Grandson-in-law Randy drove us down to the Missionary Training Center this morning. We arrived right on time to a very well orchestrated intake process! There were people at every step of the way ready to help us through the entire procedure.

First stop was to check in and get our small packet with keys to our apartment and our name tags. It was a bit emotional as we put the name tags on! Randy took a picture of us, a couple of young missionaries snagged our luggage, and off we went to our apartment (pictures below). We dropped off the luggage and went down to the bookstore where we purchased our package of materials needed for the rest of the training. Then we stopped at the office and paid for our meals for the ten days that we’ll be here. From there we visited the travel office to pick up a copy of our travel itinerary to Honolulu along with information about the shuttle service that’ll take us to the airport.

We then went through a short orientation and picked up more paperwork. Then it was time for lunch.

The cafeteria is huge (and even that is kind of an understatement). There are different sections for salads and wraps, for light food, for combination meals, and for fast food meals. The food was very tasty!

At 1pm all of the senior missionaries that came into the MTC today gathered in a large conference room where we were welcomed by the MTC Mission Presidency and received a lot more information. We all introduced ourselves, stated where we were from and where we were going on our mission. There were at least fifty couples there, and I’m thinking I’ve underestimated that number. Twelve couples are going to Nauvoo. Others are going to the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Washington, D.C., Omaha, Nebraska, and more. We were then divided up into “districts” of three or four couples. Some of our training during the coming week will be in a large group and some of it will be as districts.

We’re the only ones going to Hawaii and our call to Hawaii got a lot of comment. One couple who are going to the Winter Quarters Visitor’s Center in Omaha, Nebraska, suggested during introductions that they’d be interested in trading assignments with us….

We finished up all of the orientation by about 3:15pm. We went back to our room which is on the 3rd floor of a large building. Quite a few of the senior missionaries are housed on this floor. The rest are in a condominium complex about ten minutes away.

Our room is small, kind of like a motel room. We have a queen bed, a dresser, a small table in the corner with a couple of chairs. There is a closet and a bathroom with a shower.

The small table in the corner works well for our computers. The chairs have a footstool that can be pulled out.

The closet seems to have enough space and plenty of hangers. Included is an ironing board and an iron. It’s already been put to use!

There’s plenty of places to put things away. The suitcases take up a lot of room, though.

The drawing of the Kirtland Temple is the first thing we see when coming into the room. There’s also a picture of the Savior over the dresser.

Fortunately, it’s a queen-sized bed. It is actually quite comfortable. I think I’ll be able to sleep well (and tonight I’m quite tired, anyway).

We have an outside window and a nice view of the mountains. The entire MTC complex is closed off and quite secure. No visitors are allowed at all. Seniors have a lot of freedom to come and go and there is a shuttle service available just outside our building that’ll take us anywhere in Provo we need to go.

The young missionaries have many more restrictions. For instance, they don’t have or aren’t allowed to use cell phones while they are here and going outside the complex isn’t allowed, either.

Tomorrow the cafeteria opens at 7 am and our first session starts at 8 am. We’ll be in training until about 4:30 pm and then the rest of the evening is open and available to us … but there is a Devotional every Tuesday evening at 7 pm featuring a General Authority. Of course, we’ll be there.


The excellent new adventure is underway!

Check out Nina’s new blog: http://seashellsandseaglass.wordpress.com/ and get her perspective of our time at the MTC and on a mission.