Blog – Sunday, December 6, 2015 (Sheila in black, Rick in blue)

We are now officially Missionaries!

Our day started off in our being set apart.  President Harris was very ill so President Hafen stood in for him.  We would have loved to have President Harris do it but were excited to have President Hafen because we have known and respected him for a long time. He also knows us very well. We hope that President Harris recovers quickly. He gave us both beautiful blessings.  John and family attended which was very special to us.  We were both sick with bad colds so left after Sacrament to drive to the MTC.  Our official check in time is 10:00 tomorrow morning.

We arrived, checked in, were taken to our lovely rooms and then had dinner.  The spirit hit in full force as we joined this huge group elders, sisters and senior missionaries. There are beautiful paintings decorating the walls.  The MTC is decorated with beautiful lights outside.  

We were happy to discover we could listen to the First Presidency Christmas message rebroadcast at 7:00 p.m. The broadcast was preceded by the singing of Christmas carols by over a thousand missionaries. The music was inspiring when sung by so many faithful and strong young men and women. We had some good exchanges with other couples as we returned to the dorm. It seems as if missionaries are just going everywhere.

Monday, December 7, 2015

As we both have awful viruses and didn't sleep well last night, off and on in my head I kept thinking, "I Love My MTC" instead of the popular "I Love my MTV".  I truly love this wonderful place.  Today was an introduction to rules and training schedules and three meals in the cafeteria.  Everything here is so smoothly scheduled.  I noticed people cleaning during the day, keeping everything in a condition similar to our temples. We met and talked to several other senior couple missionaries. I was appointed District leader and Elder & Sister Hershel Hafen are in my district. They are from Henderson, Nevada, and are going to Hawaii, Honolulu, and he is Lyman Hafen's cousin. The Colemans are going to Africa, SE. The Mylers are going to Chile, Conception. We also found one of my High School friends, Elder Miller and his wife who will be MLS Missionaries in Washington, D.C. All of these Senior Missionaries are wonderful people.

We listened to a talk Elder Bednar gave to the elders here a few years ago(on Christmas Day, a Sunday) on the character of Christ which was excellent and gave much food for thought. He made it clear that to be really effective, we must be converted to and actually become more like our Savior. This mission is not about us and what we get out of it. It is about spreading the gospel to those who will receive and embrace it and their conversion to Christ. As it turns out, Elder Bednar also does a killer impression of Sesame Street's Cookie Monster.  He said most of us humans have a Cookie Monster feeling of -it is all about me, all of the time - "Me want cookies NOW".

                                      Over a 1000 missionaries at the Christmas Devotional

One of my favorite paintings at the MTC