Sunday, March 8

This is one of our instructors.  His name is Brother Homer.  All of the young teachers (both young women and young men) are returned missionaries and they work here at the MTC.  They are sharp and qualified young people and they know the gospel well and how to teach it.
                      Look how far away from home we will be.  

Today is Sunday and we have a free afternoon, so I will try to catch up on what has happened in the last couple of days.  We went to the Temple yesterday morning and then Susanne and Thale came to see us and take us on some errands.   We remembered when we got to the MTC that Sister Argyle, our Mission Presidents wife, told us in a previous email to bring four water purification bottles (2 each).  We were to purchase them at the MTC bookstore.  Well, we didn't have any room to take them with us, so we needed to find a larger tote bag or carry on bag that would accommodate them.  We were successful in finding one at WalMart that sort of looked like a huge purse.  It isn't too cute, but will do the job.  They took us to dinner at the Olive Garden and then we had to say goodbye.  We are following in their footsteps by serving a mission.  Their example encouraged us to do the same, but we will miss them.

Friday evening we did our laundry here at the MTC.   We don't know if we will be able to afford to do it again there.  It is pretty expensive........25 cents to wash and 10 cents for a dryer load for 40 minutes.   What a deal!

The food here is wonderful.  We haven't had anything that we didn't like.  It is all tasty and delicious, and there is a variety from which to choose.  Ice cream day is Wednesday at noon and they bring in tons of it.  Some Elders have two or three kinds on their trays.  However, today after our meal at noon, there was ice cream and toppings available. Yummmm!   But the thing that amazes us is we eat three good meals a day and even though we don't do physical activities in between the meals, we are actually hungry when the next meal time comes around. How can that be????  Well, we decided that we don't get to snack at all between meals (like at home) so we are ready to consume again when the time comes.   Many people are confessing that they have gained weight while being here.   We are trying to be careful about what we eat, but it is so hard with all the good choices they offer.

Thursday evening, we were treated to dinner by Dan and Diane Lovingier.  Dan was a counselor to Rich in the Sandy bishopric, many years ago.   They have moved from California to Payson, with serving a mission to Ecuador in between.  After dinner, they drove us to Payson to see their new home on  5 acres of ground (to accommodate horses) and it is beautiful and spacious.  We enjoyed our evening with them.

Today, Sacrament meeting started at 8:00 a.m. and with day light savings time changing, it was so very early to get up and around.  They divide this whole campus up into smaller groups for Sacrament meeting.  There are 57 branches here at the MTC.  Each has a branch presidency with brethren probably being called from the Provo/Orem area.    We attended one assigned to us and it was a good meeting.   Then we all went to an auditorium and watched the Spoken Word.  The sisters remained there for Relief Society, and the brethren left to find a Priesthood meeting.   In Relief Society, the General Young Women's President, Elaine Cannon, spoke to us. She was wonderful.   

Sunday evening:

We left for dinner, then attended two meetings.  The first one was a Departure Devotional.  It is for all the missionaries that are leaving the MTC this week for their fields of labor.  It was a very emotional and inspirational meeting....at least for me (JK) it was.  It hit me that "this is it".  We are representatives of Jesus Christ, and we are going to Argentina to spread the gospel in any way we can, either by strengthening the missionaries, helping a ward or branch fellowship and activate less active members, find investigators for the missionaries to teach, or do whatever the mission president asks us to do.  We are committed and excited to serve, and hope we can accomplish good things.

The room was packed with missionaries at this meeting and I couldn't sing the hymns as I was overwhelmed with the sound of all the strong male voices.  I just wanted to listen.  It was incredible.

Then we attended a fireside where the Administrative Director of the MTC spoke.  His name is Richard Heaton.  He did a good job and was a very impressive man with all he had accomplished in his young life.  We think he was in his 50's.