First week at the MTC

Hi everyone,

Our stay at the MTC has been a wonderful experience. We still have four days left this next week. Tuesday night we had Elder Richard G. Scott as our speaker for the Devotional. The senior missionaries get to sit right up front in the first few rows. Dad & I were on the second row right below Elder Scott. It was a very inspiring meeting. He gave us an Apostolic Blessing: that we would have the gift of tongues and of protectiion. He also spoke of being in tune to the Holy Ghost and promised if we would listen to it's promptings we would be blessed with protection and to know of the things we need to do to help those we serve.

We are part of a group of 26 who arrived on Monday, four of which are single sisters and the rest are couples. One of the couples, Elder & Sis. Olsen from Idaho, will also be serving in a temple in Mexico, one that is almost to the border with Guatemala. We are all part of the same branch and are attending classes together and learning from each other. One coincidence that happened is that one of the couples in our group has a son who served with Jarom in Oklahoma as his companion when he was in Wichita Falls, Texas. They are going to be serving in Russia. I'm glad that I'm learning Spanish and not Russian.

Next week they expect to have a little over 40 couples and senior sister missionaries and the following week to have over 80 couples and senior sisters. They say it goes up and down like that all the time. I'm so glad that we came in with a small group. We have become a very close group and made some new friends.

Most of the lessons and training we have been given this week is for proselyting. We will be expected to do that when we are not fulfilling our main purpose for our mission, which is helping in the temple. We will have a lot of opportunities to share the gospel when we are not in the temple and they encouraged us to take advantage of those opportunities: such as with those we will live by, when we go to the store, helping in the ward or branch where we will be attending, etc.

On Wednesday morning we had a fun thing happen as we were getting our breakfast. Mike Kushlan came up to us and said "Hi!" We were very excited to see each other.

On Wednesday we drove up to Salt Lake with the Olsen's to sign our Visa's. They were processed and sent here to the MTC on Friday. We have them now. So after our training next week in the temple we will be able to leave for Mexico. We haven't decided yet whether we will leave on Friday or wait until Monday. A lot depends on when we can make appointments at two of the temples we are going to try and attend on our way down to Monterrey. The Monticello Utah Temple and the Lubbock Texas Temples require appointments. We also plan to attend the Albequeque New Mexico and the San Antonio Texas Temples. We should be able to arrive in Monterrey by the 10th or 11th of September. President and Sis. Hall, who are serving in the Mission Presidency, have arranged for a furnished apartment for us. We were sent pictures and it looks great. It's only $500 a month, which includes the utilities and some kitchen dishes and linens and will have a washer and dryer.

This has been a wonderful growing experience for both of us and we have become closer to each other more than we have ever been in our married life. My testimony is growing and I have felt the Spirit strongly on many occasions. We have great teachers. I'm amazed on the knowledge and abilities of these young people, who are returned missionaries, that are helping us.

We are home for the week end and will return to the MTC on Sunday to attend a devotional and fireside.

We both send our love and hope all is well with you.