Our first week at the MTC is coming to an end and it has been fantastic! We will actually be staying longer than expected because our visas have not arrived. Next week we will learn office skills even though that is not our call but they want to keep us busy while we wait for our visas and we are glad about that.
Every day was packed with classes which were excellent. We studied from Preach My Gospel and the spirit was strong. The instructors are young returned missionaries with lots of knowledge and enthusiasm and we just loved them to pieces. We are here at an amazing time because of the influx of young Elders and Sisters due to the change in age of eligibility. There were 400 new missionaries last Wednesday and the day we arrived 87 senior missionaries, next week will be more. There are many changes taking place trying to make room for all these people. The senior couples are being moved to the Marriot Hotel in downtown Provo which is where we are staying, very nice accommodations I must say, it is just a little inconvenient waiting for shuttles if you didn't bring your car but we can't complain everyone is so nice!
There is SO MUCH food at the MTC and when it is all there in front of you it is easy to think you need to eat it all. It's an amazing sight to see all those elders and sisters flood into the room at dinner time and to sit and visist with people from all over the world. Today we met an elder from China, his aunt went abroad and learned the gospel and was baptized and brought it back to his family, it was interesting to learn that there are many wards and branches in China. Everyone is happy to be here and there are lots of smiles and greetings in all different languages.
We have not been able to do much studying of Bislama here, our time has been very limited and one of the changes being made is no more language training here for senior couples. We hope to have a little more time this week to study on our own.
We have met many wonderful people and some of them already feel like friends we have know for a long time. Many senior couples are on their third, forth or even fifth missions. My favorite part of the week was the roll playing we did in our districts and then to non member or pretend non member people. This was WAY out of my comfort zone but I learned a lot. The inspirational group meetings we so good, I wish I could play them over and over in my mind. My most embarrassing moment was when I pushed the wrong button on my new ipad and the closing song proceeded to play really loud right during the closing prayer! Isn't that just great:)
We spent a fun three days with Jenni, Michael and Harlow before entering the MTC, they are so good to take care of us, my companion got really sick for a day or two and it was nice to be where we were so comfortable and loved. We were able to see them again last night at our motel and look forward to more visits with them since we are going to be here for awhile. We do pray our visas will arrive withing the next two weeks as we were told from our contact in Vanuatu. The adventure continues, we are well and happy and enjoying this experience to the fullest. For some reason I can't get my pictures to work so I'll post those later.
