Thursday, August 22, 2013

TIRED!!!!!   Too many days of getting up before 6 a.m.!  Looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tomorrow night and sleeping in till 8!  Can’t sleep too long, since we have to pack up everything we want to take, and clean the house to close it up. 

I think I have gained weight here…..too much and too good of food!

I was too tired to exercise tonight.  Did some emails in the lobby, since we can’t have internet in the room without paying for it!  Crazy!  Started packing up since we check out of the Marriott tomorrow morning as we head to the MTC.  As soon as classes are finished at 3:15, we hit the road and head home to Arimo.

It has been a good week.  Today, we had a large group meeting for 10 minutes to begin our day, then went to the classrooms.  There we got our assignment for our missionary work with the “investigators” we were to meet with today.  Today’s assignment was that we were doing a follow-up meeting with an older couple. The elders had been transferred and didn’t give us any information.  It was a good meeting.  The time went quickly.  We felt that if it had been real, we wouldn’t have ended at the 45 minute time, but finished answering their questions.

Then we had class time, lunch, large group meeting, class time.  This time we learned what tomorrow entails.  We are to be paired up with a couple from another district.  1 couple will be the missionaries, one the investigators, then reverse roles.  For 15 minutes, we are to get to know them.  Then reverse roles for 15 min.  Then we have 1 hour to work on a lesson to meet the needs of the couple with the information we learned from the getting to know you time.  We are to role play, and pretend to be someone else.  This is to help us understand how they may be thinking, and how best to approach them. After the hour of preparation, we have 30 minutes to be the missionary to that couple and present a lesson we think meets their needs.  Then another 30 minutes of being the inactive couple and the missionaries present a lesson they think meets our needs. 

So, for tonight we don’t have preparation.  Going to bed soon.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Tired.  Monday got up at 5:30, the rest of these days at the MTC getting up at 5:45.  It is catching up on all of us.  Everyone is tired.  Hopefully, I can get to bed earlier tonight.  Last night it was about 11……we were working on our assignment for today, then watched the news and went to bed, but I couldn’t fall asleep right away.  Not enough wind down time.

Today I was really nervous……we were working with “investigators”.  We did okay, and I felt okay while it was happening, and relieved when we finished! J   Our investigator was someone who was a member referral, a young man who had been married 9 months.  We visited with him, then taught him about the restoration.  After this exercise, we evaluated ourselves, and we found areas we could improve in, and some we felt we did good at.  So, all in all, it went well.

Then we started working on tomorrow’s task……another “investigator”.  This time, it is someone that had been seen once by the missionaries, but the missionaries were transferred, and we were to take over.  We have to follow up on the invitation that was issued by the previous missionaries, and possibly teach the next lesson, the Plan of Salvation, depending on the needs we find when we meet with the person/people.  Todays classes ended at 4:15, because those who haven’t had all their immunizations had to get them at that time, so we walked around M1, waiting until 5 when we wanted to eat dinner.  Dinner actually starts at 4, but we didn’t want to eat that early.  After dinner, we headed back to the hotel with our car-mates, Elder and Sister Harris.  They are from Santa Rosa, CA, in the Bay area north of where we will be, and heading to Seattle for their mission.

Oh!  Almost forgot!  New young missionaries came in today, and we watched part of the process.  They get dropped off at the curb on the southeastern entrance into M1, walk down a roped off area, into a chapel room where they get their orientation packets, name tags, and are then met with a host missionary (someone who has been here awhile I guess).   The host companion then takes them to the other locations they have to go to to get fully checked in, all the while pulling the luggage of the newby….well, not all of it, I think, because we saw large suitcases sitting in the hall till later in the evening after dinner they were picked up.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Another early morning!  I got up at 5:45 a.m. to shower and dress; Gary getting up right after.  We met up with another couple from our District, Elder and Sister Harris (who are from California….I think near where we are going to serve).  We gave them a ride to the MTC for breakfast and to begin our day.  We also gave them a ride to the Marriott last night.

When we began our meetings of the day, we found out that some of the Districts had to be dissolved and the couples joined with other districts, because some of the teachers were sick.  So, ours was one that was dissolved…..Gary no longer a District Leader…..that was a quick calling!

Today we began in earnest to study Preach My Gospel (hereafter called PMG).  Our young teachers were EXCELLENT!  We had lessons, discussion, and role play.  Our homework for the night was to do some more reading and prepare for tomorrows role play, where we meet with an “investigator” and present The Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ.  This took awhile, and so we never got our reading done…lesson 2 in PMG, The Plan of Salvation.  Will have to do tomorrow when we have free time…like maybe after breakfast, or during breaks.  Today was a busy, busy day.  After dinner tonight, we had a MTC devotional at the Marriott Center, with all the missionaries at it.  Our speakers were Elder and Sister Maynes;  he is in the presidency of the seventy.  It was a very good evening.  It ended at 8 p.m.  Then we walked back to the MTC to get our car and drive back to the hotel to do our evening stuff….preparing for the role play of tomorrow.  This took some time.  Now to get ready for bed and sleep!  It is 10:30, and I am tired.  Tomorrow comes early!

Here was the schedule for the day:  Everyday starts at 8.  We started with large group meeting, then small group meetings until lunch, then large group meeting and small group meetings until dinner, then the devotional from 7-8.

Monday, Aug 19, 2013......Mission begins!

We got up at 5:30 a.m., got ready, and at 7 a.m., got in the car to drive to Provo to enter the MTC to begin our mission.  We had packed our suitcase the day before and loaded it into the car.  We had been set apart the Wednesday before, Aug. 14, 2013, by President Randy Buxton, President of the Arimo Idaho Stake.

The drive down wasn’t without drama…..there had been an accident by Roy, Utah, and it took us nearly an hour to drive the 4 miles to get past the area.  Luckily, we had allowed an hour extra to be prepared in case of traffic in the Ogden and Salt Lake areas slowing us down.  We arrived at the right time, which our time was to be between 10:30 and 11 a.m.  The whole check-in process was very smooth, people helping us and guiding us along the way.  We had an orientation that day, then checked into the Marriott Hotel, which was to be our home for the week, as the MTC was full.  There were several Senior Couples who were staying there also.  Oh, during our orientation, we were divided into Districts, and Gary was asked to be a District leader. 

The meals were great…..too great!  We ate way too much this first day.  When we got to the Marriott, we changed into exercise clothes and went to work out….it was much needed!  Then some quick emails to the kids, and back to the room to study for the first days lessons.  Our lessons for the week are from Preach My Gospel.  Our teachers are some young people who are returned missionaries.

We both fell straight to sleep, and had a good, but short night sleep!

New call

We had decided after having our mission date change from May 27th to July 1st to Aug. 5th, that the next time a change came, we were going to ask for a reassignment because the visas just were not coming through.  There hadn't been a senior couple enter Brazil since last August, and we didn't want to just sit around waiting for a visa that may or may not come.  Well, the phone call came to postpone us once again, and we asked for a reassignment. 

We just received our new call today.  We are going to serve in the California San Jose Mission.  We enter the MTC Aug. 19th.  We will still be working as an office couple.  We will drive our own car now to the mission, and don't have to worry about weight restrictions on our luggage!

Maybe in a couple of years, if things change in Brazil, we can try again......we shall see.  If not, we definitely need to go and visit!

We are excited to FINALLY have a date set that is real!  We look forward to starting this new experience in our lives!

Mission start date changed

Yesterday we received a phone call changing our mission start time because the visas aren't ready yet.  They estimate that they will be received in the middle of June, so to be safe, our new MTC entry date is now July 1st.  So, now I need to update our countdown clock.  We now have 67 days to go instead of 32.  Because of the extra time, we are going to adjust our language training to an hour a week instead of cramming it in so fast with 3 hours a week.  Then, maybe we can do some other projects around here as well.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that this date is accurate and that we aren't called to postpone again!

Language Lessons

We have been having Portuguese tutoring from the Provo, Utah Mission Training Center (MTC) for the past 3 weeks.  We each have our own tutor, and meet with them via Skype for 3 hours per week.  These lessons have been going well.....way better than I expected!  I can actually carry on a conversation in Portuguese now!  Well, a basic conversation.....what is your name, where do you work, where are you from, telling about my family, etc.   And, the conversation must be VERY slow!  I feel like a toddler learning to speak.  I think Gary is doing great, though he may say otherwise.  He feels that his progress will greatly improve when we actually get there and he is immersed in the language.  But, he has been reading the Book of Mormon, chapter by chapter in English, then listening to the same chapter in Portuguese.  And his tutor has been pushing him in other areas as well.  Today, I learned the basics of praying in Portuguese.

We learned of an app for the ipads called google translate that has helped too.  You type in or speak a sentence in English, and it will translate it to whatever language you want.  Very helpful as we try to come up with sentences for our lessons!

As of today, we have 40 days till we enter the MTC on May 27th.