We Love the MTC

We had a wonderful and inspiring week at the MTC.  It is really something rubbing shoulders with 2100 young and excited missionaries along with 42 equally excited, but slower moving, senior couples.  We were just overwhelmed with the quality of people we were able to spend time with and learn from.   When you get that many people together in one place, all preparing to represent our Heavenly Father and his Son around the world, no wonder there is so much enthusiasm and anticipation.

This week our focus was Preach My Gospel; inspired instructions for Missionaries to carry out the Lord's commandment to share the message of the gospel to all the inhabitants of the world.  "Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."  (Matthew 28:19)  Our purpose in relation to that command is "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end."

We learned how to be most effective in carrying out this charge.  We really had a wonderful time and felt the warmth of the Spirit in all of our activities.

Our general schedule during the week included group meetings and small classroom activities like role plays.  We had a few senior couples speak to us about their experiences and they passed on advice.  They suggested keeping busy doing good and helping in the community even when we don't have other specific mission assignments.

We happened to be at the MTC when the church held a worldwide missionary broadcast via the internet for two hours on Wednesday.  We heard talks, saw videos, and watched a panel discussion on various topics from church leaders.   It was the first in 10 years.  Our friends from Page, AZ heard it in Guatemala on their mission, we were in Provo, UT and our personal friends in Ghana were watching all at the same time.  What an amazing world with technology.

On Tuesday morning we met our teachers for the week.  Sister Smith and Sister Anderson were our am teachers and Elder Swallow was our pm instructor.  Stan was quite skeptical about how effective  21-23 year-olds could be instructing us old timers.  We were absolutely blown away by the quality and skills of these young people.  In a very short period of time we came to love them and appreciate their talents.  They were THE BEST!  Even after only 4 days, we were sad to say goodbye.

Sister Anderson in the back and Sister Smith in the front.  Both have served missions and are currently students at BYU.  We found an immediate connection with them.  Sister Anderson went to Botswana near South Africa for her mission and helped in a leper colony in India as a medical coordinator for a summer.  Sister Smith went to Minnesota for her mission and spent six months teaching missionary lessons to PHD students from China.  She managed to learn a few gospel phrases in Mandarin, but of course she mostly taught in English. 

We were grouped into "districts" for the week for small classroom instruction, which included role plays.  Our teacher, Elder Swallow is on the left.  He is getting married in April and asked for marriage advice.  During our breaks he always had a joke for us.  Ex.  Who are the two doctors in the scriptures?  Moses delivered all of Israel and Job had a lot of "patients"!!

Group picture:  From the left....Elder Swallow (our teacher)

Elder and Sister Webster from California and he will be associate legal counsel for the church in Accra, Ghana and she will help with reading at a school, working in the temple and humanitarian work.

Middle is:  Elder and Sister Burnah from Utah going to Montreal French speaking.  He is a French teacher and they will be member leader support, helping church units with whatever is needed.

The Paces!

Elder and Sister Eldredge from North Carolina going to Hawaii to assist with members and military relations.

This is our "home away from home".  It is small, but we are really only here to sleep.    The senior couples have private quarters with a private bath while the young elders and sisters have more "dorm like" rooms.  We are grateful that BYU follows the idea that "cleanliness is next to godliness".  Everything is so clean here.  You could eat in the bathrooms and feel just fine about doing so!

There are many choices at the MTC cafeteria.  Most of the food is quite good and there are always healthy selections, along with homemade ice cream from the BYU creamery on Wednesdays!.  We were surprised that one of the dinner choices during the week was Chick-fil-A!

Some of our evenings were not scheduled so we took the opportunity to meet friends in the area.  We forgot to take pictures so we will have to "repent" and do better.  On the weekends we stay with Stan's mom in Lehi.

This coming week....training for our office responsibilities in the Ghana Accra Mission!