Wow, we are finally here at the MTC after much preparation
and a crazy whirlwind of events. We
arrived here on Monday April 23, 2012 at 10:00 am. It feels good to be here after all the
anticipation and excitement of our new adventure. We had a great first week here with all the
classes and training for Preach My Gospel. This place is so amazing! It is overwhelming
to see all the missionaries here they are everywhere and you can feel of their enthusiasm
.They are amazing and full of the spirit.
After sending all three of our sons here it is nice to finally be on
this side of the fence to see the places and experience the things they
experienced. This place is so unbelievably organized and the teachers are the
best! They really pamper the “senior missionaries” here. When we go into the
chapel and sit down they come and bring you seat cushions and foot stools.
Seniors are allowed to have cell phones and when we are using them and the
young missionaries walk by they just smile at you and think, “man you seniors
really have it tough”. They are funny with all their expressions. We are in
class all day long but every hour or so they give us a 15 minute break to walk
around and stretch. We start our day at 7:00 am eating breakfast first and then
begin our classes at 8:00. We are in classes until 12:00 then released for
lunch until 1:30 then back to class for more training. We usually finish up
with classes around 4:30 or 5:00. Some days we also have devotionals and
firesides in the evenings. This Tuesday the 24th we had a fireside
at 7:00 pm and Elder Russell M. Nelson came and talked to us. It is always a
great day when one of the 12 Apostles come and talk to you. The spirit there
when he walked in was so strong. The gym was packed full of all the
missionaries currently in the MTC and that was quite a sight to behold!!!
We have had some great experiences here. One
of the things you get to do here is to teach a “mock” family. They have volunteers
come and pretend to be investigators or part member families that are wanting
to know more about Christ. At first we were a little nervous to do this
exercise but it really was a great experience. The funny thing is that they are
so good at acting you forget that they are actors and start thinking they are
for real. They totally stay in character and I am sure they want to just start
laughing at us but they are so kind and just let us do our thing .We actually
go into a room that is all decorated just like a real living room. They have cameras
that record you and your trainers watch and then give you advice and compliment
you on the good things that you do as well. We had to do this exercise on Tuesday, Wednesday
and Thursday. We got better as the days went on and got a little more
confidence in our approach. This place really is so amazing and the
organization is like nothing we have ever experienced before. The way this
place is ran and organized is another testimony to us of the truthfulness of
this gospel. You cannot be here and experience the things we have experienced
and not KNOW that this is the LORDS work. This has really been a great week and
we have learned so much and we are so grateful to be able to be here at this
time in our lives.
Over the week end all
of our children and grandchildren came down to see us and spend this last week
end together before we fly out. It was
so good to see them and be able to spend time just enjoying their company. We
think that our first week went so well because we knew that we would see them
this week end and the home sickness was not an issue. I am not too sure how well
this coming week will be because we know we will not be able to see them for 2
years. We are sure that they will be taken care of and know that God will watch
over them and protect them until we return. Our family is one of our greatest blessings
and they mean the world to us. WE LOVE YOU ALL AND WE WILL MISS YOU DEARLY
We are looking
forward to another great week at the MTC. This week we will be training on how to use
the church office computers and programs that we will be using during our
service in the mission office in South Africa.
I have posted a few pictures of us here and of our family visiting us.
