First Week in the MTC

Our District at the MTC

 On Sunday, Sept 9th, I was set apart as a Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  President Astle, my stake president set me apart and two of my sons Matt and Jason were able to stand in as I was set apart.  I slept at Matt and Jolynn's house that night and said my good-byes to all the family before we went to bed.  Then at 5am on Monday, Sept 10th my son Matt took me to the St George Airport  and I landed in SLC an hour later.  My son Morgan picked me up in SLC and after enjoying a short breakfast together, he dropped me off at the MTC.  Unlike last time, he was not able to come inside and walk me to my room .  There were young Elders waiting to help, however, and they took my bags and carried them to my room for me and then showed me the way to the Senior Missionary check in.   There were about 40 or 50 senior missionary couples and three of us single sisters who went through the training this week.

Our classes were from Preach My Gospel and we learned how to be a missionary and practiced giving lessons on volunteers who pretended to be investigators.  The three of us single sisters were a threesome and we had two opportunities to teach.  We also pretended to be a less active person/family and we took turns giving encouragement and lessons geared to each person and their specific situation.  It was really fun and enjoyable.  The spirit is so strong here.  It is amazing to see hundreds and hundreds of young men and women all dressed in missionary attire and focused on learning languages and teaching lessons.  We had a devotional on Tuesday evening in which Elder Bruce Carlson, of the Seventy spoke along with his wife.  It was so good.  He is a former general and was in the Pentagon on Sept 11th, 2001.  They spoke of this event and since it was Sept 11th that day, it was very powerful.  You should hear everyone singing Called to Serve.  It is just Amazing!!!!

 Brother Seymour and SisterThomas

Our teachers are young returned missionaries.  They were so skilled and taught with power and the spirit.  We had two sets of teachers.  One for the morning and one for the afternoon.  I have also been taking Marshallese via Skype for the past six weeks or so.  My training has been arranged and supervised by a great young man named Brother Martin.  He works at the MTC and even though he doesn't speak Marshallese, he is there at every lesson along with a volunteer who speaks Marshallese.  I have had several teachers since Haouli left to go back to Hawaii

Sister Thurston and Brother Pike

   The meals at the MTC are amazing.  They have four different types of main food lines, plus all kinds of extra food such as different types of soups and salads, fresh fruit, all kinds of juices, milks, soft drinks, ice cream, desserts, and you name it..it's there.  I always try to eat hot cereal and fruit for breakfast and the main dish salads and maybe a soup for lunch and dinner.  Thats so I don't get so fat they have to roll me out of here.  Wednesday was Ice cream sundae day and I had to eat ice cream since it is my favorite and it is from the BYU Creamery.

There were two other single sisters who I became wonderful friends with.  We are all going different places and doing different things .  Sister Osborne from St George going to Texas to work in the employment center and with humanitarian services.  Sister Bass from Tennessee is going to Germany to work in the mission office.  We have been able to be a threesome and its been very enjoyable.                         

I am going to the Marshall Islands

 Tonight was very special.  The senior missionaries who have been taking language training, had a testimony meeting.  I bore my testimony in Marshallese.  Others who were there bore testimony in Danish, Finnish, German, Spanish, and Russian.  It was so wonderful.  The spirit was so strong.

These are some of my cute grandchildren  that I recently said goodbye to.

Jaxon

Brayden

Canyon

Bridger and Ridge

Avery

Izzie

Brooks

 Brock

Halle

Sahara and Brea

I will put some of the rest of them in other blog entries  They are my joy and I love all 22 of them.