MTC Week one

Amy and her kids brought us to the MTC on Monday, July 29th.  Darin met us here and they dropped us off at the front door and we said goodbye.  It didn't really sink in then that it would be the last time we'd see all of our family for two years!
We checked in, got our name tags and went to the chapel where they teach senior missionaries.  We met Brother Peterson who introduced us all to each other.  There were 47 senior missionaries in our group..a few single sisters included.  We were given instructions and started our Preach My Gospel training.  We met our teachers, one set for the morning, Brother Jacobs and Sister Zollinger; and Brother Sillitoe and Sister Vela for the afternoon.
The purpose of missionary work follows: "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end". (Doug and I have started to memorize this purpose in both Spanish and English).
We were divided into districts with Elder Knapp as the district leader.  In our district we had the Browns going to the Detroit mission in employment, the Millers going to the San Diego Mormon Battalion mission, the Gibbs going to the Leeds England Mission as MLS missionaries and us.
We had large group meetings with all the senior missionaries at various times, but spent a lot of time with our teachers in our district.  We learned so much and had great experiences as they taught us from Preach My Gospel.  We had to teach investigators, be missionaries, be less active members being taught by missionaries.  They taught us to not teach lessons, but to teach people.  That is a great concept.  If all we do is try to teach a lesson, it is so easy to not be in tune with the spirit or understand the needs of the people you are teaching. We had a great experience with our investigator, John Fields.  He was a sweet little man and we liked his humble spirit. We had to go in to get to know him for 15 minutes and then teach him a lesson for 30 minutes.  From our 15 minute get to know you session, we had to discern what his needs were and the best way to teach him the doctrine.  We also had to teach a Sister Genther.  She was very difficult to keep on track.  Everything seemed to go back to her problems, and family and it was hard to feel like she got anything out of what we were saying even though we were able to commit her to reading the 11th chapter of 3 Nephi.
We had to take the part of a less active family and have the missionaries come and then we switched roles and were the missionaries and taught a less active family.  This was an activity in the district.  It was eye opening.
We also had to get to know another couple who were role playing a less active family for 15 minutes and then take 30 minutes and prepare a lesson according to what we discerned as their needs.  We then taught them for 30 minutes.  We had a good experience when we were the missionaries, but when we were the less active family it just wasn't the same.
All of what we were taught and using came from Preach My Gospel. It just makes us want to really get in and study that amazing book.  You could study it for your whole mission and not learn everything there is to learn from it!
The cafeteria has been our hangout for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The food isn't really all that bad.  It is all you can eat, and we have seen some missionaries eat a lot!
When we first arrived, we had to check our travel plans to get our flight out.  We checked at different times and with different people and couldn't get anyone to tell us anything.  Finally a Brother Jason Mitchell from the Missionary Department in SLC called us to set up a lunch appointment for Friday and we told him we had no flight plans.  That very day, we got our plans to leave on August 8th.
Brother Mitchell took us to Maglebys for lunch and showed us a power point presentation about our mission assignment and answered questions for us.  He said we would be talking to him at least once a week over the phone and more often if we had questions or problems. He told us he had read our missionary application and that when they had decided to use us and change our call, it had to go back to the brethren to get it approved. Wow!  We have to be really good to live up to the expectations they have for us.
There wasn't room for us here at the MTC to stay so we spent our first week in the Marriott Hotel in downtown Provo. We walked to the Smiths store a couple of times which was only about 2 blocks away...for exercise and a few items.  We rode the exercise bikes in the exercise room at the hotel every night that we spent there.  It was nice to ride since I've been having trouble with my feet hurting.  We had to ride a shuttle back and forth to the MTC each day. 
On Saturday, our P day, we were able to move to the MTC since we have a few more days of training here.  We have a nice little room and the air conditioning is great since it has been so hot here. We did our laundry at the MTC and then walked to the BYU Bookstore to see if we could find a white shirt for me.  It was a long hot walk and we had 2 different people stop and offer us a ride on our way home.  That was nice of them, but we walked even though it was hot outside.
This week has been great.  It wasn't so fun saying goodbye to many of the new friends we have made, but it is exciting to know that we are all about to embark on a great adventure wherever we are going!
Next week we have a few days of training about Visitor Centers.  It should be fun!