MTC EXPERIENCE

We entered the MTC Monday, October 15^th at 9:30 am. There was about 80 other couples joining us going on missions to all parts of the world and on different types of missions.  We registered and received our Missionary name tags then the rest of the morning was spent with small group meeting in which we did something different at each station. We had a medical review of our records, an orientation of procedures and we met our emergency helpers that would be there for us 24/7 in case we had questions or needed help of any kind. Then it was lunch. The cafeteria was a busy place feeding over 2,000 young missionaries plus us seniors. They had a great variety of food to choose from and all was very delicious. After lunch we met Brother Peterson who taught us the purpose of our missions and how to fulfill that purpose. Then we were divided into districts and givien our assignments for the evening. We went and checked in the Marriott Inn as that is where we were to stay since there was just not room for everyone on the mission campus. Don went jogging as he had such a hard time sitting all day even though we had time to walk in between lunch and class for about a half hour. I began to read the assignments. After dinner I tried to finish my assignments. I was so exhausted during this time I could barely stay away to finish the assignments so I prayed that Heavenly Father would help me stay alert and understand what I was studying. I managed to finish the whole assignment and did my scripture study and journal entry. It was quiet an overwhelming day but everyone was so helpful and friendly we did fine. I was really impressed by the spiritual strength that was there at the MTC.

Tuesday we were up at 6am and by 7:20 we were at the cafeteria eating breakfast. Classes started at 8 am and went till 4:30 pm every day. Each day was started with a large group devotional with pray and a hymn. Then we were assigned individual class teachers according to our districts. Our morning teacher was Elder Keddington. There were four couples in our district. Elder and Sister Nield who were going to the temple, Elder and Sister Loveless who were going to the Palmyra Temple and Elder and Sister Trimming who were going to Tennessee to do a missionary support mission like us. We discussed “how to begin teaching” and how to start a relationship with a stranger. We started out by role playing situations in where we were suppose to “break the ice’. We were to establish a relationship of trust, establish expectations, learn their spiritual state, bring the spirit. In the afternoons our teacher was Sister Thomas and she taught us ways to invite and commit people to the gospel. We role played by teaching the restoration lesson. This was hard work and your really had to work hard to remember points of the lesson and include questions and invitations and commitments. In the evening there was a devotional by Shane Bowers (a seventy) and his wife.  Anytime we had a break in class I read my next day’s assignment because I knew it would late when we got back to our room. So I only had scripture study to do and then I crashed for the night

Wednesday after our devotional we headed to our morning classroom where we waited to have our first investigator lesson while we waited for our turn our class was shown a video about staying healthy during our missions. The time came and we met with James an investigator. Don and I did fairly well in the 45 minutes they gave us but we were both taken back by how hard it was to teach even though we have had all these years of church experience. We had a large group meeting to start the afternoon off with Brother Peterson teaching us to “teach people not lessons”. He is a very dynamic teacher someone to emulate. Our afternoon with Sister Thomas was mostly role playing and practicing for our next lesson where we would be teaching a less active person. The evening was spent studying and practicing for our teaching appointment. The lesson we were assigned to teach was the Plan of salvation.

Thursday after our devotional we headed to our small classrooms and our group was up first to teach our less active sister. We had a sister Mendenhall. This lesson went much better than the day before. Don and I worked well together. After our appointment we also saw a talk given by David Bednar on the 20 marks as an example of how we don’t always know we have the spirit when we teach and that the results of our following the spirit aren’t always seen. It was such a great story. Then we had another large group meeting where we saw some powerful clip of Elder Holland teaching us how powerful using the Book of Mormon can be and what a great tool it is. In the afternoon Sister Thomas taught us about how people have excuses for not being active but that there is always an underlying reason such as a weak testimony. We did some more role playing as we prepared to teach a couple who was less active.

Friday we headed straight to our small classrooms and commenced in teaching our less active couple. It was very difficult but we did get the opportunity to teach some principles that they committed to trying. It was a good experience. Then we had a large group meeting where we were taught how to work with the Bishops and ward mission leaders in the wards we would be assigned to be in. In the afternoon we had a senior couple visit our class and tell us of some of their experiences in the mission field.  We were done at 3:30 pm and after pictures and packing up we were on the road to our mission by 4 pm The Dalles here we come.