Last Days at MTC !

 Monday and Tuesday- June 20 and 21, 2022

This week was our Visitor Center training. On Monday we went to SLC Temple Square and observed while the young Sister missionaries took some families on a tour. I was so engrossed, that I forgot to take any pictures. Then we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial building across the street to see the Teaching Center. Of course, there was tons of construction going on, so many sidewalks, walkways and streets were closed off. To make it even harder, it was Juneteenth- a federal holiday- so most buildings were closed. We walked all over, even tried to go down into the parking garage to get through ….all to no avail! Finally we found a security guy and he let us in. (The sisters who work there all had key cards and they get in easily! Finally, when we got in, we observed and asked questions in the Teaching Center. There are only5 of these centers - SLC, Laie, Hawaii, Mexico City, SaoPaulo  Brazil, and London. They field calls from television ads offering free Bibles or Book of Mormon, and answer Facebook chats. And those that ask questions on Come unto Christ.org.

It was wonderful watching them doing missionary work online!  It’s a new age! After lunch …at the Blue Lemon, my favorite, we headed back to the Conference center. Brother and Sister Toronto gave us some great training . They had previously been the directors of the Independence, MO historic sites visitor’s center and Liberty Jail.

They put the Hawaiian temple picture up on the projector just for us. We were the only ones in this class.

Tuesday was held back in T1- at the MTC. It was just a little eerie since we were the ONLY ones in the whole building! They do not have senior couples in the MTC this week because it is the Mission President’s Seminar. But, since they don’t come until Wednesday, we could finish our training there.

Kelsey Johansen, who works with the young Sister Missionaries at the MTC who will be visitor center missionaries, also came to do some training. That was great since she served her mission at the Laie Visitor Center.

   

      

So, now it is goodbye to the MTC, go home and finish packing tomorrow, then leave on Thursday morning for Hawaii!!!!

MTC- Day 5

 Last Day of Preach My Gospel Training!

We had to do a short presentation with how certain things would impact our missionary work and help us to adapt to the culture of our mission. The Walkers were assigned foods, the Hunts got mannerisms, and we were assigned tourist sites!  So we showed The Polynesian Cultural Center, and the tram that missionaries use to take people from the PCC on a 15 min. Tour of the temple, visitor’s center and BYU-Hawaii. And the outfit we will wear when we work at the PCC.

Then we showed them the Visitor’s Center and  the beautiful Christmas statue, and the outfits we will wear there. 

We ended the day with the Safety and Security presentation We have learned to love these people this week!  Aloha to you all!

Left to right: The Bowman’s - going to Laie Hawaii — PCC Marketing division

  The Jones- going to Cambodia Phenom Phen - to build the temple

   The Mahaffeys o going to Laie Hawaii - Visitor’s center

   The Asays - going to Oregon, Eugene - church camp and recreation

   The Hunts - going to Texas Dallas East - welfare self reliance

   The Stringhams - going to Illinois Nauvoo - grounds and facilities

    The Walkers - going to Florida Orlando - welfare self reliance

    The Maxfields - going to Peru Lima - Area Office

MTC- Day 4

 Today we began by preparing for our meeting with the Stringhams to follow up on our teaching invitation. Did they accept it or not and what to do.

It was Tanner’s last day to teach and so he ended his day by bearing  his testimony by singing the song we had chosen - How Great Thou Art. Made me cry like a baby..especially since we won’t be seeing him until his family comes to Hawaii to see us!

We had a large group meeting on Adjusting to Missionary Life Together as Senior Couples! Great stress management tools. We had classroom discussions on Working with members, Facebook posting, and.    The Culture of Christ.

We have loved learning with these people, and eating with each other!

Front to back…Us, Stringhams, Bonhams, Asays, and Jones.

While in the cafeteria we also met some Elders from Laie. All going to different places. The one was on a service mission working at the MTC cafeteria!

Left to right- E. Pukahi, E. Saubulinayau, E. Fonoimoana, and E. Sorensen.

That evening we got to go to the Provo Temple with all the senior couples! Amazing love we felt for each one. Incredible how you can come to love people in just a short 4 days!

MTC - Day 3

 Each day we are reminded of our goals: 1- LOVE,   2-Trust in your DIVINE calling,  3- Simplify                     

I love this new shift the MTC has. They still teach us about planning, teaching, and following up, but the MAIN focus is on LOVE and SERVE like the Savior!

Today we planned and taught a lesson to the Stringhams and they did the same for us. Twenty minutes each. We were a little nervous, but they made it so easy for us! No role-playing, we taught them like they were them and we were us. We invited them to watch the video Be not Troubled by Ronal A. Rasband. They invited us to look back on the callings we have had in our lives and how each had brought us closer to Christ and made us feel His love for us! It was great!

For dinner they were serving BYU ice cream! So good!

That evening we met with all the young missionaries who had just come in that day to listen to the MTC President Porter. He showed quite a bit of David A Bednar’s talk at the MTC called The Character of Christ!  Google it…and see how great it is. Very spiritual meeting!

MTC Day 2-

 This morning we started our classes by being introduced to our teachers, Sister Francesca Paul and our very own grandson Tanner Monroe!

We had a full day of learning to teach and extend invitations, technology, and then meeting a couple from another district to teach. We were assigned the Stringhams! A wonderful couple from Santaquin Utah going to Nauvoo Historical sites for maintenance .

We were to meet and get to know them, then decide on a lesson we could teach them to help them on their mission, and they would do the same for us. Our district then came back together and learned how to plan a lesson and include an invitation to act.

We also had a wonderful activity about listening for the spirit. We went over to T4 - one of the new buildings. This building has 12 huge floor-to-ceiling murals encompasssing the whole wall. 2 on each of the 6 floors, one on each end of the building.  We loved sitting in front of this gorgeous mural and listening for the spirit to teach us, then discussing what impressions we had.

This is our district walking back - T4 is in the background.

That night was a devotional with Marcus B .Nash- Executive director of the. Missionary Dept.

MTC - Day 1

 Wonderful day today! It made us remember how much we love being at the MTC! We love the spirit there! Of course, the first thing we needed to do was to take the traditional picture in front of the world map showing where we are going!

We had an orientation meeting first.  We met the MTC President- Pres. Porter who served before this in the Missionary Dept. And we knew some of the same people. He served in Perth Australia.

His counselors were Pres. Picard - who lately returned from their mission in Rome Italy, and Pres. Hymas who returned  from Argentina, Bahia Blanca. Pres. Porter gave us an invitation to find out, on our mission ,not just what the Lord had DONE for us, but WHO He WAS. It was wonderful hearing all the stories of each couple as they introduced themselves. Last week there were over 120 seniors, but this week there were only 8 couples.  Part of that is because of the Mission President Seminar being held next week.

“During a break we walked around the campus a little, and we were reminded of our favorite statues.

Mine is of two elders on their bikes, and Roger’s is of Peter and the Apostles getting out of their fishing boat.

We also have 2 favorites in the many pictures they display at the MTC…First is a great picture showing a baptism, but they had to cut a hole in the ice!  The next is a baptism as well, but if you will notice, they have stationed men on the shore with spears and axes, …..just in case!

Our District is wonderful!  They all are so talkative and expressive!

Us, The Hunts-from Santa Clara, UT- going to Dallas Texas East as Self Reliance and

The Walkers- from Blackfoot Idaho- going to Orlando Florida as Self Reliance.

Our teacher for the afternoon sessions will be Brother Slaughter from Bakersfield, CA and served his mission in Paraguay.

That evening we met our branch Presidency- Pres. Hills from Alpine, UT, and his counselors: Pres. Averett from Mapleton, and Pres. Hendrickson from Provo.  A great first day enjoying the spirit of the MTC!

Setting Apart Sunday

 Sunday June 12- Tonight we were set apart as full-time missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to serve in the Hawaii Laie Mission.  Afterwards, we went into the hallway where the Stake keeps a big world map to show where all the missionaries from our Stake are serving.  First we put a tag with our names on it under the ward we were from - Manila 10th. Then we put a numbered pushpin into the map at Hawaii !

We were set apart by our Stake President, David Rosenvall.

We were so happy to have everyone there:

Mason Krey, Tanner Monroe, Taffy & Garth Lovell- Bishop, Pres. Rosenvall.

 Back to Brooke’s for the last few days.Trevor qualified to run in the State Track Meet in Bloomington, about an hour and a half Northeast. As we drove, we passed a lovely park and stopped to let Trevor run a bit. (That is why he is not in any pics )

We got there at 3 pm and left about 10 pm! It was a LOOOOOONG meet! And quite warm & humid!

Trevor’s best previous to this was 9:16 and he ran it in 9:11! He finished 9th, just barely in a place to receive a medal.

The next day was Sunday, June 5- Seminary Graduation….the last of all the graduation festivities. 

We flew home the next day with only 6 days until we enter the MTC. Our week has been packing and purging!  We had already sent some boxes ahead to our mission, so we each have 2 large suitcases and a carry-on. Then we started getting rid of all our food!  Our two BYU guys ar more than happy to take it all off our hands!

 The very best thing about not starting our mission until June 13 is that we got to go back east and spend time with 3 of our children and families. We left May 10 and flew to Louisville, KY. We arranged it so that we flew the  day before Brooke worked her shift at the Louisville temple. She picked us up early that next day and we went to the Louisville temple- she did her shift and we did several sessions.

We stayed at Brooke’s house (in Newburgh, IN - about 2 hours east of Louisville) for several days, then borrowed one of their cars to drive down to Madison, AL - about 4 hours south - to visit Lindsay and her family. We got to see one of Cambria’s volleyball games,

And go to the Space & Rocket center that NASA has there,

But one of the highlights was to be able to go with Colby on his very first trip to the Birmingham, AL temple.

Then we drove back to Brooke’s for a full week of graduation festivities for Trevor. We managed to squeeze in some games of pickle ball with Brooke and Trevor at the air conditioned church!

We on Saturday, May 21 we drove 2 hours to Terra Haute, IN to watch Austin run in the 4x100 relay at the state meet for Junior High.  They got us shirts to cheer him on.

Then it was a quick trip back home to help with the Open House for Trevor , then his graduation at 8 pm.

He had a class of 750, and since he was one of the Valedictorians, he went first…..so we did a lot of sitting! The good news is that at least they had air-conditioned the gym since we were there to see Tanner graduate!

Next we rented a car to drive to Virginia to see Landon graduate. We decided to have some fun and rent a Mini Cooper . We had such a great time, and even better….ALL the kids wanted to drive us us in the Mini!

We drove to meet Chad and his family at the Washington DC temple for the Open House. Such a gorgeous temple and grounds!

Next was Landon’s graduation. He graduated in a class of 70 so it wasn’t quite so long!

The next day, Sunday, May 29, we we so blessed to be there as Chad ordained Landon to the Melchizedek Priesthood.  AND to see Chad. E ordained the Bishop of their ward!

Daniel Whitehead- counselor, Bishop Chad Mahaffey, David Gowdy- counselor