July 22, 2013

Today we were able to spend the day working with President and Sister Stoker (top picture).  Elder  and Sister Benjamin (lower picture) are the missionaries we are replacing.  We have found that there is so much work to do in keeping the mission operating.  We had no idea!  We are hoping we can learn all our duties quickly without making too many mistakes.  We will move into our apartment this Saturday.  We are looking forward to getting out of this hotel.  We are getting cabin fever.
Sunday at church was great.  The Ward we have been ask to attend is small and very diverse and we hope to help everywhere we can.  The missionaries had investigators there in the Gospel Essentials class and it was great helping teach. We are so impressed with the missionaries.

Travel to New Hampshire

We left Provo on July 10, 2013 early in the morning.  We drove over 700 miles getting to North Platte Wyoming. We have driven through Wyoming many times before but never as far east as North Platte.  It was pretty desolate but had its own beauty.
We then drove to the Mississippi River and stayed in a small town on the eastern bank. Iowa was green with lots of corn fields and very beautiful. 
We then drove through Illinois and stopped in Ohio just outside Kirtland.  Illinois was green and beautiful also.  So many farms and they were kept up so beautiful.
Monday, July 15th we went to the Kirtland Temple as shown above and toured the Temple and old town Kirtland.  It was special, but I wish our church owned the Kirtland Temple.  The tour guide, who was not LDS, just didn't understand the significance of the wonders and miracles that occurred in this wonderful Temple.  And yet the tour through old town Kirtland was done with wonderful Sister Missionaries that not only knew the stories, but included their testimonies which brought the spirit.  It was wonderful.
Today is Tuesday July 16th, and we have arrived in Manchester, New Hampshire.  The Mission has put us in a Hilton Hotel until the couple we are replacing leaves which will be Saturday July 27th.  We are looking forward to reporting to the Mission Office tomorrow morning. We are anxious to start our labors in this area hoping to do those things that the Lord would have us do.

Provo Tabernacle Temple

We visited the construction site of the Provo Tabernacle Temple.  It is really a construction and engineering marvel.  It is being built on the original site as the Tabernacle.

MTC District

Our MTC District.  From left to right.  Elder and Sister Reinhardt, North Carolina Mission, Elder and Sister Maile, Tonga Mission, Brother Sillitoe, Instructor, Elder and Sister Skidmore, New Hampshire Mission, and Elder and Sister Snow, Berlin Germany Mission.

Week one at MTC

 

 

 

 

 

FIRST WEEK AT THE MTC

 

 We just finished our first week at the MTC.  It was very busy but we loved every minute of it.

We were first put in districts where we met our teachers for the week.  Bro. Sillitoe (he had us call him " Silly Toes") taught in the morning and Bro. Pike was our afternoon teacher.  Both were young returned missionaries with lots of enthusiasm.  We would always begin our day with an opening Hymn and a prayer with all the127 senior missionaries.  There was always such a great spirit there.

 

   Tuesday evening we had our first devotional with all the missionaries in the Marriott Center. 

It was great!  Bro. Matthew O. Richardson from the General Sunday School Presidency spoke

to us. He talked of Pres. David O. McKay's motto:  "where ere' thou art, act well thy part".  I can still remember that motto from my youth.    It was wonderful.  There were over a thousand missionaries at the Marriott center singing "Faith of our Fathers".  What a great representation of Gods "strippling warriors".

 

   Thursday was the 4th of July.  After classes that day was a special devotional that night also. We sang lots of patriotic songs and had speakers, special numbers and watched the video "17 Miracles".

Afterward all the missionaries went outside to watch the fireworks from BYU stadium.  We also got Magnum ice cream bars. Ha, the missionaries loved it and we did too. We are so blessed to live in this free country.

  

Also, as part of our training that week we have what we call "roll play" where we practice teaching an investigator.  We are not told if they are members or not.  Dad and I happened to get my good friend Sandra Sherwood Harral's Uncle,  Ray Sherwood.  It was so special for us as we knew many his family. His wife had just passed away a week ago so there was a wonderful feeling with us as we bore our testimonies to him.  What a amazing week!!  This picture is the wave of Missionaries returning from the Marriott Center to the MTC.

MTC

June 28, 2013
We left home at about 1:15pm to travel to Connie and Bills for the night.  We were delayed in a traffic accident on the way to Camp Verde for over an hour.  But we arrived fine, had a wonderful evening with them taking us to dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  Connie and Bill are always so good to us.
June 29, 2013
Left Connie's abut 7:30am heading for Utah.  We arrived at Tenna and Bill's about 6:15 pm..  We had a wonderful week end with them and their family. Steve and Kelly and kids were there too.  Shalynn and Tim came over too and we all had a wonderful dinner. We had a great Sunday with them.  Tenna and Bill are such wonderful hosts.
July 1, 2013
We left Tenna's about 9:15 am.  Checked into the MTC at 10am.  What a wonderful day.  Lots to do to get settled.  We are in room  314 we have been assigned in great district and Miriam and I have been working on tomorrow's assignment in Preach My Gospel.  It is so neat.  The MTC is everything we'd hoped it would be.  We are making new friends, the food is great and most of all the spirit is so strong.  The majority of the couples are from Utah, and we are the only ones from Arizona.  We don't have the restrictions the young Elders and Sisters have.  We are able to have phones, computers, tablets, etc.  We can leave the MTC when not in class or have an assignment.  So life is good.
I went for a walk this evening and it was really neat to see the Elders and Sisters in study groups all over the MTC.  I could hear them practicing many different languages, etc. 

The call came!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We received our mission call on June 4, 2013 in the mail.  We text all our children and notified them that we were opening our call that evening at 7pm, inviting all over.  We had as many of our family there that could and face timed Lance and his family.  We were called to serve in the New Hampshire, Manchester Mission for 18 months as office specialists.  We were to report to the Provo MTC July 1, 2013.  We were so excited and happy. It was such a fun night being with the family and treat ourselves with donuts and milk.