Week 7 June 29th to July 5th

Monday June 29th or First Official Day as Missionaries
We entered the MTC at 10:30 and started to meet the other Senior couples in our group. We have 67 in our group including 3 single Sisters.
The first couple of hours were spent introducing ourselves and an orientation from our trainer Brother Steve Graham. We have couples serving in all sorts of different mission, proselyting, temple, office, family history, humanitarian and 2 couples serving full time mission from their homes. In the afternoon we were assigned to read the Preach My Gospel chapters on Restoration of the Gospel to prepare for a lesson we are to teach on Tuesday to volunteer acting as a person interested in learning more about the church.

Tuesday June 30th
We had more classes and then we gave our lesson to the volunteer that was interested in the Church. After the lesson we evaluated the lessons we gave. We then received our next reading assignment for the evening. It was to read the chapters on The Plan of Salvation. To prepare for another lesson to give to another interested person.
The devotion as given by Gerald N. Lund. He spoke to us about how to find people that are interested in the Church.

Wednesday July 1st
We gave the lesson on the Plan of Salvation to our interested person and later evaluated our lesson. We had a recently returned Senior Couple give us a talk about how we can be creative and do things on our mission to meet and activate people. They taught us how to be organized and make the best use of our time.
We had language training later in the evening for 2 hours after dinner. We were pleasantly surprised to be able to remember and speak most of the things we had learned previously.

Thursday July 2nd
We were given the assignment to interview a person that is less active in the Church. We were then assigned to provide a lesson that would help them become more interested in coming back into full activity in the Church. We were also assigned to read the chapters about The Gospel of Jesus Christ to prepare for a lesson we will teach on Friday. We also went to the Referral Center which is where the telephone calls go when people are responding to media advertisements. We got the opportunity to put on telephone headset and wait for a phone call. In our group we had 2 calls come in. One was interested in getting a new Bible and the other was a crank call. The time we were there the phones were pretty quiet so not all of us got the opportunity to receive a call. Janice and I did not receive a call.
Later that evening we had our 2 hours of Language Training.

Friday July 3rd
We gave our lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a person that was a recent convert into the Church. We also learned the proper way to work with local leaders to make the best use of their and our time.
Friday night we had our language training. We had a Family Home Evening with 3 other couples learning Spanish. We were assigned to give a scripture and testify about it in Spanish. It went very well. We then played a game that tested our vocabulary. Later that evening all the people that were receiving language training met for a testimony meeting where we were given the opportunity to bear our testimony in the language we were learning. There were testimonies born in Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, French and English. It was a very spiritual experience.

Saturday July 4th
Was our Preparation day and July 4th. We did our laundry and run some errands. Later in the evening we attended a special fireside on the Restoration of the Church. It explained how some of the reformers helped to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the common people.

Sunday July 5th
We attended a very spiritual Fast & Testimony meeting with the other Senior couples in our group. They have a very deep and strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Following the testimony meeting we attended a Mission Conference that everyone here at the MTC attended. The MTC Presidency and their wives spoke. Later that evening we attended a Devotional that was very good. Life at the MTC has been exceptional, the staff, teachers and attendees have been great. The Spirit is so strong, it has been a great experience. Next week is our last 4 days here, we fly out Friday July 10th. We meet our shuttle to the airport at 5:00AM....