CALLED TO SWERVE: In the beginning...

January 26, 2013

Yes, we did it! We submitted our mission papers! But rather than waiting anxiously for our call, we know exactly where we're going and what we'll be doing. We will be serving in the California Anaheim Mission Office, Tess will be secretary to the Mission President and Ken will be secretary to the secretary. It is a full time local mission, which means we live at home, work 9 to 5 Monday through Friday, Saturday P-day, and Sunday serve in one of the wards within the mission. We are promised time off for emergencies and sickness, plus 10 days vacation. We will have no callings in our home ward...not even visiting and home teaching. We even had a farewell and said our goodbyes. Thank you to the Robisons and Savannah for being there and to Ruthie and crew for singing! Our dear friends, Jo and Gail Ham also came to support us and helped with Luke and Reggie during the program. Thank you!

March 18, 2013

The call has arrived! Eleven months to the day that Max left for his mission to St George, Utah. By the looks on our faces, you can see we are trying to act surprised. When the envelope arrived, Tess happened to be on the phone with Jorita, so she joined our big opening ceremony. Sonna pointed out later that Tess's parents would be so proud, as she is the first one of their children to serve a mission. (I'm sure Ken's mother is proud as well, and that Jedediah had to pick her up off the floor, or cloud, or whatever is up there when she found out he was going.)

The Calls!
We report to the MTC April 29th...exactly 2 years to the day that Ken received his kidney transplant.

Studying Hard at Mission Prep.

Our good friend and Teacher Russ Griener.

May 11, 2013

Here they come! Its Wednesday and another 635 missionaries arrive.
278 Sisters / 357 Elders. Now the MTC is home to almost 4000 missionaries.

We found the Missionary Training Center to be a magical place...one of the spiritual hi-lights of our lives. The spirit and love there was palatable and it was a privilege to be a part of this
"marvelous work".

Here we are in class with our afternoon instructors and the Winches; one of the couples in our district.
(They were from Southern Utah and he was the king of metaphors.) We spent our first week at the MTC studying "Preach My Gospel" which was a spiritual feast! We learned how to teach investigators and less actives and participated in several role plays.

Trying hard to take it all in.

One of our PM instructors...wish we could remember her name.

Here we are with our AM instructor, Brother Sillitoe, and the Winches.

Dave Whetten is a Branch President in one of the 61 branches at the MTC. We were able to sit by Dave and Zina at our Departure Devotional on Sunday evening. They have served there for 3 1/2 years and love it so much, they hope to stay longer.

When we returned to our hotel room the next day, Zina had delivered a care package.
(The little lemon balls were to die for!) She also shared with us some wonderful
scriptures to remind us of the care our family will receive while we're serving.
(Check out DC 31 and DC 100:1&12.)

Ken soaking up the sun and the spirit.
(He looks a bit like a statue!)

The second week we were taught how to do our office job.
Not the spiritual feast of the prior week, but still a good thing.

The flowers at the MTC were in full bloom while we were there.
Sitting in the courtyard watching the
Elders and Sisters pass by was one of our favorite "pass" times.

Although we didn't have time to attend the temple, we were able to walk there on one of our lunch breaks.

The Senior Zone

The hall ways of the MTC are filled with beautiful art and photographs.
This was one of our favorites.

On our last day there, we received lots of mail, and were so excited! JoRita won the prize for being the most supportive mail sender, with four separate deliveries during our stay. An honorable mention goes to Aja and Ana, and Sonna and Ruthie for their mail, and a big shout out to Savannah for overnighting Ken more insulin. (The food there was so toxic, he needed more insulin to survive.)
Wait a minute, that looks like Tyler in the background!

We took a walk to the Provo Tabernacle that
burned and is being rebuilt as a temple.

Ever see a Temple on stilts?

The new Provo Temple after completion.

We returned home on Thursday, May 9. We report to the office on Monday, May 13, but as we don't yet have our Sunday assignment, we're not sure where to go to church this weekend. We can't go back to our home ward, as we already said our goodbyes there. We've thought about spending the day at the beach. ;)