MISSION TRAINING CENTER

It's hard to believe we are finally here in the MTC in Provo, UT. What a wonderful place! There are 130 Senior Missionaries here this week, many more than the average 60. We are going to all parts of the world and it is so fun to talk to all of the others and hear about their mission. Everyone is just as excited about their mission as we are. Last evening we had an awesome Devotional. President Russell M. Nelson came to speak to us. It was the first time he has given a talk since he was set apart as the President of the Council of  The Twelve. Dean and I were privileged to sing in the choir with 1100 young people. We sang "Be Still My Soul", which was chosen as a song of comfort for the new President with so many burdens on his shoulders. It was a thrill to sing to him. He gave us an inspired talk full of great advice for missionaries at this time. Several things he said spoke to me. He said, "The doctrine of Christ should be engraved on our hearts." He also said, "If you have only one convert on your mission, I would hope it would be yourself."
     We are eating like we will never see food again!!! Tonight, as we stood in line for our dinner, (chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, and tomato basil soup), there were two young elders in front of us heading to Tokyo, Japan. They were in line for the second time to get a full plate again. They said they had heard that the helpings of food in Japan were not as big and they needed to store it up. Watching how much many of the young Elders eat often makes me lose my appetite. But today is my birthday and it was also ice cream day. They had huge pots of hot caramel and hot fudge and many other toppings. I was pretty sure it was for my birthday, so I had a little ice cream with my caramel, which is my favorite flavor of anything! They sang happy birthday to me everywhere I went today, (5 times), but it was pretty awesome when they did it in the cafeteria. We all eat together, all 2400 of us!
     Our lessons and classes are amazing and we have great teachers with giant testimonies. We love them. We have 16 Seniors in our district and already love them all. We role play all day. We thought it would be uncomfortable, but it's not. It strengthens our testimonies as we have so many opportunities to testify of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I will never tire of hearing the testimony of my dear companion. He has already grown so much and it's wonderful to see. We are so happy here!