MTC 6-19-2008

MTC
Thursday June 19, 2008
Thursday, our last full day at the MTC. We ended up (pardon the pun) going to bed at 1:15 am because we (Cindy) kept thinking of people we needed to call and things we needed to do on her computer email. I'm learning to be a good sport about this, but I'm getting really tired about 2:00 in the afternoon.

A few days ago we bought another clock, this time a battery powered digital because the wind-up one from Rite-aid would run for only about 30 seconds and Trisha returned it. We couldn't fund another mechanical clock at the MTC/BYU Book Store. We took it home and found that it would not work either. I returned it and got another that we tried out in the store.

After two nights using the new clock, Cindy said that she did not relate to the clock. About 1:15 am I suggested that she have the clock on her night stand instead of on mine so they could get acquainted. She said she didn't want to get acquainted with it, but after 10 minutes of "yes you should" & "no I won't" she finally gave in. Then in the dark she asked what time the alarm was set at. I wanted her to learn how to tell for herself and answered, "I don't remember". After several minutes of looking and talking we decided it was set at 5:45 am so we could be on time for our ride to the dentist. S0 she could not go to sleep until I set the alarm on my phone as a back-up. She didn't trust the new clock that she didn't yet relate to. Fun huh?

We had our last office training sessions today and learned mail-merge and other computer functions to keep track of the office. Cindy is really being brave, learning about making news letters and correspondence that are very important for the mission. This is way-way outside her comfort zone, but she's making a big effort to get it right. I know she will be fine after a few weeks.

We had our "last meals" tonight in the cafeteria and they must have known it was our last. Cindy got to have macaroni & cheese for lunch and chicken fried steak for dinner. I had a steak sandwich for lunch and salmon for dinner. Both were our favorites. We also had our last root beer and fudge cicle/dream bar and felt very blessed.

We talked to many young missionaries heading around the world. Some young men were headed to up-state New York where the Formans were heading tomorrow by car to live in Brooklyn at the Bishop's Storehouse. We met some sisters heading for Chile, one going to the mission where the Masons will be the office couple. Next we talked to a young elder named Payne from Carmichael Stake. He was involved in the Sacramento Temple open house and remembered Cindy as the sister over the shoe-covers. He wasn't sure about me. His dad worked for Bishop Summers and did a lot of the graphics for the Temple materials and he worked in the prints shop producing the stuff. We also met several of the mission presidents who had come a little early for the Presidents' Conference next week. Great people.

We SKYPE'd Brian & company this evening and watched Hannah dip her food in "ketchup" and lick it off without eating the food. She recognized us and talked to us a little. We called Scott and talked to him for a few minutes about his new job downtown. Trish, Chris, and the girls came for one last goodbye, carrying Baskin Robbins ice cream cups for each of us. Trish has been such a great help during our stay. We would have struggled a lot without her. We called the Johnsons, the Salways, the Wilberga, the Frangels, the Larsons, and the Lunds called us. We've done about all we could do.

Finally, as we are about to "jump off" into the darkness of a new adventure, I have a few reflections. First, we are not afraid. We have traveled enough to know a little about it and most of the do's and don'ts. We have been in Russia twice and found the people good and the place interesting. The darkness comes from not knowing exactly what we will be doing on a grand scale and having no experience in our roles. Our living quarters are a mystery, the food, water, streets, people, customs, weather, police, mafia, are all a mystery. It's not the hardship, it is the not-knowing what the hardship will be. We are not afraid, but we are aware of our ignorance of what lies ahead and that is darkness to us.

Second, our faith, and our knowledge is that the Lord sent us to Novosibirsk and will support and protect us. Our faith is that the Holy Ghost will light our path one step at a time and tell us the truth as we walk our path into the mysterious darkness and we will see just far enough ahead to know what to do at the time. Our faith is that that light will continue to light our path for every step we take along that now mysterious way and we will accomplish our mission with joy and rejoice in the knowledge that we are about the Lord's errand. We love Heavenly Father and know that we are his children. We trust our Savior Jesus Christ now just as we did when we accepted Father's plan for the our time on earth he said that he would come to earth and be our savior and atone for our sins. We know Him, We trust Him. We serve him. We were commissioned by Him. We are loved by Him.We are blessed by him. It is as good as it can get.

See you in Siberia.
Elder Doug

MTC 6-16-08

MTC
Monday June 16, 2008
Today, Monday, we began our office training at 8 am with a general intro to computers and to MS Word in the morning and the Church's MOS (missionary office system for tracking the missionaries and their activity) and Excel in the afternoon. It is pretty elementary for me, but Cindy is finding it very new. She is doing really well for someone who hates computers. and she'll be fine after a few months of experience. It is a different kind of thinking than she is used to.

After dinner we had our first Russian lesson of the week and worked on the alphabet and reading simple English words in the Russian lettering. This is really hard for me to learn a whole new set of sound symbols. I have a pretty good ear, but a so-so memory. I guess the Lord will have to fill in where the gray-matter is missing.

Tonight I decided that I needed a slightly smaller suitcase. Each of our bags was at 70 lbs. coming here and we (Cindy) have bought more stuff (shoes, etc.) and I need to "lighten-the-ship" and leave some stuff home. I called Trisha's house on the SKYPE system and asked her to check on Ross' closing time in Orem because they have some inexpensive luggage that might work for me. She found that they closed at 9:30 and it was already 8:20, but she jumped in the car and came to take us to Ross. We found a suitable suitcase (pardon the pun) and I forgot to take a picture in the store so I took one in the Baskin Robbins parking lot with her and the suitcasse, which brings me to our next nice experience tonight.

Cindy started this whole thing while I was on the "phone" with Trisha by saying that she wanted her to come and take us for an ice cream cone. Well, after getting the luggage, we stopped at her house to get a piece of ribbon to tie on it for identification and then headed to Baskin Robbins on the way back to the MTC. On the way she mentioned that she needed some electric clippers to help her elderly neighbor. who was also a member of her ward. We asked why and this was the story.

She was touched Sunday by a sister's talk that mentioned how she had been in the ward (congregation) for over 6 months and no one talked to her. She was feeling very lonely and sad and prayed for someone to be nice to her. The next day her Visiting Teacher (a woman who is supposed to visit her once a month) called wanting to get to know her and made an appointment to come by. She said that now she had someone who talked to her and be a friend and how important that was to her.

Trisha identified with the lonely sister because she spent many lonely months in that ward before someone talked to her. This evening, as she drove off to pick us up, she realized that she had seen the same old man in his front yard watering or doing something else many times as she passed several times a day and she would wave, but she never stopped to say hello. Tonight, she stopped and asked him how he was and he said, "Not too good." She asked how she could help and he said that he could do most things still but could not do the trimming with the hand clippers he had. She responded with love and compassion for this lonely old man by saying that she would see that his trimming was done.

Now she needed some tools and some muscle and was going to talked to someone in the Elders Quorum to find some electric clipper. Cindy suggested that instead of doing it all herself that she report the need to the Elders President and get a work party over there for an hour and do it right, and I think she'll do it. What a nice person she is and how wonderful to be moved by one person's story to help another person with the same need. We have good kids.

The final nice thing of the evening was our stop at Baskin Robbins. As we entered (me in my suit and name tag) people noticed, but said nothing. As I stood at the counter reviewing the 31 flavors a man standing next to me turned and said, "Are you serving a mission here?" I told him we were at the MTC and going to Russia. He pulled a $20 bill out of his pocket and handing it to me said, "We want to buy your ice cream." I said that it was not necessary, but he replied, referring to the (about) ten year old boy next to him, "We take care of the missionaries. Please let us buy your ice cream." I accepted his money and thanked him and the boy that I presumed was his son. I asked if he lived in Provo and he said that they were from Las Vegas and were here for a basketball camp at BYU.

I thanked him again as they left with their ice cream and I reflected on what a powerful lesson that father had just taught his son about honoring missionaries, about being a missionary, about their duty to serve those who serve the Lord, and about being a man. I didn't need the ice cream or the money, but that boy will not soon forget what his dad did to honor a servant of the Lord. We all talked about it on the way back to the MTC and reflected on the goodness around us in a world that often seems harsh and uncaring. There is much love being shared with ordinary people by ordinary people. That is Jesus' way isn't it.
Elder Doug

Life at the MTC

Life at the MTC
Monday June 9, 2008

We arrived at the Provo MTC Monday at 11:15 am after picking up granddaughter Sara from Summer School. We had spent the morning gathering up our stuff, mailing another box to the mission, and gassing up the Youell van.

Chris pulled the van around to the Senior Couples dorm and everyone helped move the 8 pieces of luggage into our palatial room. We then walked around to the entry and left them in the foyer while we got some of our check-in done. Finally we said our goodbyes in the foyer of the main entry and went off to finish getting checked in.

The MTC is very thorough about everything and we felt very peaceful and directed. After a welcome meeting and division into districts of 4 couples, I am the District Leader of 4M131, we had lunch and then a full afternoon of training about Preach My Gospel and health practices they encourage missionaries to follow. Very good stuff.

Monday night we finished getting organized, read our homework assignment (25 pages of PMG) and finally got to bed about 12:30 am. Just like home.

Today, Tuesday, we were taught the first of several lessons on presenting the message of the Restoration. It involves an overview of the whole plan that can be given on a bus or in a grocery line in 5 minutes. It covers:

• God is our loving Heavenly Father
• The Gospel blesses families
• Heavenly Father reveals His gospel in every dispensation
• The Savior's ministry
• The Apostasy
• The Restoration
• The Book of Mormon
• Pray to Know the truth by the Holy Ghost.

This is a very powerful tool that can be used in any situation, in any length of time. We practiced doing it in less than a minute and for as much as 45 minutes. Our instructor is a returned missionary from Novosibirsk named Devires. Finally, we did a roll-play with a lady who came to our room as a follow up to a prior meeting. We invited her in, gave her some refreshments (macadamian nuts & water) and spent 35 minutes teaching her. She was a real delight.

After dinner, we checked on our transportation plan. We have a 12 hour lay-over in Moscow and were concerned about what we would be doing. We found out that they had secured a "day-room" for us and a taxi from the International Airport and to the Domestic Airport to make the lay-over more comfortable. We will still need to claim our luggage and check-in again for the last leg to Novosibirsk.


We each needed another Typhoid shot and Cindy needed a Tetanus shot so we had that done after dinner. The nurse took Cindy around the corner to shoot her because she had long sleeves and had to disrobe. She was less delicate with me.

At 7 pm we had a devotional in the Snow building with Elder and sister Arnold, a member of the 2nd quorum of 70. She told a story about a cow that broke through the fence and ate wheat until she bloated and died, likening the cow to missionaries who break the rules and "die" as to their mission. Elder Arnold's message had 5 points.

1. Understand who you are and that each of you has been given specific gifts and talents (D&C 46:10 & Ex 4:10-12)
2. Understand the sacredness of your calling & what you covenented to do when you accepted the call (PMG 46 & 139)
3. Understand and observe the Law of Obedience--the first law of the Gospel.
4. Understand your purpose here
5. Work hard and smart

After the Devotional, Cindy & I spent until 10:30 reading our homework assignment and finally got in bed about 11. Getting better.

I love being here. I find myself touched by almost everything that I see or hear. The Holy Ghost is witnessing the truth of everything to me every moment. While bearing my testimony to the roll-play sister I could hardly get it out for the tears. I'm a cryer anyway, but this is over the top.

I am looking forward to our training tomorrow and the language training in the evening. What a place. What a church. What a blessing
ElderDoug