ore

August 25, 2012

Hello All!  Yes, children I inserted these photos all by myself!

This is our last post before we leave the MTC!  The top photo is of our district standing in front of the world map at the MTC.  On the far right is Sister McKnight.  She is going to Cape Verde, off the northwestern coast of Africa.  She will help in the mission office there and will have a mission nurse  as her companion.  The couple is Elder and Sister Sears.  They will be serving in the mission office in Billings, Montana.  Next to them is Sister Smoot, she will be serving in the Temple in Washington D.C.
Next to her is Sister Tomyn.  She is Korean and will be serving in the temple in Korea.  They are all young widows!  There are quite a few single sisters here and their courage is amazing!

The second photo is of an old restored motor home belonging to one of our teachers at the MTC, Brother Harman.  He came into class one morning with black paint on his fingers and explained that his wife had spilled the paint last night while they were trying to paint the inside of this motor home.  They evidently purchased this with the idea that they would travel in it after they were finished with school.  Anyway, when he came into class yesterday morning he told us that he had driven his motor home to
work and that he would be happy to show it to any of us who would like to look at it!  So we did!  He and his wife did an amazing job!  They reupholstered the seating and painted all the cupboards and put in new flooring.  I told him they should take a cross country trip!

The last photo is of Mike and I with our language teacher, Leticia Muillo.  She is from Mexico City.  She has been our teacher over the phone for about six months, so it was really fun to meet her in person.
She is lovely and we enjoyed our association with her.

We walked down to the BYU  Bookstore this morning and had a fun time!  School starts Monday so it was a little crowded!  On our way home Mike wanted to stop at the BYU Creamery for one last scoop of their rich and delicious ice cream.

We are repacking our suitcases and getting everything settled up for our departure early Monday morning. We have church services in the morning and also a fireside in the evening.  So it will be a busy last day here.  We will also be doing our laundry this evening.  Those of you who have seen the laundry room here will remember what seems like hundreds of washers and dryers!

We have loved our time here at the MTC and have found it to be a rewarding and very uplifting and also an informative week.  We are ready however, to leave for Argentina and begin our work there!  Our flight leaves around noon on Monday but we will leave the MTC around 8:00 am.  We have been told that the young Elders will be ready to assist us with our luggage again as they did when we arrived!  The senior missionary couples are treated with the utmost respect here and it feels wonderful!

More from Argentina next week!

August 21, 2012

We arrived in Salt Lake City last Thursday evening and headed into our auditor training early Friday morning. We went to the 16th floor of the church office building and were there all day!  There was only one other couple there with us, Elder and Sister Coscos from San Diego.  They will be Area Auditors for the South America North region which includes, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela.  They have an advantage because they are both from South America and of course, speak the language more than perfectly!  Our assignment will be challenging.  The church's auditing program is just two years old and is really very organized but there are still a few things to work out which is what we will be working on.

Over the weekend we stayed with one of my old roommates, Connie Hawkes Anderson.  They are missionaries in a Spanish ward in Salt Lake City.  Saturday night we attended a wonderful potluck dinner at the home of one of the Spanish members and then on Sunday we attended the Spanish ward where all the talks and music were in Spanish and I discovered that I love singing hymns in Spanish!
Connie brought us down to the MTC on Monday morning.  The greeting here is wonderful!  We were greeted by four young elders who carried all of our luggage to our room and then led us downstairs to "get started"!   The elders hold the doors for us and are so respectful of the "senior missionaries."
The organization here is astounding!  It is a testimony in and of itself.

We have met people from all over the United States.  These  couples are serving all over the world!  These are just a few of the places where these couples are headed:  The Republic of Georgia, (Armenian Mission), Ukraine, The Marshall Islands, Cape Verde (off the coast of South Africa), Boston, Washington D. C Temple, Eastern Russia, The Manila Temple, London.  Most of these couples are our age, some a little older, some a little younger .  All very excited about their new adventures.

Tonight we attended a devotional where Elder Neil Anderson and his wife were the speakers.  It was wonderful, and stirring.  Before they spoke, we sang several hymns one of which was "Onward Christian Soldiers". With thousands of missionaries in one large space singing that classic hymn the joy for us was wonderful in every way.

We will be here in Provo through the weekend and will fly to Argentina Monday morning .
We will probably next write our blog from Buenos Aires and will add some pictures!

August 12, 2012.  We have four days left before we leave for our mission!  This weekend we had a family gathering here on our little farm in Goldendale, Washington!  Erika and Jason and the children arrived on Friday around 6:00 and Michael August arrived around 7:00 and Elizabeth and Luke came on Saturday.  My mother was here also and she enjoyed visits with all of the children and great grandchildren.  Chelsea has been overseas and we will meet up with her in Portland on Thursday morning and spend the day with her before our flight leaves in the evening.  Elizabeth had won second place in a recipe contest sponsored by the Lamb Council.  Her prize was 28 lamb chops!  She brought the lamb shops to grill!  Rebekah, Michael, Erika and I went early Saturday morning to the tiny little Farmer's Market in Goldendale and we purchased fresh organic vegetables to roast and eat with the lamb.  We then drove about 15 minutes to the Maryhill orchards and bought  a box of freshly picked peaches .  We had a wonderful and delicious "farm to table" meal.  I made a lemon cake decorated with fresh thyme from our garden, and everyone sliced their own peaches to eat with the cake.  Joshua and great Grandma Gamman have birthdays in August so we celebrated and sang to them!

Over the last week and a half we have had several visits from family and friends.  My walking partner of seven years, Claire and her husband Peter drove up one afternoon for lunch and we had a wonderful visit with them.  Also, my dear friend, Lori Wahlstrom drove up and spent last Sunday with us.  A few days later Steve and Linda brought Michael's mother up and we also had a great lunch with them!  It is the first time Grace had seen our farm and at 103 she weathered the trip beautifully!

We will spend the next few days finishing up last minute items.  We will be in training in Salt Lake City on Friday and will enter the MTC on Monday, August 20.  We will fly to Buenos Aires  on August 27.

Thanks to all for your love and support and encouragement!