What a Week!

We finished our first week at the Missionary Training Center on Friday. It was such a wonderful week of learning new ways to teach the scriptures and gospel principles.

We had so many wonderful experiences last week. Friday morning President Martino (our new mission president starting in July 2011) brought his wife to the MTC so we could meet her. She is going to be wonderful to work with. Watch for their bio in the Church News.

Friday evening at dinner, we sat at a table with a couple who are going to the Siberia Russia Mission. As Wade was talking to them, they told him that their son had served in the Baguio Philippines mission in 1992. Wade told them that his parents had been there and that his dad died while playing tennis on his P-day. When he told them this story, they got this funny look of shock on their faces. They told us that the mission president had called their son and his companion to go and pick up the elder who had died. It was Wade's dad! What are the chances that we would be at the MTC the same time as this couple whose son had preformed such a tender assignment in carrying for the remains of Wade's dad?

While home this weekend, we were able attend a wedding reception for a young man in our ward. It was wonderful to talk to so many ward members and share some of our experiences. We enjoyed our ward conference on Sunday as well. It was a tender time saying good-bye to so many dear friends. We also visited with my mom and bid her farewell as well.

So today we are back at the MTC doing office training. We are learning iMOS (Internet Missionary Office System) that the church uses. We will be working on this for the next 2 days. We also had some EXCEL training today. It was a good review for me from training I had a few years ago.

Another coincidence . . . Today while we were eating lunch, I looked up and saw a couple from my ward growing up - Keith & Diane Burns - who are beginning their mission today. They will be going to the North Carolina Charlotte Mission. It was so fun to visit with them as they embark on their own great adventure. They said they had only received their call 3 weeks ago. They are in a group of 67 senior missionaries - 33 couples and 1 single sister. We also met 2 couples who will be going to Cove Fort. The work is moving forward!

I have a couple of pictures, but I hven't figured out how to post them . . . still working on that. Stay tuned . . . . . . . .