Well we have finished our first week at the MTC and what a week it has been. Everything the missionaries have told you about it is true. It is both fabulous and hard.
For the wonderful things about it: You see all those missionaries jumping, singing, studying, (even in the lunch line) laughing, and enjoying being among each other. They look wonderful. They are full of the spirit. They love the spirit and doing what they are doing.
I was so impressed with the amount of service that takes place in the MTC alone. There are volunteers everywhere helping all to learn and prepare plus all the missionaries sacrifice. I felt like a piker. There were 62 couples with our group. ½ of them were serving more than once and some as many as 4 times. The level of commitment of these people is staggering. Their love of the Savior is tremendous. They were going to places all over the world under many conditions. It was a real honor to be among them.
Because of all that testimony, the spirit is full and amazing. It fills you with joy as you participate. The youth show it.
We saw Elder Rice, Elder Allegretti, and Sister Tunney (who lived in our ward some time ago). They look wonderful. They are happy and are really excellent missionaries. Their countenance has changed. They have grown up. Amazing to watch such a thing.
When we arrived, they move us into a room and all are given packets with their name on them and we moved from place to place being taught the simple things, putting on our name badges, etc. Then we went into a large room to get acquainted and taught. Then the teaching began. Leave it to say that we were taught and taught and taught. What to say and what not to say. We have learned the lesson plans and learned to love the Preach My Gospel Book.
One of the things we found most interesting is that now we teach from the Book of Mormon. So all that reading you do every year will be such a blessing in your life. We use the Bible some but are even taught to use all the scriptures. If people are interested in the Church then we need to teach from our doctrine.
I found my most stressful part was the teaching. That may surprise you, but the teaching is done with your lesson plan prepared by the spirit with some guidance and then you are to knock on a door and some non-member answers it and you give the first lesson to her. Does this sound hard? It is. You teach by topic not story. We read and study by story and chapter not by topic. I found it very hard to think I might say the wrong thing and then the investigator might refuse to listen. Elder Oaks said, “This is eternal life we are talking about”
Now that is scary.
We have done this three of our 5 days. The first night I couldn’t even sleep. Then we got in there and Elder Schindler was awesome. He could do it. It was fabulous. The second night I slept better but still stressed. They really only gave us about 40 min to prepare the lesson. Then sent us home to prepare. We old folks are exhausted and have to go to bed. Our second teaching experience was awesome. We were a team. We soared. The spirit was there (again) and it was incredible. The third time was not so hard either.
So do I feel comfortable? No! Is Elder Schindler fabulous? Yes! With him I am not too bad. Again I have seen the power of the man I married and I am grateful for him. We will be doing much studying as we travel to AK. And continuing on that path, so it becomes easy.
Our call has been refined a little. We have been informed that we will be teaching an institute class. We will be in a proselyting mission as well. They now call that type of mission “Member and Leader Support”. Who knew? As far as we know now, we will be assigned to the Young Adult Branch to help there.
Much to the parents surprise the food in the MTC is not so bad. It looked to me like the missionaries were well fed. I saw trays with 4 hamburgers on and 3 bowls of fries or onion rings and 6 glasses of drinks. Not all are that bad, but you can find something to eat there no matter the country you come from. It is amazing. We found the wraps to be the best. We laughed at the boys as they knew what was served on what day and about 10:30 they began talking of the great things they were planning to eat. Fun!
We had 22 year old teachers teaching all these old people and doing a fantastic job. More surprising is the seniors listened!
So our week has ended. I am exhausted. My feet hurt and I am thankful for P day. The boys tell us it takes about 2 weeks to get past this stage and then it just becomes routine. I am grateful I am not learning a language as those wonderful seniors add 2 hours to their day that we did not do.
We have learned a lot, loved the people we were with and prayed hard. Our prayers were answered. We are blessed. I love you my children and Grandchildren. We hope your week was wonderful.
Love,
Elder and Sister Schindler