Missionary Training Center

These are the Elders and Sisters who are the MTC with me. Some of them have already flown, but most of us will be there on Monday and Tuesday. What a marvelous group of people! Some of them have served three and four missions. When we talk about a worldwide church, this is.

This is my district. The young returned missionary is our teacher. She served in Nauvoo. In fact, I kept looking at her, trying to figure out where I knew her. Finally, we figured it out when she said she had served in Nauvoo. She had been assigned to us at the pageant. Small world? My companion is the sister standing next to me. She runs marathons. Obviously I'm gong to have a hard time keeping up.

I have had some marvelous experiences. We have been teaching volunteers who come to the MTC and pretend to be non-members or less active. What a great opportunity this has been! The spirit is very strong here and I am grateful for the opportunity to serve.

I want to share one experience. We were talking about reaching out to people. I kept feeling prompted to tell my Nauvoo experience with the sticks and I kept ignoring it. Finally, I shared it and the trainer for all senior missionaries said, "It couldn't be better said than that and we got a break. For those of you who haven't heard that story, we were training the children of the pageant how to approach people. We told them to pick up a stick for each person they talked to. When time was up, there were three sticks left on the ground. Being taught by the spirit, those weren't three sticks, but three of Heavenly Father's children whom He loves that no one cared enough to offer the gospel to. When I picked up those three sticks, I realized how it important it is that I give everyone the opportunity to hear the message.

In case you can't tell--I love being a missionary!!!