One final week in the MTC

 A day in the life of a senior missionary at Provo's Missionary Training Center on the campus of BYU starts early and ends in contented exhaustion.

0555 - We've time for either a walk or a cycle or a weight-lifting session before showering, gulping smoothies, and hitting class promptly at 0800.

0800 - Class time with seasoned and devoted seniors are taught by stellar young returned missionaries.  They are adorable.  And very patient.  I have come to love my fellow seniors.  We share much in common besides our love for the Lord and His gospel.  We worry over our children whom we love with a passion and for whom we would do anything.  We worry over our capabilities and our adaptability and the food we'll eat and the mattresses we'll sleep on in our missions.  But mostly we just love the Lord and trust that He will make us fit for His work and equal to the task.

11:30 - Lunch is usually an adventure in gulping food while making phone calls relative to shutting down our homes and our lives for 18 months.  

12:30 - Class time is spent learning the various responsibilities we'll be assigned in our missions.  Aaron attends a finance class while I learn the myriad computer programs used by the general secretary to keep track of each missionary for six weeks until transfers shuffle all the companionships like a deck of cards tossed into the air.  I'll acquire flats for each companionship and manage leases, utility payments, cars, phones and SIM cards, incoming mail and packages, newsletters, histories, and endless emails and phone calls.  Hopefully we'll find time to sleep.  

4:30 - The end of class comes all too quickly, and we find ourselves desperate for a quick nap before dinner.  

Evenings are just as full as daytime has been as we are so blessed to have been sprung from the MTC by local friends including...

Tizzy, a beautiful young woman we met and worked with in Chiang Mai Thailand.  She is a fabulous, energetic young lady with a bright promising future, and catching up with her is always a gas!  Or...

…Mitch, a stellar young man whom we also worked with in Chiang Mai.  This handsome, intelligent and gregarious mover/shaker married the beautiful Sydney whom we have come to love as well.

                                                    

  Another evening was spent at a Thai dinner with adorable Aunts Darlene and Carlene and their sweet husbands who have supported us these two weeks in numerous and highly appreciated fashion.

We made it to the newly opened and spectacular Orem Temple as well as Aaron's favorite, the stunning Provo City Temple.

                           

                                                  

P-Day (Preparation Day) is a once-a-week necessity where errands are run, laundry and miscellaneous chores are attended to, and much play is engaged in.  This P-Day was spent catching the train, TRAX, and bus to wend out way to Salt Lake for the day where we toured the Church History Museum, the Tabernacle, and the Conference Center.

Sunday is special.  After church services have warmed our souls with inspiration and love, we've wandered the campus, poked our heads around doors and corners, and thoroughly explored all the facilities.  One of our favorite pastimes are the twelve massive murals which decorate the six floors of the new junior training building.  These murals are absolutely gorgeous and meant to inspire which they most certainly do.

We are packed with suitcases weighed and ready to go, we've learned all there is here to learn, and we're anxious to be off engaged in the work at the ground level.  Tomorrow at 0400 we'll arise to spend the next two full days wending our way to Gaborone, Botswana, via Atlanta Georgia and Johannesburg South Africa.  Once there, we'll bask in the 104 degree predicted sunshine and hopefully have a day or two to recover before hitting the computer training.  Or perhaps we'll just kneel quickly in prayer before heading off to learn how we can be useful in that part of His vineyard.  Catch ya in Botswana!