The MTC

May 16, 2011:

We arrived at the MTC about 10:30 AM. We were met by several young missionaries to help us carry our luggage up to the 3rd floor where our apartment was. It was nice but small.

May 17, 2011:

Today was filled with classes and instructions. We had a devotional in the evening. Elder Richard G. Hinckley of the First Quorum of the Seventy and his wife spoke to us. It was really good.

May18 & 19, 2011:

Both days were filled with classes. We were required to practice teach a volunteer (who played the part of our investigator). That was a bit scary.

May 20, 2011:

Well we finished our training at the MTC today. What a GREAT experience.

The training was pretty intense but we survived.

Here we are in front of the famous world map.

This is our “District” as they call it here. The 2 young people in the photo were our instructors.

This is the whole group:

May 21, 2011:

Today we went to the Provo Temple. We have never been there before. It was great.

Then we just hung out the rest of the day and did a little laundry.

May 15, 2011

Well, here we are the day before we enter the Mission Training Center.

Yesterday we had a GREAT experience! We were able to participate in the baptism of Taylor (12) and Tawnya (9), 2 of our grandchildren. I guess we can count them as our first mission experience.

Rich performed the baptisms and there was a wonderful program. The spirit was very strong.

The missionaries who worked with them are Elder Hennore and Elder Collum.

Leaving our children and grandchildren is one of the hardest things about this mission. But we know it is what we should do and we know the Lord has something there in Tanzania that we are to accomplish. We pray everyday that He will bless and protect our family while we are gone. And we pray that He will touch their hearts and help them understand why we feel we must serve this mission. We hope they will all have a greater desire to “Come unto Christ” and a greater resolve to live their lives closer to the principles of the Gospel.

This past week has been a crazy rush of trying to get everything wrapped up and ready to leave. We have packed several times and even gone to the airport to weigh our luggage to make sure we were not overweight. But I think we are ready.

We will attend church today and participate in the confirmation of Taylor and Tawnya, then in the morning around 6:00 AM our daughter in law, Alison, will take us to Provo to the Mission Training Center and we will be on our way.

May 8, 2011:

We spoke in church today. Then had a great family get together afterwards:

OUR ASSIGNMENT:

Our Mission President has informed us that we will be serving in Arusha, Tanzania.

We have researched a bit about Arusha on the internet and at least we know there is a large modern hospital there that can handle all the tests for Rich that will be required in the next few months.

May 4, 2011

The whole story:

Since April 22nd we have been on a real roller coaster ride. We got a call about 3:30 on the 22nd of April just before leaving for Janna's wedding. We were told that due to Rich's little stay in the hospital and the fact that he is now on coumadin we would be re-assigned to someplace in the U.S. We were really upset with that and asked if there wasn't something that could be done to change that. The brother on the phone said he would check with his supervisor but he didn't think there was. We didn’t hear anything for the next few days so we called the missionary department the following Thursday. They said for sure we were being re-assigned. They said the paperwork had already been sent out.

We were devastated!!! But we were resolved to do whatever the Lord wanted us to do. We went to the temple the next day and came out still feeling like we should be going to Kenya.

Then about 3:30 we got a call from the missionary department and they said “You guys are popular people around here” and you ARE going to Kenya. It took me back a bit but my spirit just jumped.

So we are launched ahead on our preparations to leave on May 16th for the MTC.