Week 8 2nd Week of MTC Office Training

Monday July 6

We started our Office Procedures training. It gives us an overview of Microsoft Office and then more in depth training on the Church’s programs for keeping track of the Missionaries, Paying for Rents, Utilities and vehicles. It is a lot less intense than last weeks training.

Tuesday July 7, 2009

We continued our Office Procedures training. The Devotional talk was given my Angel Abrea of the Quorum of the 70. His talk was about teaching with the spirit.

Wednesday July 8, 2009

We continued our Office Procedures training. In the afternoon we had 2 hours of language training. Janice’s Mom & Step-Father came to visit at 5:00 PM. We went to dinner with them and had a nice visit. I told her Mom that no tears were allowed and they both were able to make it through the evening with no tears. It was great to see them and enjoy their company.

We got a response to an email to our mission today that eased our minds. They indicated that they would pick us up at the airport and that there was a house for us to live in when we arrived. Until now we did not know if we would have to find our own or if the mission had something available.

Pictures of Tutors & Friends

Some pictures of our tutors and friends from home & the Mission Training Center

Mario (from Spain) , one of our tutors
Jade (from Domican Republic) one of our tutors
Benjamin (from Mexico) one of our tutors
Jorge (from Peru) one of our tutors
Carlos (from Mexico) one of our tutors
Fabrizio (from Peru) one of our tutors
Our family after we were set apart as Missionaires
Our friends Joe & Lois Brainich that we Home Teach
Our friends that we have know for years,

Top left: Lamar & Marcia Jacobs, Janice & Dan Hegerhorst, Velvet & Mike Navarre, Joyce & Mark Wilson, Front row: Lane & LaWana Green

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....

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.

Week 5 June 14 to June 21

Monday

We drove back to Lindon from Cedar City with a load of apricots and cherries we had picked for Susanne and the Teachers at the MTC. Changed clothes and headed to our afternoon session of tutoring. We gave all of our teachers a small bag of cherries that we had picked and washed for them. They really enjoyed them. It was great to see the big smiles on their faces when thanked us for the cherries.

Tuesday

We continued with our tutoring and for the devotional we had Richard G. Edgley of the Presiding Bishopric speak to us. He told a lot of great stories, but we had to watch it from another room instead of the auditorium with the young missionaries. They are trying to keep the Senior Couple health and not possibly expose them to the flu.

Wednesday – Thursday - Friday

We continued with our Spanish tutoring. The language is coming.

Saturday

We went with our friends Chris and Rasheed Charles from England to Timpanogus Cave in American Fork Canyon. It was a great little hike up to the cave and was really fun to tour the cave with them. It rained on us going up and down from the cave but that was okay. The scenery was great and we had a great time sharing a little bit of the USA with our British friends. After the hike we went to Provo and ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant that Christina and Brian Wilson recommended. It was great and we enjoyed more stories about England and about what being a Mission President will be like for the Charles's

Week 4 June 8 to June 13

Monday June 8 to Saturday June 13

The language training continued this week. It is coming along pretty well, we are learning more each week. We are sure glad that we have had this opportunity to have some language training prior to arriving in the country. We can not image arriving in Uruguay without having some language training. We have just 2 more weeks of language training and them we officially enter the Missionary Training Center (MTC).

Tuesday

We attended the Devotional and as usual they did not announce the speaker until just prior to the meeting starting, but this week was a bit different, one of the head ushers announced that usually we do not stand to sign our Hymns but we do stand when an Apostle of Jesus Christ comes into the room. (he said now aren't you glad you came early and got a seat). A few minutes later Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve apostles came into the room. Usually the Senior Missionary couples have a few of the rows reserved for them in the front of the auditorium. We had arrived early to make sure we got a good seat ( 2^nd row center) . We looked around and found that we were the only Senior Couple in the room. It turns out that all the Senior Couples were asked to watch the Devotional from another room at the MTC. This time it really paid off not being an officially entered Senior Couple. We were so close the the Bednar's we could see the color of their eyes and see and feel the spirit they both have.

Sister Bednar spoke about how the Gospel is one eternal round meaning that the missionaries will convert someone who will raise a family and send missionaries that will convert others and we will all be blessed by those that spread the gospel.

Elder Bednar spoke about how when he travels he usually answers questions from the congregations. One of the most asked question is “ How do I know when it is the Holy Ghost giving me prompting or is it just me” His answer was a very simple and direct answer. He said “stop worrying about it, if you are living the commandments, keeping your covenants the Holy Ghost will be there to direct you as long as you are moving forward. You have to get off the couch and do something and the Holy Ghost will be there to direct you. If you are not moving the Holy Ghost cannot direct you! He gave and example of how when he was a stake president in Arkansas. President Boyd K. Packer was visiting Elder Bednar's region for a region conference and the Stake leaders had the opportunity to share a meal with Pres. Packer. When it came time for Pres. Bednar to introduce himself he said his name and then mentioned to Pres. Packer that you may not remember this but when I was 20 years old I was serving a mission in Germany and you and your wife came to visit. When it came time to leave the airport was shut down due to bad weather and my companion and I picked you and your wife up at the airport and took you to the train station. President Packer then interrupted and said and do you remember you brought us back to the mission home and made you a simple meal and arranged train tickets to allow us we could continue our journey and then took us to the train station and just prior to us getting on the train you gave me a 20 mark note so we could purchase food on the train. Did you also know that while we were on that train ride we entered into East German territory and the East German guards came on the train and were inspecting the Visa's of all the people. President Packer's Visa was okay but Sister Packers was a 3 year Visa that had been extended to 5 years. The guard had a very dark evil spirit about him and was not going to let Sister Packer continue on the train. President Packer gave his Visa with the 20 mark note slipped inside and his wife's Visa. The guard went away and returned with the Visa's minus the 20 mark note and they were both allowed to proceed on their journey. Elder Bednar did not remember giving the 20 mark note to Pres. Packer but was where he should have been doing the things he should have been so the Holy Ghost could prompt him and use him to help Pres. Packer and his wife during their time of need. Later out they found out that the East Germans were taking people of the of the training during that time because of the 2 year extensions to the Visa's and some the the people were not heard from again.

Elder Bednar shared another experience that happened at another Stake Priesthood Leadership Meeting that he was presiding at. His son was playing in the State basketball championship against the son of one of the Elder's Quorum Presidents that was at the Leadership Training Meeting. Elder Bednar felt prompted to leave the meeting and take the Elder's Quorum President with him. He asked his councilor to take care over the meeting and asked the Stake executive secretary to ask the EQP to arrange for someone to drive his car back home and to meet the Stake President in his office immediately so they could drive the 2 hours to the place were the ball game was to take place. The EQP arrived at the office looking terrified until the Stake President told him of the plan to go to the game. Elder Bednar really felt uneasy about leaving the meeting and going to a ball game. Even his wife told him that this was a stretch. A few weeks later Elder Bednar received a phone call a 4:30 AM. It was the EQP telling him that there had been an accident and would he please come to the hospital to help give his son a Priesthood blessing. Elder Bednar went to the hospital immediately and when he arrived he was met by the father who said that his son had just passed away. He also said how grateful he was to Elder Bednar for taking the time to go to the ballgame which was the last game that he would see his son ever play. Elder Bednar then knew that he had made the correct choose by leaving the leadership meeting and going to the ballgame. He was doing the right thing and the Holy Ghost directed him to what he needed to do.

Elder Bednar also shared how he had prepared his talk for General Conference early and submitted it to the editing department. He then left for an assignment out of the country. When he arrived home he felt uneasy about the topic he had chosen so he prepared another talk and submitted it to the editing department just in time for General Conference. The topics are not assigned and are not arranged prior to the meetings. His topic was on temples and the talk prior and the talk after were on the temple as well. Everything was so wonderfully orchestrated by the Holy Ghost to make sure everything went well in General Conference.

When Elder Bednar left the Devotional he went to the front of the stand area and gave the sign language sign for “I love you” to all the people in the auditorium. The spirit in the building was very strong and we were very touched by it. It was such a wonderful treat to be there. So now we just need to keep the commandments and our covenants, press forward and the Holy Ghost will direct our paths.

Wednesday

After our afternoon session of tutoring we met with Bro David & Karen Nemrow (from Canab Utah) that had just returned from the Montevideo, Uruguay mission due to medical reasons. We went to the BYU Creamery and talked about the mission for 3 hours. It was great to learn more about the mission and the people and the country. They shared many wonderful experiences about the time they had on their mission.

Thursday

We met a couple that is going to be serving in Greece as the new Mission Presidents. Their names are Chris & Rasheed Charles, they are from a town 30 miles south of London England. We mentioned that we had a missionary that just returned from the London South mission. They indicated that that was them mission they lived in and asked the name of the missionary. We told them it was Sister Nicole Halversen and they both exclaimed she was our favorite. Sister Charles in her cute English accent said, she was just like “Tigger” so much energy and just bouncing around. They indicated that it was the Sister Missionaries that had turned the mission around. They said every where they would look they would see the Sister Missionaries out meeting with the people. Thursday at dinner they indicated that they needed to do some shopping. We volunteered to take them to the store and on the way I had the idea to call Nicole Halversen on the cell phone and let the Charles's speak with her. It was very fun to listen to Brother and Sister Charles surprise Nicole on the phone. Nicole was surprised really enjoyed the flash back to her mission. Janice spoke with Emily Halversen and told her to tell her Primary Class that she missed her Primary Class of which Emily is a member.

Friday- Monday we went to visit Janice's Mother and Step Father ( Paul & Sherma Radmall) in Cedar City, Utah. We went to the orchard in La Verkin and picked cherries and few apricots. It was great to spend time with them. The cherries were very good and we both ate more of them that we should have.

We picked enough that we could bring some back to our tutors. I hope they like them.

We went to church with Janice's Mother and Stepfather Paul & Sherma Radmall. While in the sacrament meeting Janice was trying to find the hymn we were signing in Spanish. There was a man (Steve Chamberlain) sitting next to Janice that looked over and seen the Spanish Hymn book and asked if he could help. He served in Bogotá Columbia 20 years prior. While we were talking he asked where we were going to go serve our Mission. When we told him he said that he has and uncle that just returned from the Montevideo Uruguay mission. We ask his uncles name and it is David Nemrow mentioned under the Wednesday heading. The world is really small as we have found that many people we meet are also acquainted with others we know.

Week 3 June 1 to June 7

Monday June 1, 2009

We drove from Des Moines Iowa to Kansas City Missouri and flew back to Salt Lake City via Denver. When we arrived in SLC they were having a massive thunder and lighting storm. We took the bus to the parking lot to get our car and I got drenched while I went to get the car while Janice waited in the bus waiting booth. We made it back to Lindon with no other problems. It was great to see Mitch, Cassie and Hallie Jo.

We found out from the young Elders that while we were away for the weekend the out break of flu's had increased and they were quarantining the Missionaries that had symptoms. It has become a huge issue at the MTC and they are going to delay Elders from leaving to insure they are free from symptoms and they are not going to allow family members to attend the Wednesday orientation meeting when the Missionaries arrive at the MTC. They will have to drop the Missionaries at the sidewalk and say their goodbye at that time.

Tuesday June 2, 2009

We are back at the MTC learning Spanish from 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM. We are really enjoying learning and enjoy the days that we are feeling well and everything is making sense.

At the devotional we got to hear from Elder Walter F. Gonzalez of the 1^st Quorum of the Seventy. It was a great talk and the spirit was very strong.

Wednesday June 3, 2009 through Saturday June 6, 2009

We are continuing the Spanish Tutoring and things continue to slowly be retained. We have 3 weeks left until we officially report to the MTC for training. The everyday all day language training with stop and they offer evening tutoring the language. We are trying to focus and work hard to learn as much as possible before we start the other training so we will not have multiple things to focus on.

Saturday afternoon we are going to see Janice's brother Gregg in North Ogden and his family. We are going to a dance program that Courtney is performing in and spend the night and go to Church with them tomorrow.