Departure Day

Today is the day! We fly from Salt Lake City to LAX at 8:00 p.m. tonight.  Then we leave for Hong Kong at 11:00p.m. arriving in Manila 15 hours later.  We will be in Manila for a few days to train and meet our leaders there before heading to Bacolod.  There is 14 ahead hour time difference there so it will be fun to try and communicate with all of you but we will just get up early and drive to our offices where we have internet access.  We are anxious, excited, and humbled to be going out to serve our Father in Heaven in thie great work.  We love you all so very much and thank you for your support and prayers.  Know we will be praying for you each and every day.  The Lord will bless you and wrap you in his arms.  Lots of virtual hugs!

photos

                                                      Our trainers Elder and Sister Jarvis

                                          Brown's,  Sinema's,  Wyatt's and Wright's

Last Day of Training.

The last day of training in Salt Lake City is over. We have been traveling back and forth with a couple going to Uganda who live in Phoenix.  Sister Brown grew up in Dan's ward although he was much older than her and she only remembers Jaime.  The Browns are a wonderful couple and we have grown to love then.  I will try to attack a photo of our Salt Lake training group and trainers. I am learning while I go but I need to do this while I have my technical support here.  Thanks Julie.  Tomorrow we will go up to Roy to see Nancy, Keith, Frank, Jocy, Amanda, Darren, Angelica, Madison, Lily and Morgan.  Monday we will see our niece Stephanie and her husband Kenny and their two little ones before going to the airport.  We fly over night and loose a day on the way.  We will be staying in Manilla for three days to train with our area PEF boss befoe flying to Bacolod and moving into our new home.  We are excited to be on our way.  We will probably not be able to figure out how to contact and communicate with our family until the next weekend, but will do our best to get that figured out right away.   Palangga Taka (I love you)

Salt Lake Training

Today we trained in Salt Lake City. We picked up another couple from the MTC, and drove up together. They are Elder and Sister Brown from Mesa, AZ and will be serving in Ghana, Africa. We learned all about the computer programs to facilitate the students we will be working with and the church software we will use to train Priesthood leaders how to encourage and support the students. We also heard from Franco (our boss in Manila) via email and learned we will stay in Manila three days to train with him before traveling to Bacolod. This evening we do not have language training but will go to watch Riley play baseball. The weather  is beautiful here today but it is expected to rain and be 60 degrees tomorrow.    

We passed!

Today was our final day of Mission Training! We have passed! We have one day of Church Education Training on Monday at the MTC and then four days in Church Headquarters for Perpetual Education Training.  I must say other than my horrible reaction to my last Hep C shot, which left me sitting at Julie's toilet last night, this has been one of the best weeks of my life.  It rates up there with being a mother and grandmother.  This week has also been one of the most emotional.  I am not a real crier, although my children may disagree, but it seemed every hymn and every video brought me to tears.  The spirit was so strong even when we were role playing different training scenarios, the spirit would testify to our hearts that this work is vital and we are on the Lord's errand. 

Tonight, along with six other elderly couples learning foreign languages, we shared our testimonies in halting Ilongo, Italian, Suano, Croatian, Madanrin, and Mongolian.  Even though no one but our spouses and our own tutors could understand us, the spirit was so strong. It is certainly wonderful that after only three evenings of tutoring we were all able to express our feelings.  AMAZING!

One of the best parts of the MTC experience was that our teachers were all young return missionaries attending school here in Provo.  These young brothers and sisters (ages 21-late twenties) taught a room full of elderly couples and even the most knowledgeable of us learned many things and felt extremely thankful for the young teachers. 

Of the 100 couples we entered the MTC with Dan and I were among the youngest!  There are couples going to far away countries who are in their 80's and in poorer health.  One elder had a hearing device he wears around his neck to hear,  there were two elders with canes who stumbled through the days, and there were several with dietary restrictions.  There were at least a third of these couples who have served previous senior missions and are learning even one more language.  I was humbled by the sacrifices they must be making to go once again into service when they could be sitting home enjoying their retirement.  I am blessed to have been among them this week. 

Love to all our family and friends.  Please continue to pray for us as we go forth striving to learn Ilongo and finish our training.  We are grateful for your love and support. 

Also, a special thank you to Paul and Monica for picking up my prescriptions and mailing them to me and to Josh for drinking out last POG! We love you all. 

First Day at the MTC

Today was the first official day of our mission.  We arrived at the Mission Training Center early, (of course) and were the first couple to arrive.  We had to then move our car to the correct parking lot making us th efirst and second couple to arrive at the center. The process was very streamlined and we were checked in and then had quite a bit of free time until lunch and the orientation meeting at 1:00 pm.  After that meeting we were organized into districts prior to a short language training schedule meeting.  All in all today was short and sweet.  We would check a box sit around, check a box and sit around.  Now tomorrow we will be working all day an into the evening.  I guess today was the short break us into the schedule day. 

I have believed that my family would be greatly blessed by our serving the Lord for this twenty-three months, but we were promised today (as I wept, they need to stop talking about us missing our families) that they would be" carried in the arms our our Savior" throught the time of our service being provided for in all ways, temporal, spiritual, and physical.  I will gladly go to serve the Lord willingly for my children and grandchildren to be" carried in the arms of my Savior" for those 23-months.  Having my family "carried in the arms of the Savior" is a much greater thing than my being able to sit at a little league game, watch a school concert or play attend graduations, or baptisms.  I am so thankful for our families support while we serve in the Philippines. 

Tonight we study, eat, and rest up for our 8:00 am until 8:00pm training tomorrow. 

P.S.  Thanks to Paul and Mo in advance for taking care of my pharmacy issue.  You are the best!

Language Training

Today we had our first language training on skipe. I think our pronunciation was ok and we were able to recognise some of the vocabulary that is shared with Spanish. All the sylables are pronounced so that is ;nice unlike in French where things are silent. Our lesson was an hour and at the end I felt my brain was mush. When we are at the MTC we will have two hour lessons in the evening and I am afraid by then we will be so tired nothing will stick. Our teachers are kind and patient. I am glad they are excited to teach us and hopr they still feel that way when we leave them for the Philippines. We will also have a tutor there to help us even though we are not required to learn the language, I feel like in order to assimilate we must make an effort. We will have our second lesson tomorrow and then have a breat until we are at the MTC. When the stake president sets us appart, I hope he blesses us with the gift of tongues, because we will really need it. Well we are off and running.

Mission Call

We returned from our initial Salt Lake training and are so excited to begin serving the Perpetual Education Mission May 14, 2012.  We will be living in Bacolod, Philippines and working there for twenty-three months.  I hope this blog will help keep our family informed of our lives and service. We love you all so very much and are thankful for your support during this adventure in our lives.