Mission - Finally!

Let the Mission Begin!  We enter the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on April 6th 2015.

The Prelims

Tuesday, 31 March- 5 April 2015 - Colorado Springs and Provo

Our stake president, David K. Muirhead set us apart at about 8:00 on the evening before we left.  Paul Thornley, the other counselor who served with me in the stake presidency, was able to be there, which was special for us.  President Muirhead gave us beautiful blessings as he sent us on our way.  Many tears were shed as we all parted after having served together for nearly 9 years.

Good friends, Ann and Al Schlag took us to the Colorado Springs Airport the next afternoon.  Our plane was only slightly late taking off, but we arrived in Salt Lake safe and sound.  Our daughter Stephanie was there to pick us up.  We stayed that night with she and her family in Lehi.  After spending most of the day with Stephanie and Anders and their girls, they loaned us their car and we drove to Ben’s in Provo to spend some time with them. 

Friday, some of our gang went to Thanksgiving Point to see the tulips (which were not quite in their glory, but it was beautiful nonetheless with the trees in bloom and the daffodils blooming). 

The following day, we drove to Spanish Fork to stay with Ann’s mother for the remaining days before entering the Missionary Training Center (MTC).  We had a family dinner at Melissa’s on Sunday night. 

The MTC

Mission Day 1 – Monday, 6 April 2015

Melissa took us to the MTC at 10:00.  Tyler, Lyla and Ann’s mom tagged along.  Not too often that senior missionaries get sent off by their Mom!   We got checked in, shown to our room (it was like a nice motel room), then right to orientation.  Elder And Sister Taylor were our “Coordinators” (baby sitters). They are great people from Highland, serving a two year mission at the MTC.  There are 98 senior missionaries in our group.

Iconic MTC Photo Op

The Rookies with Elder Taylor

Study time in our room

Room with a View

We met many nice couples the first day.  Many are going to Nauvoo, Martin’s cove and Cove Fort (it’s the season for historic site missionaries).  Others were off to the far corners of the earth.  We’re the only ones going to Palmyra, but we already knew that.  We met the Hallings from Kalamazoo, Michigan who know Pat and Cynthia Anderson well.  They’re off to Croatia.

The Hallings

Ate lunch with Nicole (Sister/Hermana) Allen from our ward in Colorado Springs and her companion.  She leaves the day before we do to be a visitor center missionary at the Mormon Battalion Visitor’s Center in San Diego.  Her companion is going to the Washington DC Temple Visitor's Center.  Both speaking Spanish.

Sisters Allen and Plaizier

Day 2 – 7 April

Spent all day in class, learning how to help people make and keep commitments and doing role playing.   It was good stuff.  Jordan Hawkes is our AM instructor.  He served a mission in Korea.  Amy Anderson is our PM instructor.  She served her mission in South Africa and Botswana.

Amy Anderson - our afternoon instructor

Met a lot more nice people, including The Food Nanny from BYU TV (one of my favorite shows...), who is on her way to Frankfurt, Germany with her husband.  Both really nice folks.

We went to a devotional tonight – Elder Garrit Gong of the First Quorum of the Seventy and his wife were the speakers – they were both excellent!  He is the Area president over North Asia and has 3.5 billion people in his area!

After the devotional, there was some time on the treadmill to work off a little chocolate milk…

Tomorrow we teach the “investigator actors” for the first time – that will be interesting!

Day 3 – April 8^th

We had our first experience teaching an “investigator” this morning.  She was an elderly lady, who was doing it for the first time, so she was more nervous than we were!  Our time with her (45 minutes) went quite well, but she was pretty easy on us.  We do it again tomorrow and I think that one will be a little harder.

We had lunch with Nicole.  Wednesday is BYU Creamery ice cream day, so had a bit of that for dessert (well, okay, a lot…).  The food has been quite good, but I’m sure you get tired of it after a few weeks.

Afternoon classes on follow up and lots of role playing. 

We had dinner and then took a walk over to the Monte L. Bean Museum to pick up the photo I entered earlier in the BYU photo contest.  I’m sure it was a simple mistake, but the judges failed to award me “Best in Show” – I surmise they were distracted by the incredible National Geographic-quality images plastered all over the gallery…

It snowed today…

Day 4 – 9 April

First thing this morning we met with another “investigator.”  It went well.  We were not sure afterward whether he was a member or not – he was really good!  He’s a retired judge.

We then did more role-playing in the morning and afternoon.  Tomorrow we'll concentrate on working with less active members.

Tonight we watched a devotional given here by Elder Bednar on Christmas day a couple of years ago called “The Character of Christ.” It was fantastic!  I think he’s given the same basic talk in other settings.  You should look it up.

We’re tired!

Day 5 – 10 April

We completed our last day of Preach My Gospel training today.  We did role playing around working with less active members in the morning and then some wrap up in the afternoon. 

  

We said goodbye to those who are heading out.  Office couples and historic site folks stay around for a few days next week, but everybody else is off to their fields of labor.  About half of our group left today.  We’re still not sure when we're done, but it looks like Tuesday afternoon, rather than Wednesday morning.  

Our District on Graduation Day

Day 6 – 11 April (Preparation Day)

We walked up to the temple to do a session with our son Ben at 8 AM.  It was a beautiful spring day and the temple wasn't overly crowded (at least for a Saturday at the Provo Temple).  Afterward, Ben took us to the mall for a little last minute shopping.  In the afternoon, we walked over to the BYU bookstore and stopped at the Creamery to have some ice cream (which we definitely didn't need!), then back to the MTC for a nap.  We walked over to Ben’s for dinner with them, Melissa and Stephanie and their families and Ann’s mom.  Said goodbye to her and to Steph, Anders, Summer and Ellen. 

Day 7 – 12 April – Sunday

Sacrament meeting was at 8:15 with one of the young missionary branches.  After that meeting, we watched “Music and the Spoken Word” and then had Priesthood and Relief Society meetings with the other senior missionaries.  Ann was asked to teach RS and got rave reviews.  Jared and Melissa came by to say goodbye late afternoon.  Jared and Janae were gone on Saturday so they weren’t at the family dinner at Ben’s.  We attended two devotionals in the evening.  The first was the ‘Departure’ devotional for all missionaries leaving the next week.  The MTC presidency spoke at that.  Then at 7:00, the BYU Men’s Chorus presented the devotional.  They were awesome!

 Day 8 – 13 April

Went up to Temple Square to take a tour and observe how the sister missionaries there do it.  It was gorgeous on the grounds, with all the flowers blooming and many of the trees in bloom as well. 

We did more visitor center training in the afternoon, then had dinner with Nicole Allen her last night here.  She leaves at 3:30 in the morning!  A whole slew of new senior missionaries arrived today, so we’re not the rookies anymore.  Said a teary goodbye to Nicole.

Tomorrow is our last day of training.

  

Day 9 -  14 April

It’s snowing on the tulips! 

We completed our visitor center training today.  It was good stuff.  Our instructors were Judd and Pauline Morgan, from Draper.  He was a mission President in Manitoba, Canada a few years ago and before that President of Salt Lake Community College.  Nice folks.

The speaker at the devotional tonight was Craig Zwick of the Seventy.  He spoke on the Atonement. 

We've had a wonderful experience in the MTC and kind of hate for it to end, but we’re anxious to get to our field of labor.

We’ll pack up in the morning (after one last shot of chocolate milk) and Ben and Heather will run us down to the FrontRunner station.  The weather is supposed to be a little iffy tomorrow, so we thought that would be better than them trying to drive us to the airport.  We should get into CS about 5:00 PM.   We’ll pick up our car, have a quick dinner with the Allen’s and then head for a hotel in Denver for the night. 

Day 10 – 15 April

It’s snowing like crazy in Provo.  We bid goodbye to some of the rest of our group, finished packing and checked out of the MTC

Ben and Heather, along with Caleb and Spencer picked us up early afternoon and ran us down to the FrontRunner station.  We said goodbye and hopped on the northbound train.  We had no problems transferring to the TRAX light rail in Salt Lake and then out to the airport.  We felt like real missionaries riding the train!  Our flight was delayed to get de-iced (remember, it’s the middle of April!), then an uneventful flight back to Colorado Springs.  Cheryl Allen picked us up and took us to our home, where we picked up our car, grabbed a few additional things we thought we might need and then went over to the Allen’s for dinner.  After dinner, we headed for Denver and stayed there overnight.

Travel to New York

Thursday,16 April

Left Denver in a snow storm, drove the 500+ miles to Omaha and stayed with our son David, Donnica and their boys.

Friday,17 April

Drove to Fremont, Indiana (about an hour east of South Bend) and spent the night.  Weather is good. 

Saturday, 18 April

Drove the rest of the way to Palmyra.  We were supposed to meet with the mission president in Rochester, but he was at a conference, so we just came on to Palmyra.  The Ostlers (Site Directors) met us and they and Elder Selvage helped us unload the car.  We met the neighbors upstairs and next door (The Millers and the Beans).  Everyone was super nice and truly seemed glad to see us. 

We found our apartment to be quite roomy (way roomier than we envisioned).  It’s in a walkout basement, so we have windows to the world.  We’re about 100 yards from the Sacred Grove and the Welcome Center at the Smith Farm and maybe three hundred from the temple.  We have two bedrooms, one bath, a kitchen with an eating area and a living room.  We don’t have a garage, but will get one before winter as other couples go home (there aren’t enough to go around).  We share laundry facilities with one other couple.  It will be very adequate.

Location, location, location!

Our Home Away from Home - lower level

As far as those paintings you've seen of “early in the Spring of 1820” with all the leaves on the trees, etc. - forget them.  It’s late spring here and there isn’t a leaf in sight!  Maybe they had some other way of figuring when Spring was back then…

Sacred Grove - April 24th

Sunday, 19 April

Went to church in the Palmyra Ward (the building is across the street from the temple on the Smith Farm).  It’s a big ward.  We then drove to the Mission Office in Pittsford, about a 25 minute drive to the west, to meet with the mission president, President Francis.  He’s about 6’ 10” and is a really nice guy (aren't they all?).  He gave us our ward assignment, which turned out to be the Palmyra Ward.  Some couples travel as much as an hour and a half one way to get to their assignments, so we’re feeling pretty good about a two minute walk…  We’ll basically provide missionary support to the ward (kind of in a Member-Leader Support role). 

We went for a walk through the Sacred Grove in the afternoon and picked up a tour at the Frame Home.  The weather was nice.

Monday, 20 April – Saturday, 25 April

Site training with the Ostlers and on our own, shadowing other missionaries as they give tours at the various sites.  This is really going to be fun! (although there is a lot to learn).  The weather is not so nice at the moment - cold, rain and snow for most of the week.  Of course, a little earlier in the year they had 8 straight days with temperatures (not including windchill) at or below -35.  How does that sound to you Arizona folks?

Lawn guy in a snowstorm - April 24th

 As far as our schedule goes, we will rotate between all four of the sites (The Smith Farm, the Book of Mormon Publication Site/Grandin Building, the Hill Cumorah Visitors's Center and the Peter Whitmer Farm) each day, so we'll be at each one at least once a week.  We get one day off (Preparation Day or P-day in missionary parlance), which also rotates on a monthly basis.  Shifts vary in length, depending on the time of year, but normally we work 6 hours/day x 6 days a week.  However, during the Hill Cumorah Pageant in July, that schedule goes out the window.   Something like 50,000 visitors show up for that (up to 3,000 a day tour each site) so we're really hopping during that two-week period.  
We found the local supermarket and Walmart (about a 20 minute drive).  A Costco is set to open soon in Rochester, about 40 minutes away. 

Thursday night we went to the temple and did a sealing session with several other missionary couples and then to our upstairs neighbors for some goodies.  It was a nice evening.

 Tomorrow we’ll drive to the Whitmer Farm (about 30 miles) to do some more site training and large crowd handling.  There will be a youth conference on-site, so should be exciting! 

Saturday, 25 April

Whitmer Farm – 115 youth and adults came and spent a couple of hours at the farm.  We were able to learn a bit about the site, but it was pretty chaotic.  We’ll go back on Tuesday to learn some more.  

It was a beautiful day (at least sky-wise, but still chilly), so we drove up to Lake Ontario late in the afternoon.  The lake is about 20 miles north of us.  Saw some beautiful country and cool old houses.  The Martin Harris Farm (1 ½ miles north of Palmyra) has a home (built after his time) that is called a “Lake Stone Home.”  There are about 700 of these homes in the area, built out of small lake rock from Lake Ontario.  They’re beautiful.  The photo below is not the home at the Martin Harris farm, but another one in the area.  

Lake Stone Home in Mendon

The lake shore has some beautiful properties and Sodus Point has an old light house, which was pretty cool. 

Sodus Point Lighthouse

That's it - the first week is in the books!