Side by Side in Africa: MTC Week

Preparing for a mission is crazier than I thought but at some point the time runs out and you go--ready or not! Sunday December 1st, President Buie came to set us apart. Our daughters, Cheryln and Miriam and their families came to be with us for this occasion. Todd was working, Chad and family were at Disneyland and Sandi lives in California so they were unable to be with us. We visited with President Buie and took some time to talk to the grands about the meaning of being "set apart", then he put his hands on our heads and pronounced beautiful blessings for each of us. We are grateful for these promised blessings, sure that we will need our Heavenly Father's help. It is humbling to be set apart as an ambassador for our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Elder and Sister Smith with President Buie

After the blessings, we enjoyed a family meal together. Joan made a German dinner for this occasion. We all love rouladen and rotkohl! It was also a celebration for Mike and Cheryln's birthdays coming up on December 3rd and 4th.

Cheryln, Robert, Joan, Mike, Miriam, Dave

Collin, Luke, Kira, Daniel, Isaac, Matthew, Leah, Rachel

WE LOVE OUR FAMILY!

Joan, Cheryln, Miriam, Robert

Leah, Isaac, Luke and Daniel at the bar for dinner. They are great friends.

The rest of the family at the table. Yum!

Monday, it was off to the MTC. I must confess, we started out the week a little bit short of sleep. We drove our car to Provo with just two small suitcases. We were glad we didn't have to take ALL our luggage to the MTC. The cold snowy weather really hit after we got to the MTC. We were glad to have our warm Utah clothing, not the light Africa-weather clothing. We loved our MTC experience. Our group was by far the largest senior missionary group ever. We had 154 missionaries going to a wide variety of places throughout the world. Because of this large group, we stayed at the Marriott Hotel in Provo and drove to the MTC each day.

We had to do the map picture.

Our "District" with our teacher Elder Pike. Some districts were twice as large, as

classroom size allowed. Robert was appointed DL for District 1.

The Sadlers, Hardys, Wrights and Smiths

Elder and Sister Schultz. Their son, Mike and his family live in our ward. Ann, his wife and their children have become dear to us as we have worked together in the Primary. We will miss their boys, Henry and Calvin, who Joan had in the nursery each Sunday--such cute boys!

They had several trees at the MTC and we sang carols at the meetings but it was not the normal Christmas. They have missionary name tags on this tree! We enjoyed a devotional with Elder Bruce C. Hafen on Tuesday evening. It was a treat to hear Mike Ohman play the organ for this.

Mostly we studied "Preach My Gospel" and found it very interesting and uplifting. We learned we are teaching people, not messages, and that the most important thing is to love the people and strive to have the Spirit with you.

We think this is the correct map of our mission area--the brown part.

Since our MTC day ended at 4:30, we joined our family at the BYU Museum of Art on Wednesday evening for a tour of the "Sacred Gifts" exhibit of the religious art of Carl Bloch, Heinrich Hofmann and Frans Schwartz. Such beautiful paintings, we all enjoyed it very much. After the museum, we enjoyed dinner at the Bombay House. Joan's sister and brother-in-law, Jeannette and Clyde Barson, joined us for both. Todd was also in town for this. Great evening.

At the Bombay House for delicious food and lots of laughs.

Leah, Isaac and Daniel enjoy their mango lassis

We are not the only missionaries in our family to have a

meal at the Bombay House before their mission. Nice tradition.

Our week ended on Friday and we drove back to Salt Lake for our final preparations before flying out on Monday. We had errands to run, hair needed cutting, scrapped the live nativity we had hoped to attend, and tried to complete our lengthy to-do lists. We did take time to join in the surprise birthday dinner Mike planned for Cheryln at La Caille Restaurant. Mike and Cher both turned 40 this week. They both went all out to make their birthdays special for each other. Mike arranged for her good friend Brooke to fly in on Thursday and for a brunch with girlfriends on Saturday, so Cher was not expecting anything else! What a surprise to have all her family waiting in a lovely private room at La Caille. We all had a wonderful, wonderful evening. Thanks Mike.