Talofa lava!

The day finally came to enter the Mission Training Center (MTC). We drove down on the morning of July 9, 2012, and checked in at 10:30 as requested. They checked in 102 senior missionaries that day (112 the week before)! They said that the number of senior missionaries has almost doubled from last year. Much to our surprise, our assigned room was at the Provo Marriott Hotel! It was a nice room, but we felt a little left out, as most (but not all) of the other senior couples had rooms right at the MTC. We felt a little better when we learned that the air conditioning didn't work in some of the rooms at the MTC. The first 5 days was focused on learning how to teach out of the Preach My Gospel book. It was pretty intense, complete with several teaching appointments. Our teachers were Brother Wozniak in the morning and Sister Cluff in the afternoon. The Tuesday devotional speaker was Elder Steuer, and he did a great job. He talked about his current project of translating the King James Bible into Portugese.

We were told there are about 2400 young missionaries and our 100 senior missionaries, plus probably 50 more seniors in their second week of training. We thought the food was great. It was amazing to see the food operation...feeding over 2500 people three meals a day seven days a week. They always had several options for each meal. I ate too much.

We came home Friday night and then drove back on Sunday in time for the devotional. Jenny Oaks Baker, daughter of Elder Dallin Oaks, was the speaker and performer. She is a world class violinist. who left first chair in the National symphony after seven years to be a mother and begin her solo career.

Over the week and a half we spent four two-hour sessions with Brother Gardner getting a very effective introduction to the Samoan language. We have learned some words and phrases and feel motivated to press on and try to learn the language.

The second week we participated in Church Education System (CES) training. We also were given a wonderful presentation on how to stay safe. All in all, the MTC experience really was a little piece of heaven. We made some great friends, and spent quite a bit of time with the two other couples coming to Samoa. Elder and Sister Jordan will be on American Samoa, and Elder and Sister Budgett will be on Savai'i, the other big island next to ours (Upolo). We also met for a hour with Elder and Sister Erickson, who are home now (we are replacing them in Pesega, Samoa).

In two days, July 21st, we are off to New Zealand for International Teacher Education Program (ITEP) training with Elder and Sister Ronnenkamp. Elder and Sister Budgett will travel with us and participate in that training with us. Then we go on to Samoa on July 26th.

It is a thrill to be involved in the Lord's