Getting Started

November 30, 2015

We will see how I do with this journal. I hope it is better than my first missionary journal poorly written some 45 years ago. We left L.A. the day after Thanksgiving and drove to Provo to spend the weekend with Christopher. President David Hales and his wife Melody were gracious enough to come over Thursday evening to set us apart with all the family present that were with us for Thanksgiving. David and Melody are dear friends and having him set us apart was very special.

Robyn and I drove to the MTC Monday morning.  After checking in and unpacking, we received some orientation from our branch president and the MTC mission president.  The mission president reminded us that there are 3 types of sins. There are sins of ‘commission’, and sins of ‘omission’ and then there are sins of ‘no mission’. All the senior missionaries were asked to stand up and introduce themselves and tell where they were assigned. I was impressed with the many places throughout the world that this group of missionaries are headed to. A couple was even headed to Lebanon to help with the churches’ efforts to help Syrian refugees. We are part of the largest group of senior missionaries to enter the MTC this year, some 142 elders and sisters.

Where's Waldo?

Things have changed a lot since I was a missionary here in what was then called the LTM. We were then housed in the old Knight Magnum Hall, which had once been used as a BYU girl’s dorm.  It is so much more organized today.

Our district with one of our instructors, Sister Bennion

We were divided up into districts to receive training each morning and afternoon. Most of the training revolved around learning how to teach, based upon the principles in Preach My Gospel. One of the couples in our district is Alan and Laurie Maynes. He is a second cousin of Elder Maynes of the Seventy. They had recently returned after serving as mission presidents in Colorado and were now headed to Mongolia to help with the churches’ humanitarian efforts there. He shared an interesting comment by Elder Holland when they came here a few years ago to be trained as mission presidents. Elder Holland, speaking to all the mission presidents, said that he knew that most of them had brought with them their old missionary journals, books and pamphlets that they had collected over the years on missionary service and suggestions from friends, priesthood leaders and family on how to work with missionaries. Elder Holland then said, “I want you to take all that ‘stuff’ and put it in a strong safe and lock the door and hope that the key rusts in the lock so that it can never be opened again.” In other words, we are living in different times and missionary work today is very very different from what it was just a few years ago. We cannot rely on what worked in the past or what we did on our missions, but instead follow the revealed direction from the living Prophet and Apostles and what is taught in Preach My Gospel. I realize that I need to be more humble and teachable and follow the Spirit.

Robyn has truly enjoyed the MTC experience. This is her first time as a full time missionary, so everything is new and exciting. She often found it hard to keep her emotions in check as the Spirit testified and taught us what we need to do and learn. A great deal of time was spent in role playing different scenarios and situations that we might encounter in the mission field with less actives or investigators. I can tell already that if I can learn to keep my mouth shut most of the time, we will be much better off. Robyn is very sensitive to the Spirit and people’s needs and so all I need to do is follow her lead.

The first day that we were in the MTC, one of the senior missionaries and his wife came up to me and said, "Hi David, how are Dean and James?" I had no clue who they were. Their names were Doug and Rita Hansen. Doug was a missionary companion of Dean in El Salvador and he mistook me for David, whom he had previously met. The interesting thing was that they are from Far West, Missouri and James had done their pre-mission dental work. That is why he also asked about James. Small world. Their story of faith and sacrifice to be able to serve is similar to many of the senior missionary couples we met. They shared with us that they had left their oldest daughter, who is severely mentally handicapped, with an elderly sister in their ward while they will be serving for 18 months in the North Dakota, Bismark mission. This is the first time that their daughter has ever been away from them. The elderly sister moved into their ward 3 months ago and immediately bonded with their daughter. The Lord made it possible for them to serve. The Hansens had been praying that the Lord would open the door so that could go. Hearing many similar stories of faith and devotion, helped me to realize that the Lord can provide miracles for those that have a desire to serve.

Doug and Rita Hansen

Before checking in on the 30^th, we had a wonderful dinner at Dan and Janet’s on Sunday evening. It was fun to visit with all those that were in town. Before leaving, we had a family prayer which reminded me of how blessed Robyn and I are to have such a wonderful family supporting us. We will miss them all. Thursday evening, the 3^rd, we had some free time and drove down to Payson to visit with Jerry and Maureen. Jerry and I were able to give Maureen a blessing in preparation for her medical tests the following day. I know that Heavenly Father is blessing her.

Friday afternoon we checked out and headed to Christopher’s again to spend the night, do some laundry and try once more to cram 18 months of ‘stuff’ into the Prius for our drive to Independence. Robyn had always wanted to bring the Tundra, but I assured her multiple times that the Prius was big enough to bring all ‘needful things’. I had to remind her numerous times that Missouri is still part of the U.S. and that we didn’t need to bring everything that was not nailed down in our home. I am surprised that the poor car made it over the Continental Divide. I have decided that when we go on our 2^nd mission, it will definitely be a ‘foreign’ one so I only have to pack a couple of suit cases.