Entered the MTC on December 5th

The MTC (Mission Training Center) has been a wonderful, rewarding experience.  Truly disciples of Christ walk these halls.  

In front of Provo Temple before we enter the MTC (Missionary Training Center).  Exciting!!!

Here is our senior missionary group at the MTC, 110 strong. Can you find us?

We are going to Leeds, England, but as you can see we may be going to different missions based on where we are pointing;  oh well, we'll get there. 

The schedule left us a bit exhausted at the end of the day, leaving our home in American Fork and driving about 25 minutes to the MTC to be there at 8:00 or 8:30 AM and then many times driving back after a devotional in the evening and getting home at 9:00-9:30 PM, but we enjoyed every minute of it.  Learning the missionary processes, the programs of the church and practicing the art of getting to know people was a great blessing for us.  

We don't feel we could be doing anything better right now with our time.  Thank you to our wonderful family for supporting us in this Call to Serve the Master. 

Here we are in class. 

Enjoying the Christmas lights on the MTC campus.  This tree is called the Tree of Life tree.

The most amazing part of this experience was meeting other senior couples going out into the world.  Their testimonies are so strong and their path to the MTC has been very similar to ours, many enduring sacrifice and overcoming tough hurdles to get there.  We are so grateful for these associations. 

Here is our district at the MTC for our first week PMG (Preach My Gospel) training.  Our district leader was Kent Critchlow, he and sister Critchlow are headed to the Air Force Academy as a Military Relations couple.  We found out that Sister Critchlow's sister is in our American Fork East Stake.  Left to right:  The Drollingers, Brother Black our teacher, The Shepherds, The Baileys, The Critchlows, Yours Truly. 

We were able to go to the Provo temple during our first week in the MTC on Thursday eve.  What a great blessing.  

We have been inspired by the many beautiful pictures and murals in the MTC.

We truly feel we are following the Savior and answering His call.

Here is a couple who were our teaching partners.  During PMG week we were paired up with the Claysons from Firth Idaho, where they were dairy farmers.  Amazing faith in these two and they are headed to Atlanta, Georgia for their 4th mission.  

During the second week of the MTC our training specialized in MLS (Member Leader Support) subjects as well as YSA (Young Single Adults) topics.  We learned a lot about security, emotional issues on our mission, getting along with our companions (easy for us), family history, welfare and family services, seminaries and institute teaching training, gospel library,  and much more!  Here is our class group for this second week of training.   From left to right: Yours truly, Sister Ferreira (Gina), the Baileys, and the Jexs. We love these couples!

We were asked prior to starting the MTC by Pres. Hafen, our stake president to speak in the Saturday Dec 10th evening session of stake conference.  Then when we arrived at the MTC on Dec. 5th our MTC branch president asked us to speak in the MTC branch meeting on Sunday Dec 11th.  We have a feeling this might be a regular occurrence on our mission to be asked to speak.  Glad we are together on this one!  Heather loves to speak and Mont would rather crawl under the podium ;-). 

We had wonderful devotionals from the MTC President, President Porter and his wife with Elder Bednar's talk on the Character of Christ.  We saw many video excerpts from Elder Holland during these devotionals and also had devotionals from Elder Jonathan Schmitt of the Seventy as well as Elder Carlos Godoy of the Seventy.  

Farewell Sunday Nov. 27, 2022

We were thrilled to have most of our children & grandchildren join us in our AF 14th ward Sacrament meeting on November 27th, 2022 where we had been invited to speak before beginning our mission.  We had a family choir and sang an arrangement of a favorite hymn, “The Lord Is My Light”.

Heather Speaking

Family Choir Singing

Pre MTC training

 Elder & Sister Spencer have been wonderful tutors in helping us prepare to enter the MTC. We had 4 - 2 hour zoom sessions over the course of a month as they taught us about senior missions and working with the YSA (Young Single Adults) and MLS (Member Leader Support) assignments.    They also taught us about gospel library, supporting local leaders, social media, family history, the temple, and a special site share.churchofJesusChrist.org with all kinds of church resources that you can share with others.  They lived in the same neighborhood with Grandma and Grandpa Hardy and knew Tara and Lloyd, G&G Hardy as well as aunt June.  They were delightful to work with.  This is their 3rd mission and are serving from their home in the Saint George area.

About to begin!

We are entering the Provo MTC in just 4 more days!!!  

We have settled things up at the Ridge.

We are spending time with grandchildren, and enjoying every minute with them.

We have also enjoyed spending time up at Justin & Radene's cabin and helping them finish the downstairs bathroom.