THE MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER
"Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off To Work We Go" -- The Seven Dwarfs, in Snow White
On the morning of September 8, we said good-bye to our family, our home, our friends, and pretty much everything in our "comfort zone" and headed for the MTC. It was hard leaving all that behind, especially the grandkids, who will grow and change so much while we're gone.
Once we were settled in our room at the MTC, we "hit the ground running." We had classes all day long, French tutoring in the evening, and homework when we got back to our room. We soon found out that, at least at the MTC, we were assigned as "Proselyting/Leadership" missionaries.
OUR ROOM
One of the best parts of the MTC experience was meeting and working with the instructors (most of them young, enthusiastic, experienced returned missionaries).........
.........and the other senior missionaries. Many of the senior missionaries had served one or more other missions, and their perspective and mentoring was invaluable.
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Here we are with our "small group" instructor, Elder Salmon, and two members of our small group, Sister Shaw and Sister Brooks. Theirs is an interesting story: They grew up together in a small town and were best friends. They married, went their separate ways, and lost track of each other. Years later, both widowed, they ended up in the same town and in the same ward! Friendships were renewed, and now they are serving as companions on a mission to California!
Starting with our Tuesday classes, in "small group" studies, we studied a section of "Preach My Gospel," created a lesson plan, then went to our rooms where we were visited by "investigators" to whom we were to teach the lesson. Of course, the "investigators" were volunteers, but they surely played their roles well.
Tuesday evening, there was a "devotional." Everyone was invited, and the "Seniors" were given the best seats in the house. What a thrill, to sit in the center of this huge hall, completely surrounded by young missionaries, as we all sang "Called to Serve." The speakers were Elder Uchtdorf and his sweet wife. We received excellent advice and encouragement, and at the end of his talk Elder Uchtdorf pronounced an apostolic blessing on us. What a thrill!
THE CAFETERIA
We ate every meal in this awesome cafeteria--a virtual "sea" of white shirts. The food was very tasty, the menu was varied, and the service was incredible. Also, most of the young missionaries had obviously been taught to respect their "seniors", because most of them let us go ahead of them in line, and many of them would take our empty trays to the conveyor belt for us. It was in the cafeteria where we ran into several familiar faces--Sister Richards, Sister Romney, and Elder Martineau, all from our home town.
THE GREEN MILE
(or so it seemed, when walking down this long, long hall to get to classrooms, on the right, or the careteria, on the left.)
On Wednesday, here came the new missionaries--with all their luggage! It was incredible to see all those missionaries, and all that luggage, all over the place, and by evening everyone was snugly in their rooms and all the luggage had disappeared from the halls.
Our French Tutoring group: Elder and Sister Hymas, on their way to Switzerland, our instructor, Elder McDonald, and Sister and Elder Wright. Can you guess which one in this picture (hint: in a blue blouse) didn't have a CLUE what everyone else was saying in those tutoring sessions?
We had tutoring Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evening. At the end of the Friday session, all the language learners met for a testimony meeting, each testimony being spoken in the new language. It was amazing how we could all pretty much understand each other!
And that was the end of the MTC experience. We learned a lot, cried a little, met some wonderful people, and walked our legs off!
