New Friends at the Missionary Training Center

Part of the December 29, 2014 Missionary Group @ the Missionary Training Center

Perhaps you will recognize the missionary with the red tie and the lady in front of him with the purple sweater...That's us; officially Elder and Sister Thomas at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.  There were about 80 of us senior missionaries entering the mission field that week.  The couple to the left of us, E & S Evans, the two ladies in the middle, Sister Baird and Sister Dean, and the couple third in from the right, E & S Conlin, were going to our mission.  The others were going out to other "serving grounds."  The couple to the right of Sister Dean were going to serve as humanitarian missionaries in Beijing, China!  The couple third in from the left were going to serve as mission office missionaries in New Mexico, I think.  The first couple on the left are serving here in Salt Lake City at the Bishop's Storehouse with their 35 year old daughter who has Down's Syndrome.  

Here is the rest of our group:  The first couple on the left in the upper photo went to Sweden.  He had served there as a young missionary many years ago and was excited to be going back.  She was trying to learn the language from him as he remembered various words and phrases and was giving it a very valiant effort.The fourth couple in from the left are serving with us in our mission.  They are the Sandersons.  They are "live at home" full time missionaries who live south of SLC and ride the TRAX to serve each day.

In the lower photo, the fifth couple from the right are the MacCabes and they are also serving in our mission.  They are from Colorado.  In the Center of the photo, Sister Zohrabyan, is from Armenia. She is the greatest!  And what a story she has.  I will try to tell you about her later on.  Suffice to say, we, here in the United States, are very blessed to have the freedoms, working conditions and ease of life that we do.

The couple to the left of her...I can't remember their names but they were called to be "live at home" missionaries in their stake here by SLC somewhere.  It is a new program the Church is trying; calling senior couples to serve full time missions in their own stakes.  While we were in the MTC we learned about sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ more effectively; in a way that those who are seeking will recognize the truths of the gospel.  We often had to practice what we were learning and so were paired with other senior missionaries where one couple acted as missionaries while the other were either investigators or members who were no longer active.  This couple played the part of a couple they knew that were the latter.  We did our best to get to know them, assess their concerns or the reason they left activity in the Church, and share a message with them.  It was perhaps one of the most spiritual experiences of my life....even though it was "play-acting."  I will always wonder about the people they were portraying and pray that they will come to realize what they have left behind and return.

Elder Thomas was assigned to be a District Leader while we were in the MTC which meant he was to watch over a group of four other couples during our time there.  We all worked each day in a group so it was easy to keep track of them and how they were doing but now, interestingly enough, we are still concerned with how they are doing in their new mission experiences.

We stayed in an apartment that was about a mile from the MTC campus, the YView Apts (BYU fans can appreciate the name...that campus was close by also).  We got up early, met as a large group, divided into our smaller district groups, were taught and roll played, broke for lunch and then finally for supper and to go back to our apartment.  I should have practiced getting up early before we entered the mission field!!  I was exhausted.  I had to stay home on Wednesday because I had come down with E Thomas's flu bug and couldn't get out of bed.  We were only at the MTC for five days and we hated to leave when it was time.

Note;  the food in the cafeteria, which was huge as there are hundreds of young missionaries there, too, was fine.  Our dentist told us it was horrible so I was worried.  It was definitely cafeteria food but it was good and we had plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables to go along with the main dishes and desserts.

We left the MTC on Friday, January 2nd, at about noon, bound for our 2nd mission in the Family and Church History Headquarters Mission.