Our First Week in the MTC

Well, we had another wonderful week in the Missionary Training Center.  The main thing I remember from our first experience here in 2004 is the cafeteria.  But I guess they have made some changes since then so maybe that is why I don't remember all the other things.

We are part of the largest group of senior missionaries that any of the current leadership has ever experienced.  There are about 150 of us.  It is a nice group and we really enjoyed the three other couples in our district.  The Browns from Southern CA are going to Nigeria, the Garretts, from Tennessee, are going to Edmonton, Canada; and the Bytheways from Southern UT are going to Toronto Canada.  We really enjoyed working and learning with them.  We had two wonderful recently returned missionaries as our teachers that we all really loved, Brother Hong from Idaho, and Brother Keepman from Michigan.  It is amazing how spiritual, role playing can be when we are teaching the Gospel.  During our discussions and learning there were many tender tears shed.

We have worked hard and learned a lot and enjoyed our time very much.  Most evenings were spent doing homework but we did get to walk up Rock Canyon--this was something we really enjoyed when we were here before.  This time we saw a beautiful big mountain sheep come barreling down the mountain about 50 yards away from us.  I was just setting up to take a picture of some rock climbers across a ravine so I was fussing with the camera and was too slow to get his picture as he was moving pretty fast.  The kids on the other side made lots of excited and surprised noises as he was even closer to them.  Anyway that was fun as were the many greetings and conversations with other hikers, walkers, climbers, etc that we spoke to on the trail.  Everyone knows missionaries and seems to love them and be very interested in where they are going to be serving.

 It was a beautiful walk--I talked to Marie on the phone on the way down as she and Greg had just arrived in Salt Lake City to report for their mission--Bob talked to a young man who had just come down off the cliff and indicated he had just returned from his Russian mission.   When we got back to our room I checked on a single senior sister missionary who was sick and we determined she needed a priesthood blessing.  So Bob changed back into his suit and we went looking for another Elder to help him.  We always seem to find little extra things to do that make our lives a little more interesting.

We plan to stay here tomorrow and watch General Conference with the other missionaries.  During Priesthood meeting tomorrow evening they are going to replay the Women's Broadcast for the Sister Missionaries, which I am very glad about since I missed that because of our flight down here last week.  Sunday we will go to Karen's in Draper to watch Conference with them and celebrate Bob's 85th birthday!  (People here are stunned to hear that he is that age.  He is lots younger than many of the people here whose ages are a much smaller number.)