I called our second week in the MTC the "temporal" week. The first week was the spiritual one and the second was the temporal one as we learned how to run a mission office. Both are important; I loved both weeks. I loved how at the beginning of our first day our teacher had a formula for how many hours of proslyting time we were allowing the younger missionaries to do by taking care of all the business of helping to run a mission. It was pretty amazing.
There were only 3 couples in on this training - the picture shows the one from California that was going to Germany (Walters), and the dark haired lady with her husband are the Rapiers, my former stake president and his wife. She and I really bonded as our lives had followed very similar paths. We were close to the same age and I felt a special kinship with her.
We learned all kinds of things - how to get mission referrals and then send them out as a text message to the missionaries so they could be followed up on within 24 hours! All done electronically. We learned how to enter convert baptisms, manage apartments, pay bills, compose mission newsletters, use Microsoft Word and Excel, etc, etc, etc. It was very practical training taken at the pace we wanted to go.
Again, like the first week, most of our teachers were young returned missionaries who were so sweet and positive. They were mostly newly married or engaged to be married, BYU students. One day a senior couple who had returned came in and helped us and we actually had lunch with them that day. They were so helpful, so practical, and answered all our questions to where they gave me a lot of peace of mind. I asked how long it took to adjust being away from family, and the sister said she cried for the first two weeks, then she was fine. Everyone tells us that it's actually harder to leave the mission field to come home than it is to leave home to go out.
I can understand some of this since I see how quickly relationships can be built in such a short period of time, like in the MTC. It was really hard saying good-bye to the other two couples in our training at the end of only 4 days. You develop a special bond very quickly when you are dealing with spiritual matters.
We had a very special testimony meeting at the end, with just the 3 couples and one of our teachers. We were just in our little computer room but the Spirit was so strong and we shared what was in our hearts. Elder Walters shared how he was ready to walk out after the first morning as he has never used computers before. But he stuck with it and learned a lot and he felt more positive at the end. He was such a sweet humble man, always studying his German on the breaks.
We had our last French tutoring lesson with Anthony Betteridge, shown in the picture with us. We've been meeting with him since January and have really grown to love him. He is the sweetest guy! We cried as we said good-bye. He loves the French language and his enthusiasm was contagious.
Of course we had to take a picture in front of the big world map, pointing to our mission! It wouldn't be the MTC without that picture! The elder who took it was from Montana, going to the SLC Sandy mission. His companion was going to New Delhi, India - he was delayed because of the volcano.
It's now late Sunday night. We had a wonderful open house put on by our sweet friends and home teachers, the Ormes. There was a big crowd to wish us well and send us off! We had a really fun time visiting with lots of our dear friends.
We had to say good-bye to our family and that wasn't easy. All those sweet grandkids who are going to be so much bigger when we return. And all those unborn babies that we won't see for a while. I've cried until I feel like I don't have any tears left. Guess we're on our way.
This is Paula writing. It's pretty hard to describe all that we felt and experienced in the MTC. It's a very inspiring place. There were about 25 senior couples and maybe 6 single senior sisters in our group. As we got to know them throughout the week, it's almost like we saw into their souls and felt their goodness. Every one of them had an interesting story. In that kind of environment, where spiritual things are discussed and experienced the entire week, emotions were really close to the surface and lots of love was felt. I found myself at the beginning of the week sometimes feeling a little judgmental about someone's bad grammar, or the way another person would talk too much, but at the end of the week, I didn't have any negative feelings towards them. I realized how every one of them had an interesting history, were so dedicated to serving, and was a pretty amazing individual.
One day at lunch, I was visiting with an Elder Rapier who was telling me about how his wife had died of cancer, he had remarried, been married for 6 years and was now serving a mission. He used to live in Edgemont. Turns out, he was my stake president who interviewed Loel and I before we got married! He said he knew something seemed familiar about me.
One of the most impressive things about the MTC is how positive everyone is. All the talks, the teachers, the tutors, everyone, is positive. As they taught us how to teach the Gospel, how to really listen instead of talk, how to feel inspired as to what we should focus on, etc, they never gave us any tips for what we could do better. They just built us up as we practiced teaching and working with people. The young teachers (usually recently returned missionaries) were so cute as they would praise us for how well we were doing, compliment us on our service, talk about how we were the real experts on the Gospel, and on and on. It was so uplifting and really helped dissipate a lot of my fears and concerns. Each day I would leave and say to Loel, "We can do this!"
Several times we had senior missionaries who had served 2, 3, and 4 missions come and talk to us. They were some of my favorite speakers. They were so enthusiastic. They talked about how it was more difficult to leave the mission field at the end of their mission than it was to leave their family at the beginning. One senior sister's bishop said to her when he called them on their maybe 4th mission,"Sister, you don't seem too excited about this." She said, "I just can hardly stand the thought of saying good-bye to the friends we make in the mission field one more time." I hope that's how it is with Loel and I. We want to make that happen.
We practiced working with volunteer investigators, teaching them, we practiced working with less active members, we practiced getting to know someone without talking too much ourselves. We practiced really listening, and not overwhelming people with too much. This was really stressed and very applicable to serving more effectively; especially for us senior missionaries who have so much to share. We practiced really listening to the Spirit as we taught so that we would know which principle to focus on. This new Preach My Gospel is a pretty amazing plan for missionaries now. So different from our canned discussions 35 years ago, with our flip charts! Yet, as we discussed the differences in our little district meetings, people still joined the Church with those old discussions and flip charts. It's just so much better now.
The last night, the 5 couples who were learning a language and going to foreign countries had a little testimony meeting with our language tutors by our sides. Loel and I bore our testimonies in French since that's mainly what we've learned. (We've only had about 3 hours of Dutch training so far.) Even though we couldn't understand most of what the others were saying in Tagalog, Russian, German, and Bulgarian, we could feel of their testimonies. My testimony wasn't very elaborate or eloquent - pretty short, but as I looked down at our sweet tutor, I got very emotional, as there he was, in the front row, smiling and nodding, so encouraging, as if to say, "you can do this, you're doing great!" He was never ever judgmental of how slow we may have been learning, or how we slowed down with the French since we found out we needed some Dutch, etc. Since January when we've been meeting with him weekly, he has been positive, encouraging, and pretty great. For a 24 year old guy, he has a lot of maturity. Loel bonded with him instantly as he's going into the Air Force and wants to be a pilot!
One of the greatest blessings, I feel, of this mission, will be the way I know that Loel and my relationship will be strengthened. When you have to be together all day long, you have to be honest with each other if something bothers you, you have to communicate, you have to be positive and not critical, and on and on. As Loel and I would teach gospel principles together, I felt such a strong bond between us and felt so proud of him. Another neat thing was that as I taught these gospel concepts, the memories started coming back from my previous mission, the phrases, thoughts, and feelings I had experienced before started coming back and it felt great.
I feel like I'm in between two worlds right now. The world of Provo, family, and home and the other world of missionary work. I feel pulled in both directions. I'm anxious to finally get on the plane in a week and be on our way. I'm tired of saying good-byes and crying. Yet I'm grateful that we've had a little of a transition to gradually wean myself away. It was fun to go to our home ward with our missionary badges on and to hear two homecoming talks from young men in our ward. It was a very missionary oriented meeting and one we thoroughly enjoyed.
This is Loel: Monday morning I woke up thinking of the words to the song "Called to Serve". Paula has expressed a lot of my feelings in her thoughts. I'm the quiet one, but I do have some independent thoughts. I'm going to enter some thoughts from my journal this first week.
Monday: What are my impressions on the first day?It’s very well organized and planned.The missionary couple that are our “shepherds” are humorous, realistic and really in tune with the spirit.The sister bore her testimony and asked “what are you willing to lay on the alter to the Lord?”, comparing our “sacrifice” to Abraham’s sacrifice.I don’t know.I know what I want it to be.I want to be able to give anything I have to give.I hope I’m capable of that
Wednesday: Today we learned and presented the Plan of Salvation.We prepared and practiced similar to yesterday and then had an “investigator” from the community.He was “Baptist, moved here from California, works in Provo as a Para-legal, had read both the New and Old Testament closely, had read other religious writings, had received several Books of Mormon from friends, was curious about the Church after Mitt Romney was the focus of so much negative media attention.”He was very good and stayed totally in character throughout the entire time, even to the point of not leaving character after we were through and he was leaving.Very interesting.
Thursday: We had an exercise today where we split up into companionships and first were missionaries visiting an inactive couple.The inactive couple was a couple from our group, but they were role-playing a close friend or family member that is inactive.Then we switched.It was amazing the way the spirit speaks even in a contrived situation like that.I think it’s because truths are being spoken and the Spirit is confirming those truths.I wonder if it’s also because the Spirit wants us to experience and recognize when the Spirit is present.It was a very special experience.It was amazing how close Paula and I felt to the two couples that role played with us.We all experienced something very special.
Loel live again: To echo Paula, we became very close to the other Senior Missionaries in a very short time. How can that be? I've shared with friends and family over the last two days that this was one of the most special weeks I've ever experienced. I've felt things in ways I've never felt them before. How sad for me if I had never experienced this past week. Maybe this payment in advance for all the hard work in the future. I don't really believe that. I know there will be many more wonderful days and experiences. I can relate to Paula's thoughts that the goodbye's are dragging out, but it's been nice to be able to transition into the separation rather than going cold turkey. We talked with an old friend at Church today and she said she cried the whole first week in the mission, saying she couldn't do this. She said, "We cried twice as hard when it came time to leave and go home". I could go on and on, but it all starts to sound the same. We love it.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Yesterday was the last day before entering the MTC. Carin and her family were here and we talked with Heather and her kids over Skype (technology is wonderful). Later in the evening Paula and I were set apart as missionaries by President Wilson. The first time for me and the second for Paula. Paula's Mom and Aunt Margaret were there, as well as Dustin, Danielle, Carin, Scott, Tara and Jesse, Andy and Julia, Richelle and Jonny, and Brad and Emily. The blessings were inspired and adressed our biggest concerns and fears. What an inspired man. Today we're off to the MTC at 11:30.
April 11, 2010 I had returned to UVU to work part-time on an accreditation project since our mission had been delayed. I finished up this past week as we enter the MTC tomorrow. I was surprised to find that I was going to be awarded this lifetime achievement award last Wed night. Loel and I attended the awards ceremony and several of my staff were there to support me. The Ragan Theater was filled with people. At the end of the ceremony (many awards were given out to student of the year, faculty of the year, club of the year, etc,) my boss made the following speech and then I had to come up and make an acceptance speech. Later I was told that I would also receive $500! I was really surprised by this and very honored. They said that in the last 15 years they have only given out 5 of these awards. It is an award that faculty, staff, and students nominate you for. It was a pretty amazing culmination to a wonderful career at UVU. (I'll attach pictures later when I get them.) Here is the speech:
"Paula has worked at UVU for over 22 years. She started as a Vocational Evaluator in the Assessment Center in 1988 working out in the trailers for 4 years with Robert Loveridge as her supervisor. Paula was promoted to the Assistant Director of the Assessment Center in 1992. She later was promoted to Director of the Career Counseling Center, which merged with Career Employment. In 1999, Career Counseling merged with Academic Advisement and that's when the CACC was formed. Paula has been the Senior Director of the CACC for the last 11 years.
Paula has been a model team leader and any person aspiring to be a team leader would do well to look to her example. Through Paula’s skilled leadership, Personalized, Seamless and Intentional advising has been jump-started in the CACC. Paula is a teacher and a mentor. She has literally talked to hundreds of students each semester not only to help them, but also to model PSI advising—she has been a practicing advisor and counselor and therefore has been able to select good people, which in my opinion is the number one most important function of a great leader. I have also admired Paula’s professional and skilled ability to collaborate with other departments and leaders across campus.
Paula’s work has been invaluable on the Advisement Leadership Forum, Advisor Forum Planning Council, Retentions Committee, Institutional Effectiveness group, and ACT committee. Paula has also served on the PACE committee, most recently as the Years of Service/Employee Recognition Committee Chair.
Paula loves being a grandma and spending time with her family, traveling, and eating chocolate and bacon! Paula retired from UVU this past month and she and her husband will be serving an 18 month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days in Belgium and the Netherlands."
Need I say more? We will enter the MTC on 12 Apr and we will get our travel arrangements in the MTC. We assume we will be traveling on 26 Apr.
To quote Sister Pankratz (the current office couple): 'This is really a beautiful part of the earth and we know that you will enjoy it a lot." We're excited to go.
