did not think it would be Iowa City, since it depends on where the trainers are.

I said that is super exciting. You said "That is exciting."

Your location, stuck in the wrong state

I asked what time it was there. You said nine forty four, off your watch.

Then we spent a while on your Google location sharing. You wondered whether the problem was not having Wi-Fi. I told you it defaults to one hour if you do not change it. I also told you that right now you were showing as stuck in Milwaukee, or whatever state that is, and somebody said either you never got on the plane and you are hiding in there, which was concerning. You got live sharing turned on: "It's working now. It says you can both see my location."

Sister Morgan's text, while we were still on with you

Twelve minutes and forty-nine seconds in, Sister Morgan's text came through on our end and we read it to you. You had just said, right before it, "Oh no, it's really weird that I am a real missionary now. It is really weird."

Here is what she wrote: that your missionary had arrived safely in the Iowa Iowa City Mission, that they had spent a wonderful evening together getting to know each other, having dinner, having interviews, playing games, ping pong, and watching fireflies, along with going to the Mormon Handcart Park for the elders, and that it is an activity they will do with the sisters in the morning. She thanked us for raising such wonderful young men and women and said they are absolutely thrilled to have you there. She said more would come the next day: your address, your new companion, and some great pictures.

You said "Thanks Sister Morgan. Thank you." Then you pointed out it was kind of slow, since you had talked to us first, and that you were supposed to have landed five and a half hours earlier.

The pictures and the video

You shared your screen and showed us pictures, including the two APs, and there was a stretch about their ties and about a prank somebody tried on you that did not come off.

You explained the group photo: everybody lined up and you asked whether you were all going to put your arms on your elbows, and somebody told you that is such a Utah thing. "And I'm like, ha, now you know where I live." You said it is a cute thing and not just a Utah thing, and that the girl in front of you did it and you did not.

Then you played us a video and said "Oh, I said hi mom and dad in there." It was so blurry on both ends that we could not make it out.

The suitcases

We asked how the suitcases did. You said good, and that having all four wheels is what made it possible: "otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do it." Somebody stepped up and carried luggage for you, so all you handled was your carry-on and your shoulder satchel.

You had notes. It would be better if the two checked bags could join together. The handle on one is awkward. The gray one has a bumpy wheel that only wants to go one way, though it still works really well. You like your floral blue suitcase but wish it had four wheels, since that is so nice in an airport. You said the trip home could be worse and you will have all your bags to deal with. You also said pre-checking your bags at the MTC the day before meant travel day was just the carry-on, which was really nice. We told you we will help you when you come home.

Alexa

You asked where Alexa was. Mom said she was out with Jenna and had been told to be home at nine, but that she did not know what was actually happening, since she was not home.

Not out there for friends

You said it is nice if you know two missionaries really well in your mission, and then you said "I don't even care, it's fine. I didn't come here to make friends, came here to do the work," and that you are just trying to make the best of the moment because you do not know if you will see these people again.

One of us said we liked that you were talking to everyone and trying. I said "You're doing great, Nata. You're doing great." You said thanks, and that there are going to be some people who do not figure out what they are doing for eighteen months. I said that if I were that tired I would have wanted to go lie down rather than talk to anybody.

Tomorrow

You said "So we'll see how it goes tomorrow. But it's hard because it hasn't felt real and it was real, but it's still hard that it doesn't feel real again. And then it's scary because tomorrow is a big day because I'm probably gonna have to knock on doors tomorrow. That's scary."

We told you your trainer will know what to do, which is the nice part, because you do not have to be in charge and you get to follow along, and that there is a lot being done to make sure you know what you need to know. You said "I like that." One of us told you that you are going to be so awesome.

I told you Bryson had been saying how much more important being a missionary is. You asked when I talked to him. That afternoon.

Shampoo and the nose check

We said you looked tired, that we felt bad because you were so tired, and asked if you had just passed out. You said you were still a little awake.

Mom got onto your hair and the hotel shampoo and whether you would like it. You said "I don't care about shampoo and conditioner. I use shampoo and conditioner when I still have to clean my hair."

I gave you both halves of the commercial: shampoo is better, it cleans hair; no, conditioner is better, it keeps the hair silky smooth. You said "You a commercial babe? How do you remember all of these little pop culture things?" I asked if you had seen the movie.

You said I was doing a nose check. Mom said "I do. Got it."

Closing

I told you that you need to get some sleep. You said "Probably," and that you are excited to talk Sunday night. You said the two days had been the best mission ever, that Sister Stone was really nice, and you thanked President and Sister Stone.

We said I love you both ways. You said "You're gonna do so well. I've got to just embrace it," and asked "Talk to you Wednesday?" and then corrected yourself to Sunday, and got a Lulu joke in on me on the way out. I said bye-bye.

Derived from the cleaned canonical, which carries the full record and the cleanup notes. The mission-office photos from that night are at the Iowa arrival batch.