Week 6 June 24th to 28th

Preparing for the hike to Mt. Timpanogos Cave.
It was raining.....

Mt. Timpanogos Temple

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Monday June 22th

We continued with our language training. During our lunch break we let Chris & Rashida Charles Skype their family back in England. They really enjoyed that. In the evening we took them to see a Cabello's store in Lehi Utah. Thankfully they enjoyed looking at all the animals and fishes and really enjoyed some of the fudge and roasted nuts they sell in the store. Chris proceeded to beat me in the shooting range they have. Rashida and Janice were busy decorating a future cabin with the furniture and paintings they found. As we were leaving we discovered that the Charles had never tried beef jerky so we bought a couple of varieties, teriaki and peppered. They enjoyed both but preferred the bite of the peppered.

Tuesday June 23rd

We continued our language training. The Charles came and used our computer to email their family. There was some confusion with our tutoring schedule and no one showed up for our afternoon session. Janice and I went for a walk and asked each other questions in Spanish. We stopped in front of the MTC and sat on a bench in the shade. A young lady walked by and I said Hola and she said Hola back which lead to more dialog. She asked us where we were going to serve our mission and told her the Montevideo Uruguay Mission and she got really excited and said you are the new senior couple we are waiting for. It turns out that she had just returned from that mission and still talks like she is apart of it. So the office Missionaries that I spoke with or President Ashby has let the word out and we are expected. The Devotional which is usually held on Tuesday's was moved to Friday due to the upcoming New Mission President Seminar which starts on Wednesday. So we were planning on attending a session at the Provo Temple in the evening. Someone overheard us planing the outing and informed us that it was closed for it's summer cleaning. So we went to the Mount Timpanogos temple instead. It was very busy and we had to wait an hour to get into our session. It is such a beautiful temple and we really enjoyed being there.

Wednesday June 24th

We continued our language training. The Mission Presidents checked in for their Seminar today. We were mingling in the hallway looking for our Mission President and hanging out with the Charles and I happened to see a name tag with Spendlove as the last name. It told the Mission President and his wife that Spendlove was my wife's maiden name. As we talked further it turns out that President Loren & Tina Spendlove are related to Janice. Loren is her 2^nd cousin. We made an appointment with them on Friday at 1:00 PM to get to know them better and discover more about Janice's family.

In the evening the Charles joined the Leavitt's and us at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house in West Jordan Utah. It is a very beautiful Temple and the Church provided a very good tour and we had a great time. As we were leaving they were offering rides back to the cars on oversized golf carts so we all piled in and he took around the Temple so we could get pictures and then back to the cars. The Leavitt's and the Charles really enjoyed getting to know each other and we all had a great time.

Thursday June 25th

We continued our language training.

The Mission President's Seminar started and we were able to meet our Mission President and His wife. They are President & Sister De Silva from Paraguay. He speaks very little English and his wife speaks even less. He gave Janice the assignment to teach his wife English and his wife the assignment to teach Janice Spanish.

Friday June 26th

More language training. We met with Loren & Tina Spendlove for about an hour and Janice was able to catch up on some family questions. They had more meetings to attend so we set up another meeting at 1:00 PM on Sunday to continue the conversation.

We were invited to attend Chris & Rashida Charles setting apart to be the Mission President in Greece. Elder L. Tom Perry ( of the quorum of the 12 Apostles) was the one that set Chris apart and Elder Teixeira (of the quorum of the 70) set Rashida apart. It was really great to be apart of this special experience.

There were General Authorities all over the MTC, Elder L. Tommm Perry, Elder Dallin Oaks, Elder Ballard, Elder Nelson, Elder Holland, Elder Bednar, Elder Cook, Elder Christopherson, Elder Anderson and the president's of the Quorum of 70. It is really exciting to be around the leadership of the Church and feel of the special spirit they have.

Saturday June 27th

We spent the day packing and cleaning at the Leavitt's and took them to dinner.

Sunday June 28th

We went to church at a Spanish Ward and we were able to understand more than we had the previous time we went so we must be learning something.

The Charles came to dinner at the Leavitt's. Susanne made a wonderful meal and we all enjoyed visiting with each other. It was our last night at the Leavitts and our last night with the Charles as they fly out to start their new assignment as the Mission President's of Greece in the morning.