Life At The MTC

DH and I in the cafeteria (Salle a manger).
In our Senior Couple group. Couple in back are the Lynches, going to Nigeria. Couple in front are the Turners, going to Ghana. He is retired conductor for the So. Cal. Mormon Choir.
Elders and Sisters enjoying yummy MTC food.
Tues. is the day 100's of missionaries arrive at the MTC. from all over the U.S. There were 3 walkways with both sides filled with suitcases.
What an awesome day yesterday. Several hundred young missionaries arrived at the MTC. What an excitement in the air. Lots of tissue boxes in the large receiving room and in the lobby. The MTC now has abt 2,400 missionaries. Can you believe the power that is here! As we go to our classes and meet people and hear wonderful stories, we feel the spirit so stongly.
Yesterday I began my french tutoring. It is very difficult. At the end of my lesson a volunteer came in to role play. He was pretending to be a less active member of the church and we had to speak to him in french. Well he was perfect. His language, mannerisms and even expressions were exactly that of a frenchman. It reminded me of Beber, especially when he became upset. I spoke to him as much as I could and then when he became kind of obstinante I had to turn to DH for help in finishing up the role play. I was pretty nervous to speak to him in french, but I have to practice, so i do it. I also had to give my first prayer in french.

Today was another great day. After classes were over, we went to a meeting where we heard 2 couples who had served 2 mission each speak. The first couple was supposed to go to Greece. They tried and tried to learn greek and then were told that they would go to Cypress instead. When they got to the MTC, they learned that their call had been changed again. Now they would be going to Jordan. They spent a few day at the MTC and found themselves in Jordan with no language skills at all. What would they do? They began taking walks in the mornings and then decided they would start picking up trash because the area was so bad. Each day they would pick up trash, smile at people and try to communicate somehow. They came to recognize many and they became friendly with a woman who a few weeks later invited them to an engagement party for a relative of hers. At the party they were able to converse with a few english speakers. The next day they were on their knees praying for help. How would they interact with people not knowing any Arabic? As soon as they got up, they had a phone call. It was a young woman whom they had met at the party asking if she could come and visit with them. Of course they were delighted to invite her to their apt. After a pleasant visit, she offered to translate for them for the remainder of their stay in Jordan. She did just that. What a wonderful answer to prayer. Their next mission was to Switzerland. There they continued their hour long walks each day, but here noone would even look at them let alone talk to them. So, what did they do? They began talking to their dogs.:) That would break the ice and they were able to begin to do their work. The other couple served their missons in Canada and the Philipines. When they were trying to cross the border into Canada, the officer read their papers and since the word "work" as in missionary work was in their letter, he said they absolutely could not enter the country. What would they do? They had to go in to serve their mission. The Sister said that she just casually took her name tag out of her pocket and held it in her hand so that the officer could see it. Suddenly he rushed into the booth and then came out gruffly saying, "Let them pass". We don't know why he changed his mind, but we do know a miracle occurred and they were able to do the Lord's work.

My language class is held in the evening and so today we worked on common phrases and then my teacher taught me how to bear my testimony in french. That wasn't all, we then went out and she stopped first a couple of sisters and then a teacher to listen to me. I was to pretend that I only spoke french and DH was my translator. My job was to briefly talk to them and then to bare my testimony to them. I was so nervous, but as I began to speak to them, I was able to convey my message to them. All of us, each time, felt the spirit so strongly. We all were brought to tears. It is amazing to me to have such a strong testimony of the love that the Lord has for all of us.

At the end of the day which is about 8:30, we go back to our room and I am exhausted. I think it's not from too much physical work, but from all the mental and emotional effort that is put out all day long. I am grateful that I have wonderful children who are so supportive of us and of our mission. It helps me to do the things that the Lord wants us to do. Of course I am so grateful for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

MTC

I have no pictures to post yet, but I have to write and tell everyone how full my heart is. I thought that I shed all of my tears since this summer, but no, the tears are flowing and flowing. The spirit of the Lord is so strong here. I can't even begin to explain how awesome it is.
We arrived here on Monday morning after bidding our family farewell. After many hugs and kisses and smiles and tears and kissing sweet, little faces and hearing wonderful words of love, we were finally able to leave. We arrived to the hustle and bustle of many missionaries and a whole group of senior missionaries. They are an awesome group. Several of the couples have served multiple missions, 3 and 4 and even more. We have former Mission Presidents, Temple Presidents and others who held equally important callings. We have in our group the conductor of the Southern California Mormon Choir, whom I recognized. They are going everywhere in the world; one to Ghana, another to Nigeria and another to South Africa. None of them can take any jewelry, because of the high crime rate and so they are sporting lovely 20 dollar rings from WalMart. They are excited even though there have been some problems lately in that part of the world. Others are going to the Philippines, South America, Australia, Florida, Indian reservations, Palmyra and many other states in the U. S. Some are going on temple missions, others on church office or welfare missions. Others yet are going on work missions and of course some, like us, are going on proselyting missions. Our day was filled with classes, meetings and many inspirational stories.
The cafeteria is huge. There are four stations with 2 lines each which serve all kinds of delicious foods. The atmosphere is so friendly. All the Elders and Sisters chat and are so excited to be serving the Lord. I met several who are going to Russia and so I was able to talk to them for a while. Others are going to Mongolia, and just about anywhere you can think of. When the seniors are in line for the food, the Elders will often let them to the front of the line. When we come to sit at the table, they will stand up until the Sister sits down. They hold the doors open for us and are all so nice and friendly. Their Mothers would be proud. We did not finish until almost 8 at night and got home so exhausted we could hardly do our homework.
Today was another busy day. We had classes, studied, taught our first investigator and then went to a fireside. I was pretty nervous giving my part of the lesson, but it went really well and our investigator left happy and ready to learn more of the gospel. One of our teachers and another leader of our group were both young men who served in Russia and so I was able to talk to them too. They were excited to be able to speak Russian again. In the evening we went to a devotional given by Sister Beck, General R.S. President. While we were sitting in the hall waiting
for the devotional to begin, we sang 3 songs. You cannot imagine the power of all those missionaries singing together. WOW!!! Sister Beck said many important and interesting things. She said that 19 year old boys are turned into prophets. I pray that all of my grandsons will go on a mission. It is the work of theLord.
4 interesting points. I Missionary work is the work of the Lord. 2. You have help. You are not alone. 3. Members are the key to success. 4. Baptism is only the beginning.
I did not know that I would say this, especially so early into our mission, but I know that this is the work of the Lord and that He has a plan for us to be on this mission. I am worried and scared that I am not good enough or smart enough to be a great missionary, but I have been given the assurance by the Spirit that the Lord will be with me to help me and to guide me. I will certainly do the very best that I can.
I have been assured that my family will be blessed and watched over because we want to serve the Lord.

Really, really, official

On Wednesday we went to the MTC to be set apart. We arrived around 8:30 and met with Pres. Madsen(1st counselor in the MTC presidency). We visited for a little while and found out that he served his mission in France, in the Biarritz area, and later served as a mission president in the Paris mission. His french was great(according to DH and Yoho). He said that when he was a young missionary there was not a single chapel in France. When he became Pres., the country was dotted with chapels. Now there are about 9 stakes. Still not very many for a country, but pretty good for France. We'll have to see if we can do something about raising those numbers.:)
Then he gave both me and DH a great blessing. Some of the things he blessed us with was to have the Spirit guide us, to be good companions to each other, that our children would be blessed because of our going, and some other very awesome things. It was a very, very wonderful experience. We all felt the spirit very strongly and hope that we will be good missionaries.

Still learning

Well, y'all will have to be patient with me. I am trying to figure out all this blog stuff. The computer kept erasing things and so my last post has a word in it that doesn't really belong.

Our son and his fam drove down from Idaho and we and the Utah kids had so much fun being together. We, as usual had some little surgical procedures done while A was here. The whole family watches as he removes a little mole or whatever else needs to be done. This time it was DH and daughter A who had little things removed. I was the assistant handing A the different instruments, medicine, etc. I should have been a nurse instead of a teacher.:)

Halloween Fun

The girls cooking dinner.
My son M and C in the yard.
My daughter A and Y, the cute newleyweds.
My son A and his cute wife K.
S and J in the front yard playing with all the big boys.
G and D by Ut Mommy's front door. They have been married for almost 2 years now.

Andrea and me at the pumpkin patch.

We went for a hay ride at The Big Red Barn.

The kids after picking out their pumpkins.

We had a fun afternoon with some of our kids and grandkids. Some of us went to the pumpkin patch and rode the hay wagon. The kids picked out pumpkins to carve and of course roast pumpkin seeds. We r0de out quite a ways and then the kids ran from pumpkin to pumpkin choosing just the right one. They can't wait to go trick or treating.

Yoho

This is my son-in-law. We have been having lots of fun with A and Y. We saw their cute condo. I got to help A decorate their front room. I will have to take a picture and post it next time. DH and I have done all of his shopping for the mission. We got a lot of his clothes at Mr. Macs with a missionary discount, but it still cost a lot of money to buy all the stuff he needed: 2 suits with 4 pairs of pants, a combination coat and raincoat, sweater, shirts, 2 pairs shoes, etc. etc. etc. I think we are about ready to go. Only 2 weeks to wait and we report at the MTC. Mr Missionary is super excited and can't wait to begin the work. I am kind of nervous and feel sad to leave my kids all the cute little grandkids, but I know this is the Lord's work and I'm going for it.

Waiting....Waiting....Waiting

Our first official visit took place on the 18th of Sept. We had to go to the French consulate to get our visa's. Bishop Petty and Robin drove us to the airport abt 4:30a.m. It's not everyone's Bishop who drives his missionaries to the airport. How lucky are we! Anyway, we arrived at S.F.Int'l and hurried to meet up with our group of elders. We had to take the air-train and then rush clear to the other end of the terminal to meet them. We get there just on time, but who do we see? Noone. We look and look and wait for a little while and nothing. I called church travel and Carla had me wait a minute while she called the group leader. Sure enough, they forgot us. They had to send the shuttle back to get us to take us to the counsulate. We arrived late, but luckily since our group was there we were ok. The group consisted of 8 elders and 1 sister. They were so sorry they forgot us. We said that it was okay and we proceeded to have fun talking to them while we waited and waited and waited for several hours while each person went and spoke to the representatives about their visas. The elders were so friendly and most of them quite chatty, so the time passed pleasantly although some of the elders fell asleep waiting for their turn to come. When the elders found out that DH is French they were so excited to talk to him and to practice some of their french. He helped them with each of their questions. It was so funny toward the end when one of them asked how to say burp in french. DH told them and then they of course had to practice. I told them that they really had to know this "important" verb before they left for France.:) We laughed and joked. I told them how I tried to teach my children to be polite, but that several of them had the bad habit of burping and the elders thought that was just great.
While at the counsulate, I passed out my very first pass along card. There were two women there from the Congo trying to get their visa. They were there for a long time along with us. DH began talking to them and told them of our upcoming plans for a mission. One of the women ended up telling us that she lived near the "big Mormon church" in Oakland. I said it was the temple and we talked about that for a while. She also told us that she had found her great-grandfather at the LDS church. I ended up giving her a card and she promised to look up the elders in her area. It was quite a rewarding and interesting experience.
Well when we finally finished, we all were driven back to the airport and Marie Jeanne was supposed to pick us up there as we were going to her house for the week-end. Well, we waited and waited and waited again. After more than an hour we were worried because she is always punctual. I fianally called Terese and she went to MJ's house where she found her fine, but upset because she had gone to the airport and gotten lost. Poor things drove around and around and finally went home. So, we took a taxi to her house and the day ended up well. We got our visas approved and went on to spend a great several days at her house.