In Transition

Friday, October 11, 2013

We have now completed our MTC training and experience. This has been a marvelous experience, but we are ready to move on to our next adventure. Last weekend was wonderful. I expect you all enjoyed General Conference as much as we did. We attended several sessions with more than 2,000 of our closest friends, (missionaries in the MTC). In addition to the conference sessions on Sunday, we attended a departure devotional along with 775 missionaries who left for the mission field this week. They are an amazing group of young people. RoLayne and I sat by three young sister missionaries on Sunday. One was from Italy, going to Temple Square, another was from Panama, and the third, was from Thailand also going to Temple Square. They were delightful, excited young women. Later Sunday night, we had another devotional featuring a BYU vocal group called Vocal Point. They bore testimony and sang several hymns. It was very inspiring. Monday, we started our second and final week of training. Church Education System (CES) folks from Church Headquarters came in to teach us about teaching Institute and Seminary. It was excellent training and whether we teach or not, it will be most helpful in studying the gospel or for preparing talks. The tools and techniques they taught were incredible and the seminary students these days are so knowledgeable in the gospel. They have so much deeper knowledge than we did at their age. 

The last three days the folks from Military Relations came in to orient us and teach us how to facilitate Resiliency Training and Addiction Training. They also went over the Senior Missionary Rules and Standards. Today, we went to Church Headquarters and met the Director of the Military Relations Division for the Church, Frank Clawson. It was an inspiring day. We also got to visit with and say goodbye again to Amy, Lisa, Eric, and Kim’s family. We had dinner with Kim’s family Friday night. We are really going to miss all of our grandchildren. We are leaving tomorrow morning to drive to Arizona. We have an appointment to meet with President Killpack on Tuesday at noon. This past two weeks has been a spiritual high. I am convinced that we will have a great work to do.

Sunday, October 13, 2013                                                                                  

We left Provo at about 7:30AM yesterday and drove about 750 miles all the way to Tucson. We spent last night at Lori’s house, sleeping in our trailer. We attended church with Lori and family today. We met a brother who is serving a service mission handling all the housing for the missionaries. He and his wife are in Lori’s ward. It is amazing the chance meetings we keep having. Yesterday as we were enroute, we stopped at Scipio, which is simply a service station along the interstate in central Utah. We got out of the car and bumped into another couple who was in our Military Training group. They were on their way to Montgomery, Alabama. 

Tomorrow, we will have a down day to get ready to visit with the mission president on Tuesday, then head on down to Sierra Vista and get settled, then get to work. We will try to keep you posted. We are so grateful to all of you for your prayers and support. Please feel free to email or call us as you have time. We are loving our mission and grateful for the opportunity to serve. We know that there are many young service men and women that need our assistance and support and we are committed to give all that we have to serve them and the Lord. 

I will add a few pictures below;

In front of the World Map at the MTC

Elder and Sister Pett, Instructors for MR training

All CES and Military Relations Missionaries in our Group. Heningers Right Front