As we were waiting for our first meeting to start after arriving at the Missionary Training Center, I took this “selfie”. The couple in the background are Elder and Sister Cronk. We hadn’t met them, yet. It turns out that we are in the same “district”, a set of four missionary couples who train together during the week here at the MTC. They are delightful people who will continue to live at home in Draper, Utah and serve what is called a “Member Leadership Support” (MLS) mission. The Cronks along with the Elder and Sister McKnight (going to Australia), Elder and Sister Willis (going to Nauvoo) and Nina and I make our our district. So far we’ve spent more than 28 hours together in training and several more hours together in devotionals and the cafeteria. It’s amazing to me how quickly we have come to love and respect each other.

Nina has written today about some of the training we’ve gone through in an action packed day today. What she hasn’t said is that we’re also very busy learning how to talk to each other! Actually communicate!

As missionaries we’ll be meeting with other people to talk about and teach about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These are not pre-prepared or “canned” lessons. The intent is that we (Nina and I) talk about what we want to discuss or teach and figure out who will do or say what. Neither of us are to dominate the conversation … and in fact the people we are meeting with should be dominant. If there is nothing else we’ve learned this week, it is that we really need to continue working out how to talk and plan with each other. It’s been quite a revelation!

But, it is working. We’re getting better at this communicating thing. We’re figuring out how to draw on each other’s strengths. It’s a delightful thing.

Life is wonderful!