14 December 2006 – Thursday

Our last official day at the MTC – we will go back tomorrow to take in a day of training on how to teach ESL. It seems to me that it has been both a long and a short 11 days. That is it seems like we have been at the MTC a much longer time than 11 days, and at the same time it seems like we arrived yesterday.

Today Mary mentioned that she while she knows how long it is until we leave for Indonesia, she has to stop and think about  long it is until Christmas. When I told that in one of the classes a couple of other people said that they feel the same way. We seem to have truly lost ourselves in the work.

The presentations today were only made interesting because of the presenter. Sister Elkins was back and her great attitude makes even dull subjects pretty interesting.

After the classes we all met together for a wrap-up and testimony meeting. Our 9 couples have grown very close over the last 11 days. Four of us shared most of the same classes and the other five were in many of the ones this week. We have grown very close in a short time.

Each couple is very different. Elder Thompson is a gruff looking man with a very tender spirit. Sister Thompson is a delightful person with a great sense of humor. They are going to Salt Lake and will be in charge of all senior welfare missionaries throughout the world. So they will know where each of us are during our mission. I did not get to know brother Gillman very well, but his wife is a very quiet and very spiritual sister. They are successful farmers and she mentioned that she could drive a John Deere tractor with the best  of them. I find it hard to picture this neat older woman behind the wheel of a large tractor. They are going to South Africa as Area Welfare Agents – which means they will be over all Wellfare missionaries in their area.

The Nelsons are going to Boston as Area Employment Specialists. Sister Nelson is a spiritual rock. She is quiet but when she says something it is too the point and full of insight. Elder Nelson is another one who is very tender hearted. The Dunns are from up Provo Canyon. They are probably the most humble couple in the group. They are thoughtful and are close to the spirit. Their call has been changed a number of times and each time they have decided it was the Lord’s will. One of the things that sister Dunn really wanted to do was to go on a proselyting mission and when theirs was changed to India they had to sign a letter saying they would not do any proselyting. Today their visas came through and they found that it was marked with an ‘M’ – they will be allowed to teach the gospel. She said in her testimony that the Lord was too kind to her in granting all of her prayers. They are going to be Country Humanitarian Specialists and oversee all the humanitarian projects in India. They are going to be great.

The Wimmers are an interesting couple. I doubt if I saw them apart I would ever think of them as being married. But the complement each other perfectly. He is big and quiet – she is small and fiesty. They are going to Frankfort to work in Social Services. The Mills are going to Croatia to be Country Humanitarian Specialists and could be models for senior missionaries couples. They look like grandfathers and grandmothers should look. They are soft spoken and filled with the desire to do the work.

Of course the Kanes have become close friends. We have been able to help them in a few ways. Today after the testimony meeting we took them to Ross Dress for Less. They are a tall, handsome couple. They look like they are made for each other. They are always cheerful. Elder Kane is easily touched by the spirit and bears a strong testimony of the gospel. I am glad we will get to stay in touch with them in Indonesia – they will be only an hour away from Jakarta.

As I bore my testimony I could only get as far as my testimony of the Savior and his atonement for me. I feel that this mission is just a small way to start to thank Him.

After the meeting we all stayed around to say goodbye and to exchange a lot of hugs. Hopefully we will all stay in touch throughout our missions and even after we get back home.

13 December 2006 – Wednesday

Since today was new missionary intake day, are awake at 5:00 am so we can get over the MTC early and get a good parking space in the church parking lot. Since no new missionaries will come in between today and the first Wednesday in January, the group coming in today is large – close to 500. During the day and into the evening we greet and talk to them when ever we get a chance. It is great to see the smiles on their faces and feel their spirits.

As we were on a break, two missionaries – not new ones – said hello to us. We stopped and spent a couple of minutes talking and we found out they had been here just one week. I was inspired to ask them to give us a 3-5 minute discussion on the Restoration. One of the elders had a hard time getting started so the other one jumped right in and gave a good presentation of the first four points, by then the other elder had recovered and finished up with the last points. As they spoke I could feel their spirits and I told them so. I reminded them that the Lord had promised them that if they would open their mouth he would provide them with what to say. It was an important part of my day.

The day was spent completely on learning how to conduct a Career Workshop. Jeff Foy was our instructor and he was very, very good. If I can learn to teach the workshop 1/2 as well as he did, I will be happy. Mainly he had us actually do a good portion of the workshop – just as if we were taking it. A full workshop takes about 12 hours. I found that parts of it was not easy to do – especially when trying to develop a good ‘Me in 30 Seconds’ statement.  It was a day of learning.

In the evening we had our last language lesson with Sister Tippetts. Since sister Kane was taking a class in using the computer – I am rather amazed at the number of couples who have no or little computer skills – we invited elder Kane to share our lesson. After an hour Dan was in information overload, so he left to try and digest some of it while we finished up. Although I am far from being able to communicate in Indonesian, I am always surprised at how much has actually soaked in. As I hear some one talking or while reading something, I often find myself trying to translate into Indonesian. Hopefully the learning curve will pick up and with the Lord’s help the language will start to flow.

I forgot to mention that a new intake of senior missionaries came in on Monday. We try to stop and say hello to as many of them as we can. We found a group of them were going to Nauvoo and we asked them to be sure to meet Nancy and Neal and say that the Piers say hello. Most of the senior missionaries who came in this week are going on proselyting missions. I am a little jealous but then realize we will have many opportunities to invite others to come unto Christ – we just have to be ready and able to do it well and with the spirit.

We have just finished four days of classes on being Welfare missionaries.

Monday the group of 9 Welfare and Humanitarian Missionary couples took a trip up to Salt Lake where we got a tour of Humanitarian Center and Welfare Square. Although I already knew much of what was there, the sheer size of it was a surprise. The amount of clothing that is processed each day is amazing. But the important part of the tour was the spirit that was at each of the locations. You can feel the love that is there.

From Welfare Square we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where we had our pictures taken and then had lunch with some of the leaders over our areas of service. They really did it well with a lovely luncheon and a minimum of talks.

Before lunch we called Bob and told him we were in SL and so he and Lisa came over and spent a few minutes with us. It was really good to see them.

Our final event of the day was to see the film Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration. Since we had seen it earlier in the year while in Nauvoo, I thought once the lights went out I could catch up with some of my sleep. But as the movie started I found myself once again caught up in the story that I know so well and I could not close my eyes.

 Tuesday was a day with 8 hours of 7 different presentations about subjects in Welfare and Humanitarian service. Some were more interesting than others but I learned some things that will be useful for us as we teach and train about employment. Our last presenter was the best of the day – sister Elkins was full of energy and made learning fun. Some of the other presenters could learn from her.

Tuesday night’s devotional was another great one. I wish I could come to each and every one of them. Elder and Sister Parkin – the church Relief Society President – spoke.

Elder Parkin told about an incident on his mission when he was a young man. He was working in a branch and while going through a list of inactive members the came across the name of Brother Johanson. The branch president said that they should forget about him because he had not been in the church for 30 years and the last people who visited him were physically thrown out of the house.

As they left the president’s office Elder Parking looked at his companion and said that he wanted to go to see brother Johanson because he thought it would be great to be able to write in his journal that they had got thrown out of a house.

To make the story short, they were allowed in and they taught the first discussion. Two dicussions later they asked brother Johanson if he would be baptized. He got up and walked into another room. He came back with a box that contained a pair of white pants and a new white shirt. 6 months after his baptism, brother Johanson dropped dead from a heart attack. 

Sister Parkins spoke about Attitude and for one of them she told about a sign she made for her home and later used while he was serving as Mission President. It had the letters A B Y and they stood for Are You Building. She suggested that when when we are having problems getting along with members of the family, church members or our companions that we ask ourselves the question Are You Building a better relationship or are you tearing one down.

She mentioned that after one zone meeting she and her husband were having an earnest discussion about something and a young missionary walked by and said President and Sister Parkin – remember ABY! She knew that her message was getting through.

She also told a story about an Elder that was spending some time in the mission office. She noticed that his shoes were really in bad shape and she mentioned that he should get something done about them. He replied that he was too busy teaching the gospel to worry about his shoes.

At this point she reached down and showed us a pair of shoes that were almost in two pieces from wear – they did not have holes in the soles they were worn all the way across. He had truly wore out his soles in the service of his savior. She said that one day she will return the shoes to Elder Gregson as a reminder of his mission service.

One last thing she mentioned that I liked was how hard President Hinckley worked. She challenged us with the thought “Will you let a 96 year old man out work you?

10 December 2006 – Sunday

Sacrament was at 8:00 so we were up a little earlier than usual. We met with a small international branch of mainly Tongan, Samoan, and a three or four from other countries including the Ukraine. It was a great sacrament meeting. The Tongan Elders and Sisters sang ‘Far, far away’ in Tongan and put their hearts and souls into the song. The interesting thing is that these same young men and women who sing with such volume are almost impossible to hear when they speak – even with a mike. However I do think I may be losing some of my hearing because Mary said that she could hear and understand almost everything. I may get my ears tested before we go.

After Sacrament the sisters went to hear the Tab Choir and then a Relief Society meeting. The Elders stayed for sacrament meeting. I must say if you are going to sing in a small meeting of about 15 priesthood holders, having Tongans and Samoans in the group is the way to go. I am sure that we were louder than our ward PH meeting of 50 – 60 brethern. Once again the talks were very quiet, but the spirit was strong.

After PH Elder Kane, Elder Mills and I walked over to the JS building and waited until the RS meeting was over. The sisters were thrilled because the speaker for RS was a member of RS Presidency. I guess she gave a great talk because I think every sister in the meeting lined up to shake her hand.

The afternoon was spent studying Indonesian and napping. In the evening we had the Kanes and Frandsens over for an hour. The Frandsens had recently been in Indonesia and a DVD of their trip there. It was interesting because it showed the countryside and the house the Kanes will be staying in. I must say that I am jealous because it is big and modern and will be about half of what we will be paying in Jakarta. The tropical landscape is filled with ferns and flowers – gorgeous.

We then watched Amazing Race and as I expected the two young men won. From the very first I was sure that unless they made a huge mistake they would win. They almost lost because it looked like they would not get on the first plane to NY – but they were the last ones to get stand-by and then beat the other couple easily. The poor team that did not make the first plane, never had a chance.

About 8:15 Berkeley Spenser came over and we talked about Indonesia. Berkeley had been in Indonesia just before Thanksgiving and had met with the Leishmanns. He was positive about PEF getting started but could not give us much info about our part in the work. I would guess we will not really know until we get there. When we talked about learning the language he said we would not be able to learn it. Mary and I are getting tired of people telling us we can not learn the language well enough to carry on a regular conversation with natives. We are going to prove them wrong.

Speaking of that we are doing much better about reading the language. Mary can figure out about 70-80% of the words and I am up to about 50% – or close there to. My goal is to be able to read the language in 6 months and speak it in a year. I think Mary will be able to understand most of it in 6 months.

09 December 2006

Our first day of Welfare/Humanitarian training. Basically all we did was meet with the Alsops for a couple of hours. For the third time each of us took some time to tell a little about us and where we were going. As I heard the stories about how each couple got their calls, other missions they had been on, and their thought about going, I was once again impressed with the great power of the couples the Lord is sending out to do his work. The Alsops also spoke about the three missions they have been on and how each were calls that came before they put in their papers.

We were done by 10:00 and we came home long enough to get our temple clothes and then went to a session. The Alsops and the Nelsons from our group were there. The Nelsons were selected as the witness couple and we all were in the circle. They asked for set apart Provo temple workers and I raised my hand. It was later I remembered that my letter released me as of November 1 – but I am sure the Lord forgave me. I did not realize the afternoon shift was so short handed. But it seems reasonable since you are tied up each Saturday from about 11:00 to 5:00 which cuts way down on what you can do.

We came home and took naps. In the evening the Alexanders took us to Red Lobster for dinner. We ate much too much food but I am pretty sure it is the last time we will eat there for at least 18 months. 

08 December 2006 – Friday

Our last day of regular training. The first half was quite good because we practiced helping new and less-active members. Our visit was to a woman who had not ever been active in her life. She got baptized because her mother went to relief-society. She was a pretty good volunteer and we were able to adapt our message to fit her needs. I did not feel it was great but adequate. The afternoon training was working with Ward and Stake Leaders and for anyone who had been in leadership positions, nothing new was introduced. However I am sure that the sisters probably learned from the lesson.

The best part of the day for me was the language training. We had a productive meeting with sister Tippetts and when it was done all those who were taking language training met together for a very short testimony meeting. I gave mine in Indonesian and as promised by sister Tippetts I could feel the spirit. So now I know that I can go and bear testimony of the gospel and the people will be able to feel as well as hear my words. It was very important to me.

The morning program was about the Book of Mormon and was taught by Ed Pinegar. He started by having us tell about who we were, where we were from and where we were going. It seems that he personally knew people to say hello to in about half of the missions. He then went through the ‘Great Questions of the Soul’ and the Book of Mormon. As he spoke I realized that it was what I just did not know the Book of Mormon well enough to use it as an effective tool in Preaching the Gospel.

He mentioned that if you read 5 pages a day that you could read the Book of Moron three times a year. I decided I needed to do that. I also decided to get a new set of smaller scriptures – the ones I have now is much too heavy.

The afternoon session included taking calls at the call center. I took two calls and both times the caller agreed to have the missionaries bring the article. It was not that I was really good, it was just that I was lucky.

Next we role played as missionaries and then less active so we could get the feeling of working with less actives. The couple who acted as less active for us was great. The sister was perfect – I do not think we had anyone better in the two years we were at the TRC. I thought we did pretty good but we still have lots to do. Of course in a real situation we would take time to get acquainted before we would start in bringing the gospel.

I also thought we were quite good as inactives. Of course since we had actually had some experience at this, it was not too hard. All in all it was a good day.

After dinner we went to the bookstore and got in by the skin of our teeth. I bought a new Quad so I could start reading the Book of Mormon tonight.

Sister Tippett had something to do so we had the evening off. But by the time we got home we were beat so about all we did was come home, watch a little TV and fall into bed. I did read 10 pages from 1st Nephi.

Since it was intake day, we had to go early to get a good parking space in the lot next to the MTC. We had time to eat breakfast with the missionaries.

Today’s lesson was on preparing to teach a lesson on the Plan of Salvation. The sister today was much better but I did not think we taught as well. I did not really feel the spirit. It was rather disappointing.

I just realized I forgot one of the most important thing about yesterday. We got our tickets changed to the 19th. I went to the MTC travel office and they let me call Salt Lake. The sister there was very nice and I told her I would be happy to pay any difference in the cost between the tickets they bought and the ones I had reserved. I told her the Mission President would be happy to have us on the 21st instead of the 31st. She put me on hold and went to her supervisor. I had already decided that if they would not approve it than we were not supposed to be there until the 1st of the year.When she came back she said that it was approved, that I did not need to pay any difference. However I would have to buy the tickets – I had already put them on reserve – and they would cut me a check. So I went on line and bought the tickets.

The second part of this was that the Kanes decided that even though they had a daughter and her family in the area, they did not want to wait until the 29th. So today – Wednesday – they called and asked the people to please try to get them out earlier. It turned out that SL somehow got them on our flight.

Unfortunately it seems that Elder Kane and myself hurt the feelings of the head of the MTC travel office and she was not at all happy with us for basically taking over the travel department’s job and going over her head. While I do not think we did anything to put her down, I am sorry that she was offended.

After dinner, we had a two hour language lesson with Sister Tippett. She reviewed some things we already knew and a couple of other things. It was a good lesson. One of the things I have been trying to do is learn to bear my testimony. I explained to sister Tippett that I could say the world but I did not feel them. She promised me that if I would keep trying and bear it to others the spirit would come.

We got home about 8:30 and was in bed by 9:30. I am not use to not having a nap sometime during the day. But I have not fallen asleep in any meeting.

I have been really bad about writing in this blog. I can use the excuse that when we get home from the MTC we are so tired that I just can not find time to write, but of course Marie Seimers took that excuse away from me 40 years ago.

It is true that we were very tired each day, but we found time to sit down and watch some TV and study Indonesian. That is enough repenting…now on with the show.

Tuesday was the real start of training. It started at 8:00 with a lesson on ‘The Message of the Restoration’ lesson. We learned how to give a 3-5 minute lesson – what we might do with someone we met on the bus, etc. I think we did quite well with this one. Next we spent two periods putting together a 45 minute lesson with each companion taking alternate parts. The highlight of this for me was working with our afternoon teacher. He wanted to check out how we were doing and so I taught him. I was able to feel the spirit as we taught and even came up with Jacob 2 to answer one of his questions.

I did not think the teaching with ‘investigator’ went as well. This was mainly because the volunteer talked too much. I know this could actually happen when we are in the field but the purpose of the practice was to allow us to teach. We were familiar with this problem of a volunteer taking up too much time. When we were running the program we used to tell them that they should speak about 20% of the time and allow the missionaries to use the rest. But even with that problem I think we did fairly well and by the end I was again feeling the spirit as we bore testimony.

The next step was getting our last two shots. One for polio and the last shot in the hepatits series. The nurse was really good and the needles are small so it was over in a minute -after waiting 25 for our turn.

 After dinner we went to the devotional. The senior missionaries get to sit near the front. Bishop Edgley of the Presiding Bishopric and his wife were the speakers. Sister Edgley showed a picture of an apple and a real apple. She said one was the image and the other was the real thing. She mentioned that just going to church was the image of a righteous LDS, but it was only when we were truly involved with our complete heart and mind that we are truly LDS. She said the same thing about missionaries – just wearing a tag and going on a mission does not mean that a person is truly a missionary. It is only when we are giving 100% that we can truly say we are missionaries.

Bishop Edgly told a number of stories one funny was the thought that we should call young missionaries when they are 16. At that age they know everything and their mothers will not cry when they drop them off at the MTC. He said that Boyd Packer figured out he was Nobody – until was given a calling. I am a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He siad in missionary work, faith is the power, obedience is the price, love is the reason and Christ is the message. It was a great experience and I look forward to next weeks devotional.

 2006-12-04

 I found our first day at the MTC interesting if not exciting and one problem popped up very early on. We checked in at about 9:50 – among the first group to arrive. After a short wait we were given a packet that contained a number of things, including my license to teach the Gospel and our travel plans. We were shocked to find that instead of heading out on the 18th as we thought, we were scheduled to leave on the 29th! Since we have already arranged for many things to shut down or be shifted on the 18th, I asked where we could see what happened and was directed to the travel office. We could not go right away because we had more processing to take care of but after getting our name tags, had our health records checked, etc., we found time to drop into travel.

The nice folks there called Salt Lake to see why we had been changed but the woman who handled our reservations was not in so we must go back tomorrow. They thought it had something to do with holiday travel. When we later came home, I sent an email to the mission president asking if the change was from his end or if travel had made the change. He wrote back saying that Travel said there were no flights from the 13th to 29th. I could not believe that so I got online and made reservations – non-binding of course – for flights on both the 18th and 19th. Tomorrow I will check in with Travel and see if it is OK for us to leave on one of them. Of course the mission president must also agree but I would think that there should be no reason we could not come then.

After a nice lunch we started the meetings. First we were greeted by the MTC president and one of his councilors. The one comment that I found worth recording was that it was good to see us ready to go out and serve the Lord instead of sitting at home watching our birth certificates expire. Part of the introduction was to have each couple or single sister stand and give their name, where they were from, where they were going and what was their assignments, and how many missions they had served. About half – including us – had been on one or more previous missions. One single sister was going out for her fourth. Among those coming in today the earth was pretty well covered. We – and the Kanes who are also going to Indonesia – were going the furthest but there were also couples going to Croatia and Russia.

 The other major part of our training was about how to stay healthy in third world countries – over half of the missionaries are going to one of them. The main point was do not drink, cook or put in your mouth any water that has not been boiled or come from commercially sealed bottles. I am rather glad we sent a package of water purification products to the mission home.

We finished with the day’s training by 4:15 which gave us time to go to the pharmacy to pick up Mary’s prescriptions before we had dinner. Our 35% came to over $1500 – which means that the insurance company picked up the tab for about $3000. Since we are paying $250 a month for insurance, the first year’s premiums were recovered before we even left.

After dinner we came home and watched Extreme Makeover and the Christmas Devotional. I kept falling asleep during the devotional and before it was over I came upstairs to see what other flights I could find to Indonesia on the 18th or 19th. The best one I found – and the cheapest leaves at 9:30 at night and we only have about 4 hours of waiting between the other two flights.

Bob called and we set up Skype. I found out the reason we ended up with static last night was because the plug to the mike got tweaked. When I straightened it up it worked fine. Gordon Creer called and gave me a couple of names at travel who might help us get out earlier.

Tonight we are studying the first chapter in Preach My Gospel about being a better missionary and also the first lesson. Tomorrow we will have a couple of chances to knock on doors and try our approach. I will try to remembe what I always told the missionaries in the MTC – it is not so much what you say but the spirit that you say it with.