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

Well, we've been poked, prodded, given shots, learned a little about the language, thinking through finances, arranging for the IRS for the next two years, getting clothes suitable for the heat, thinking about missing our family,  figuring out how to get 18 months of prescriptions, buying some camera stuff, getting a nice snorkel for Nada (just in case), deciding how to pay certain bills while we're gone, making sure we know how all our computer and phone and ipad stuff works, cancelling memberships and certain contracts and services, being released from church callings, sold our car, fixing things around the house and yard, then thinking of more things to fix around the house and yard, making sure we visit with certain folks, ... It's amazing how much there is to do! We will speak in our Sacrament Meeting at a new time and place, since it was just announced that our ward is moving to a new building and meeting time as of July 1st, which is the day we will speak. We will speak on July 1st at the church on Highway 89 (3035 North 1325 West in Pleasant View). Our new block is 1-4 pm, and the Sacrament Meeting starts at 2:50. We can feel that it is getting to be time to get going--enough of the planing!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

We received our call today! The whole family came over and we opened the envelope at 7 p.m. As hoped, we are called to the Samoa Apia Mission as Coordinators over the ITEP Program. We are scheduled to enter the MTC in Provo on July 9th, four weeks later than we originally thought (June 11th). We can expect to receive more information from the mission and the ITEP folks over time. It is a relief to finally know for sure what we are doing. We can now plan and start taking care of things. 

The mission call blues

Greetings to all!

We are creating this blog to record and share memories and events of our mission. We invite all of you to share this adventure with us, and to connect with us so we can keep track of you, too!

After conversations with Steve Ronnenkamp in the fall of 2011, we were invited to send in our mission papers with a recommendation to be assigned to the International Teacher Education Program. The tentative plan would place us in Pasega, Samoa, working with two schools on that island for 18 months. Our main job will be to host courses to help local teachers get licensed and credentialed in other ways--administration, counseling, etc.

Our application was downloaded to Salt Lake on the evening of Tuesday, February 21, 2012 after meeting with our new Stake President, Brad Waddoups. The status was changed to "Ready for Assignment" as of March 2nd, but we have not received our assignmnent yet! Gary Carlston called SLC on Monday, March 19th to see if he could learn what was going on, but made it clear he would not be able to call me back and tell me anything. President Waddoups called on the 20th, and they told him we had put down that we could only go $1400 per month. We checked our application, and we had put down $2400 per month, so we don't know what is going on...

Bishop Coleman said there was no change in the status as of yesterday. So, as of today, we are waiting, and trying (with limited success) to be patient! Maybe next week...