First Week in MTC

We arrived Monday Feb 6th.  We were the second couple to check in, at 10:01 am.  We were directed to a loading dock where lots of "Junior Elders" were waiting to help us with our luggage and escort upstairs to our rooms.  We stayed in the MTC (the building with the bookstore and mail room) which was very nice.

The first day we met as the new Senior Missionaries group (31 couples) and were introduced to the MTC Presidency, and Elder & Sister Stock, the MTC Directors.  We all got to tell where we are from, what our mission/assignment are & any previous missions served. This was followed up by being divided into districts; Gail was called to be a District Leader and we had three other couples in our District: the Fellows, (member support St. Petersburg, Russia), the Grosses (member support Denver South), and the Leckingtons (family history & extraction Boise).

  How fun to hear such great destinations and experiences of everyone. We were excited to get to know as many as we could.

We even ran into a couple from our Sandy ward of 35 years ago- Don and Leslie Peterson, also going to South Africa on welfare assignment! It is such a small world.  In our large group we also met the Dunfords, public relations Carribean, who we met last Sunday at our church because they are staying with Bishop Wonnacott until the MTC, as Sister Dunford is the Bishop's sister. They were delightful. AND, we further traced the connection: Their son John (wife Pam) were friends of ours in our St. Charles Ward, St. Louis, circa 1990s.

Everyday we spent in training/teaching opportunities from the inspired Preach My Gospel with awesome returned missionaries:Bro. Chinn, Sisters Hale and Thomas. The cafeteria was run like a tight ship and the food was very plentiful and good! Just like a cruise, we gained 5 pounds this week! We were told there were close to 2800 missionaries there with us and it was soooo great to see and feel of their spirit!
Many of us commented throughout this wonderful week, that if only senior couples could visit here for just one day, the MTC would have to turn them away to prevent overcrowding!  It is such a great experience!