Our MTC Experience

The traditional photo at the huge MTC map to show where we have been called to serve

Preparations

On Sunday, October 9,2016, we attended our last sacrament meeting at the Mesa Branch and then met with our stake president, President Heber Andrus, his counselor, President Manwaring, and several family members and we received beautiful blessings as Pres. Andrus laid his hands on our heads and set us apart. Then we were off to finish packing so we could head to our hotel in Provo to be there the next morning to check in at the MTC. 

 At the MTC

We arrived at the MTC on Monday, October 10, 2016. We were directed to leave everything in our car and go register. We received our name tags, ID card, keys to our room, parking tag, and a list of places to check in, then drove around to our building to drop off our bags. Two young missionaries helped Elder Love carry the bags to our room on the 3rd floor (there is an elevator), where he dropped them to be unpacked later. After parking we were to check in at the book store, immunizations, general services to pay for our meals for the week, and travel before going to 2 different orientations, one of which was with Elder Braithwaite, who, with his wife, is serving a full-time mission the MTC Senior Missionary Coordinator. One of the most important things he did was familiarize us with how the cafeteria works before we went to lunch. This really helped as we were able to easily negotiate our first meal there. We had a nice visit during lunch with Elder and Sister Allen, who are headed to Lima for him to be medical advisor. Their son-in-law is serving as mission president in the Lima North mission and he requested that they be assigned to his mission. We learned that Sister Allen and I attended Ogden High together (Patricia More) and graduated the same year, so we enjoyed going down memory lane together. Earlier, Robyn had run into Marie Hadley, whom she had worked with at Bonneville School District. She and her husband are headed to Africa for their second mission after returning from their first mission in Indonesia just last December. After lunch, there was a meeting with the MTC presidency to welcome the 89 senior missionaries (44 couples and 1 single sister).

Our group at the MTC

 President Snow, of the MTC presidency, had each couple introduce themselves and tell about their assignment. There are four other couples with assignments as Associate Area Legal Counsel. Besides us there are the Garfields, going to Lima, Peru; the Fergusons and the Corys going to Hong Kong; and the Adams, going to Manila, Philippines. We will get better acquainted with them next week during our legal training in Salt Lake. After lunch, Elder and Sister Braithwaite outlined our schedule for the week after which we received training on our missionary purpose by one of the young trainers, Sister Yazzi. Then Elder Braithwaite announced the assignments of district leaders and I was surprised to be one of those assigned. In our district, in addition to us are the Lunds, from Payson, Utah, headed to Berlin Germany to serve in the mission office; the LeBlues, from Ogden, Utah, headed to serve from home in the Utah Logan mission; and the Hills, from Florida, headed to The Michigan Detroit mission to help with member and leader support. After getting acquainted and exchanging contact info with our district members we finally got about a half hour to go unpack before dinner, where we took the opportunity to visit with the Corys and get to know them better. They are from Las Vegas and he just retired from a bankruptcy practice and is still finishing up his practice. After dinner we saw a wonderful video of Elder Bednar speaking about the character of Christ. A wonderful way to end a busy day.

The next morning we received great training on our missionary purpose from another of the young trainers, Sister Yazzi, after which we met our trainer, Sister Donakey, a lovely young returned missionary who served in Milan, Italy.

Our MTC district with our morning trainer, Sister Donakey

She shared with us that she was married in April and is 9 weeks pregnant. She advised us that tomorrow morning, we will get to teach some volunteers a discussion on The Restoration, our first lesson together as a companionship. It will be fun. After lunch we had a short lesson on the importance of the Book of Mormon in missionary work and then went back to our class with our afternoon trainer, Brother Hatch, from Linden, Utah. He served in a the West Indies mission.

Our MTC district with our afternoon trainer, Brother Hatch

We learned and then roll played how to introduce people to the Book of Mormon. After dinner we went to the weekly devotional, which was broadcast to all the MTCs throughout the world. The speakers were Elder and Sister Bednar. They spoke about how to get the most out of general conference by studying the messages of the 12 and the First Presidency and taking note of the principal or doctrine taught, the invitation to live the principle or doctrine, and the promised blessings. There was a missionary choir of about 400 that was marvelous. After The devotional we prepared for our first discussion with a volunteer tomorrow at the Teaching Resource Center.

The next morning after breakfast, we met for about an hour with our district to practice our presentation and then went to the Teaching Resource Center (TRC), where we met Sister Connie Anderson and gave her the first discussion. All of the volunteers are members of the Church and are temple recommend holders who give of their time to help prepare the missionaries. Sometimes they take a fictional investigator role and sometimes they act out their own conversion but as missionaries, we don't know. We were nervous but did our best and enjoyed the visit and the feedback we received was quite positive. We then spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon discussing how to make sure our teaching is centered in Christ and preparing for our next TRC presentation tomorrow on the Plan of Salvation. But before our afternoon classes we had a class on making the most of the Gospel Library app. It was neat to see all the senior couples learning to use this technology to improve their study and preparation to teach. After classes we went to the BYU Bookstore and Walmart. The senior missionaries don't have the same restrictions as the young missionaries, though we had to log out where we were going and when we expected to return.

In the morning, we had another great general session on focusing our teaching on Christ, then off to our class for a more intimate discussion on the same subject.. Virtually all of the training in the MTC is by the younger returned missionaries, almost all of whom are students at BYU and a few at UVU. Sister Donakey did a excellent job of inspiring us and I think each couple in our district probably made some adjustments to their lesson outline as a result of her beautiful presentation to focus the discussion more fully on the Savior. Another Gospel Library app lesson after lunch and then off to class to finish preparations for our next discussion at the TRC. When we went to the TRC we were assigned an "investigator" who had received the first discussion but the missionaries had.been transferred so we were to follow up to teach the Plan of Salvation. Our investigator was Sandy, about 60, a retired teacher and never married. The time was short but we did our best.  We felt it had not gone as smoothly as the one on Wednesday but again, did our best and our feedback was quite positive. Much of the instruction we have received has been videos of talks given at the MTC by apostles, such as Elder Bednar, Elder Holland, President Eyring, etc.  It has been awesome and inspiring. One this morning was by Elder Bednar about an incident when he was a missionary in Germany and Elder Packer was visiting. Because his flight was cancelled and he and his wife had to take the train, Elder Bednar gave him a 20 Mark note just in case they needed a meal. That 20 Mark note ended up being used in a very miraculous way. Elder Bednar taught us that usually, we don't know we are receiving revelation but if we strive to do what is right and be obedient, the Lord will use us to advance his purposes. After dinner we had arranged to visit with my nieces, Tammy Merrill and Debbie Briggs and their families in Pleasant Grove. We had a nice time catching up and chatting about family. They are such good, faithful families of which I know Howard is proud of them. On the way back to the MTC we stopped to buy some thank you cards for our trainers and then, when we got back, completed some papers for our last day and did what packing we could. Hard to believe the week is coming to a close tomorrow. We have come to love our district members and Robyn and I have made a special connection with Elder & Sister Hill. We have both had some similar experiences and Robyn feels a special connection with Sister Hill. We intend to keep in touch with them.

The last day in the MTC. We had a wonderful presentation by Elder and Sister Hawkes, who have served many missions (more than 10), about how we can use the spare time we have when we are not in the office or doing our normal assignment to build up the kingdom. Then it was off to prepare for one more role play. This one was a less active couple. Each senior couple got to act as both the missionary to get to know the less active couple and then act as a less active couple for a different missionary couple. All of the visits were with missionaries in different districts. After getting to know the couple, we each had a half-hour to prepare a lesson and then meet together again to give the lesson and later, to act as the couple receiving the lesson. It is remarkable how prevalent the Spirit is in these roll-plays, event though they are not actual situations. In the afternoon, we received a presentation from Elder and Sister Borget, who have served 3 missions, with a district discussion about various scenarios. The Borgets are really sweet people. Finally, a general meeting to evaluate the week together and then take district pictures.

The week has flown by. It has been a great week and a wonderful experience. We have enjoyed getting to know at least one other new couple at each meal and enjoy their company and we feel really good about what we have learned and accomplished during the week. We certainly feel much better prepared as we prepare to head to Argentina. Next week, training in Salt Lake and off to Buenos Aires on Thursday, October 20.