Dear Family and friends
We
just completed our first week as full-time missionaries—wow what a week. Sister Andrus and I entered the MTC on
Monday, August 6, 2012. We arrived
at approximately 10:30 a.m. and were greeted with tender open arms from
everyone. What a joy it was to be
included in such and organized and caring environment. Lots to do and lots of
details going here to register and there to pay our fees and over yonder to
order more name tags etc. We
completed in time to have our first meal.
My goodness—they feed you well; so many choices and so delicious. What we enjoyed the most was being
right in the middle of 2500 young elders and sisters. They are so wonderful and so gracious and all of them wanting
to serve us old folks. We were
able to see Sister Arianna Johnson, Sister Lexi Bracken. We ran into Jackson Ames who is working
as one of the instructors. They
looked so wonderful and so full of the spirit. They lifted our spirits and made us very proud of them.
We
were assigned a District and met with three other senior couples in what was
called small group instruction. We
alternated back and forth from large group instruction (all of the senior
couples—about 40 of us) and small group instruction several times each
day. Our group included Elder and Sister
Ainsworth from Southern California.
They are retired hospital administration people going to London, England
to work with the young single adult center. Elder and Sister Ahlborn from Orem was also in our
group. They are on their 3rd
mission as couples. Their first
mission was in Europe working with the Single adults. They replaced my sister Pat and her husband Steve’s
place. They showed us several
pictures they took of Pat and Steve in Europe. They have been called to work in
the CES program in Brooklyn, New York.
The third couple in our District was Elder and Sister Rucker from
Arizona (a community about 35 miles south of Phoenix). They are serving their second mission
also. They are going to the
Caribbean area as Auditors. They
will oversee the auditing of all the church properties in that area. We grew to love these good people much
like Brothers and Sisters. We find
ourselves already missing them even though we will see the Ainsworths next week
as they are receiving more training in Single Adult work as Sister Andrus and I
will be receiving additional training in Office specialist work.
The
small group instruction was under the tutorship of young recently returned
Elder and Sister Missionaries. What
powerful teachers they are. They
assisted us in several role plays and prepared us for three separate 45 minute
teaching scenarios. There are
several volunteer couples and single people living in the area, most members of
the church and some non-members who come and serve as investigators for us to
teach. They stay in their role as
investigators and we have to get to know them and then teach them as we are
inspired to as result of the information we extract form them as we get to know
them. It was amazing to feel the
sprit working with us. I must say
Sister Andrus is amazing in this area.
She is right on discerning their needs and working to teach them. One of the scenarios included first
time teaching situation. The
second one was a follow-up meeting when another set of missionaries had taught
them and the third was meeting with less active people. It really helped us in so many
areas. We worked together to
prepare and what a joy it is to work with each other in this manner. We really enjoyed this even though it
was somewhat stressful. We got
better each time and learned from our mistakes and from the feedback that was
given to us. I believe Sister
Andrus and I can do this—I have every confidence we can be instruments in
Heavenly Fathers hands to help bring people to Christ.
We
attended the Tuesday night devotional.
Elder Robert Dellenbauch , an emeritus member of the Seventy as the
speaker. He was a member of our
Area Presidency when I was serving.
It was good to hear him again.
Sister Andrus and I sang in the choir. It was great to be among the young missionaries in the
choir. Wednesday evening we met
with David and Sherrie Anthony.
Dave and I were missionary companions years ago. We had dinner together and had such a
great visit with them.
We
are in St. George with Rich and Mir and family. They arrived late—it is early in the morning on Saturday and
I am waiting the time when they will awaken . We anticipate a great visit with them today. We will return to the MTC tomorrow to
begin our second week of training on Monday. We love our family so much. We miss you all and pray for each of you at least twice each
day. We want you to be a part of
our mission. As we were taught
this week—this is not our mission alone.
We are only assisting Heavenly Father in his mission to bring to pass
the immortality and eternal life of his children. Sister Andrus and I believe strongly that this mission will
be successful as we all join together and serve our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ as a family. We invite you
to join with us as we serve together.
We know we are a part of a great work. We know Heavenly Father Lives. We are grateful for the Atonement that allows us to be an
eternal family. We are grateful
for living Prophets who guide this great work. We love the Book of Mormon and read from it every day. We thank each of you for your love and
prayers in our behalf. Please
accept our gratitude and love
Love
Elder and Sister Andrus, mom and dad, grandma and grandpa
and friend.
It is now Sunday evening and we are back in Provo. We really had a wonderful time with
Rich and Miriam and family. We had
a very busy and wonderful Saturday.
We attended Sacrament meeting this morning and continued our visits. We said our good buys and we headed
north and they headed south about 2:00 p.m.. We heard they got stuck in bad traffic and it took them most
of 2 hours to get to Mesquite.
Hope they are having more success now. We love you all.
