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!