Week Two MTC: Provo, Utah

Photos:
*Salt Lake Temple.
*At the MTC map: We are headed to Lima, Peru!
*Inside the MTC campus.
*Rob loved the flowers around the MTC.
*Elder Braden White & Elder Merrill.

Week two at the Missionary Training Center in Provo found us with two other humanitarian couples for training specific to our assignments. The Noordas will be in Hanoi, Vietnam; the McAlpins will serve in Serbia; and we will head to Lima, Peru. Monday's training was at church headquarters in Salt Lake City and at Welfare Square.

Our specific initiatives will involve clean water projects, mobility solutions (wheelchairs), newborn and maternal care training (to reduce infant and mother mortality), vision professional training (prevention of blindness), food and nutrition programs, and area-specific initiatives. The focus of all the humanitarian initiatives of the church is to increase the ability of individuals and communities to become more self-reliant and to do so in a way that is sustainable long after we depart. Much of what we will be doing will be under the umbrella of LDS Charities and from what we have been able to determine about Peru, most of our work will be in communities where there are few if any members of our church. Our objective is to relieve suffering among the poorest of our Heavenly Father's children, and it is our privilege to be able to do so in Peru.

While in the MTC, we were able to participate in large meetings with visiting church leaders who inspired us to strive to be more like the Savior as we serve in our ministry to God's children, wherever we are called. It was a refining experience to be instructed by word, but more importantly by the impressions of the Holy Spirit that teach and confirm truth.

We were fortunate to see one of our friends from Wenatchee a few times while in the MTC. Elder Braden White is on his way to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania for a two-year mission. We also got to see Natalie and Brad a few times while here and have enjoyed a few meals together. The rules for senior missionaries are different from the younger missionaries and allow us to have our own schedule in the evenings, and the young missionaries seem to do just fine with the different rules from the "old folks." We thoroughly enjoyed the experience of the MTC.