The Happiest Place on Earth

Now, I know Disneyland says that it's the "Happiest Place on Earth" but I'm telling you the Missionary Training Centre (MTC) in Provo has got it beat. We are having the most awesome time here. Everyday is a spiritual feast and I have learned so much from the wonderful young teachers here. More on that in a moment but first I have to show you this picture that hangs in the hall here at the MTC:

This is a picture of a baptismal service in Papua, New Guinea. The missionaries and the people being baptized are all ankle deep in mud and you can see that they are baptizing in very muddy water. But that is not the most jaw dropping part. Do you see those men on the shore nearby standing with  axes and spears in their hands? Hermes and I stood in front of that picture for a few moments wondering why on earth there would be people there with axes and spears. And then it dawned on us. It was to keep the crocodiles away! They had to baptize people in a place where they could have been attacked by crocodiles! Holy cow, I can't imagine. I just had to share this picture with you. And if you're wondering if our interpretation of that is correct, it was confirmed by a leader here in the MTC.

Here's a picture of Hermes and I arriving at the MTC:

So, as I said, we love it here. I am a little bit in mourning that all the things I am learning on how to be a good teacher were not things I learned 34 years ago when I went on my first mission to England. The young people they have teaching us old fogeys are fantastic. In the morning, we've had three young women team teaching us; one went on her mission to Russia, another to Peru and the third to Italy. In the afternoon we have a young man and a young woman, both of whom went on missions to Honduras, although different missions. I'm pretty sure they're all BYU students. They are all so much fun and make our classes interesting. In our class we have two other couples, one going to Mexico City and the other to Chile.

There were 34 couples who entered the MTC this week which they say is a small group, probably because of the time of year (right before Thanksgiving). There are about 1400 missionaries here, most of which are young 18 and 19 year old men and women. They are a sight to behold! Sometimes they are so cute, I just want to pinch their cheeks, but I don't. While the majority are Americans, there are a number from all over the world. We see big tall African  young men who remind me of some of the lovely Sudanese young men I helped with resumes back when I worked at Father Lacombe High. There are a lot of Spanish speaking missionaries from Latin America. The other day, we talked to two young men heading to the Milan Italy mission, one from Florida and the other from Budapest, Hungary. Today we talked to the cutest young girl from Italy who will be heading to the SLC Temple square mission along with her companion, another cute girl from South Korea. 

We checked into the MTC on Saturday afternoon, two days earlier than we needed to, and I'm so glad we did because I got to attend a special Women's Conference on Sunday morning and we both attended a terrific devotional on Sunday evening. I have to tell you about an experience shared at the Womens Conference that I thought was pretty cool. One of the speakers had served with her husband as Mission President/Matron in the Czech Republic mission. They were concerned about how to help the Church gain legal recognition in neighboring Slovakia. There was a small branch of the church there with a very dedicated Branch President who had been fasting twice a month for years that the Church would gain legal status and the missionaries would be allowed in. The only way they could get legal status was to have a petition signed by 20,000 Slovakians saying they wish to allow the Church in. This was a daunting task because most Slovakians had lived for years and years under a suspicious Communist regime and were not a trusting or open people. Furthermore, the petition would require not only their signature, but also their address and the equivalent of what Canadians call their Social Insurance Number and what Americans call their Social Security Number. So, since many Slovakian students made a part-time living collecting names for petitions as a part time job, the Church at first hired students to see if they could collect these signatures. The students quit after two weeks having collected less than 100 signatures. More fasting and praying happened and in the end, the leadership decided to bring in all the missionaries from the Czeck mission to collect the petition signatures. The missionaries were taught that if they were obedient and had faith, they could expect miracles. Some of the missionaries stated they were sure they could collect 200-300 signatures in a day. And so they went forth. The Sister who spoke said she went out and sometimes people would seem angry that they were approached but would sign anyway and this would happen over and over. They had given themselves one week to collect 20,000 signatures. At the end of four days, they had collected 25,000.

I found that to be an amazing example of what faith, prayer and dedication can do. I have heard many wonderful experiences this week and I could go on and on, but this blog would get too long. Hermes and I will be at the MTC one more week. We will get office skills training next week. We will be one of the few senior couples here this weekend as many of the senior couples who are not doing the office work (they are doing MLS standing for Member and Leadership Support) are leaving for their missions. We, apparently will be the only senior couple here over Thanksgiving, but we are looking forward to it because apparently an apostle will come and do a Thanksgiving Devotional and then we will help all those hundreds of kids with a service project where they pack up meals for the homeless.  I'm sure there will be turkey dinner in the cafeteria too. The day after Thanksgiving, we fly to Rome. 

Lastly, I want to thank two of my former missionary companions from the England Coventry mission days. First to Kathy and her husband for hosting us during Italian Immersion and then taking us to SLC to see the Conference Centre on Saturday mrorning. Here's some pictures:    

And then to Adele and her husband, who I saw just last evening for dinner:

It was a thrill to see you both and hopefully it won't be as many years before we meet up again. 

Okay, one more picture. This is an MTC tradition to take a picture in front of this map and I have one from 34 years ago so we had to do another one: 

Arrivederci! Love to all at home in Calgary!