Centerville and the MTC

We spent the last week of May and the first week of June preparing for our mission. We flew from Houston to Salt Lake City on June 4. We spent time with Susan, Nicole, Cody and their children. We had a great time visiting with them. Nicole built a fire pit earlier in the summer so we had a fire a couple of nights and made s’mores. Susan had taken all four days off from work. Friday we went to Morgan to put flowers on the graves there, my mother, Art and grandmother. Then we drove up Ogden canyon to a restaurant called The Oaks. We sat outside right over the river. It was a fun time.

Dining on the river at The Oaks-Susan and Presley

Saturday we ran a few errands and later that evening we went to Little America for dinner. Susan and Nicole both said how much they liked eating there, but that it had gotten too expensive when they remodeled. I had halibut. Mom always had the halibut on Friday. We thought about her (Nana) and all the times that’s we had eaten there with her.

Little America-Rick, Me and Susan

Cody and McCall

Zak

Presley and Rick

Nicole and Harlow

Sunday we went to church and spent the afternoon visiting. Then we went to Farmington to put flowers on our dad’s grave.

See you next year!

Monday morning, Susan, Nicole and the girls drove us to Provo, to the MTC. They were all in tears as we walked away. It will be at least 18 months before we see them again. Nicole and Cody are such good parents. We enjoyed all the yummy food that Nicole made for us while we were there.

The MTC was a inspiring experience. I was quite overwhelmed with the Preach My Gospel week. I was having a hard time learning the order of the lesson elements and remembering the things I needed to say. We taught volunteer “investigators” Wednesday and Thursday. Things came together for me on Friday. We were paired up with another missionary couple and they were playing the role of a less active couple. During that experience I realized that I might have what it takes to teach. During the role play the sister began to cry when Rick asked her to read Moroni’s promise. I didn’t understand why she was crying because she was just acting. After we asked her and she said that at that moment she realized that this maybe exactly what the couple they were portraying might need. We were inspired as we taught and hopefully they will be able to touch the lives of that family and help them return to church.

Other MTC highlights were getting to see Julie Evans, one of my Tokyo seminary students, her mom Rika McIntyre, and her sister Erika and her husband Darin and their cute baby Aiden.

Rika

The firesides and devotionals were inspiring. We heard from Elder Quentin L. Cook and his wife, Sheri Dew and Elder M. Russell Ballard. One of my favorites was a video of a talk given at the MTC by David A Bednar, The Character of Christ.

This past week we spent Monday- midday Wednesday in CES training. We learned things that were more specific to our mission call. This morning we woke up at 4:00am and took the MTC van to the Salt Lake City airport to catch our flight back to Houston. We will load up our car tonight and drive to Edmond, Oklahoma tomorrow. I am excited to get busy. We will spend Saturday getting unpacked and set up in the apartment. I have already started my menu plan and grocery list for next week. I am excited!

Here are some photos from the MTC: