We survived our first week. We spoke in church on Sunday morning at 9:00 AM, then we drove straight to the Provo MTC. We checked into our room in the MTC complex, and we collapsed into bed. Our formal classes were scheduled to begin on Monday morning at 10:00 so we explored the MTC buildings. The new buildings are really beautiful, peaceful, with huge murals on each floor. We loved going up and down the six floors and taking pictures of each of the murals. My favorite was a painting of Esther. Then, we started our classes. Every day from Monday to Friday, we were in classes from 8:00 AM to 12:00. Most of our classes were a small group with just 8 people, the same people every day, but sometimes, for the last hour, we attended class with about 70 senior missionaries.
For practice, Larry and I were randomly paired with another couple, and our challenge was to help them with something they needed. Our couple was a Brazilian man who married a woman from California 16 years ago, and before they met, in their first marriages, they each had 6 children. She said their need was that her daughter won't talk to her anymore, and he said that their need was that children should grow up and stop talking to their parents. These two people could not be more different from each other, we worry about them a little, but we learned to love them, and we went to get ice cream with them. Ice cream soothes all needs.
I love all the things we are learning. We began by considering how we want to feel about our personal growth after serving a mission. I decided that I want to be a little more outgoing in meeting people and complimenting them. We learned about characteristics of Christ that we can develop, such as faith and charity. On Thursday afternoon, we learned how to take care of our mental health by taking breaks, using cognitive behavioral therapy, and getting along with our spouse by not taking them for granted. On our final afternoon (Friday) we learned how to be safe on our missions, and after learning about all the ways big cities are dangerous, I almost decided to go home and forget the mission. Ha ha!
On Saturday, Larry and I got to visit with my father and mother, and that was a special visit. Mom is amazingly taking care of dad at home now with the help of medical professionals. Dad is still able to talk with us and we loved sharing our experiences at the MTC with him. Then on Sunday, I played piano, and Larry conducted music at church. We attended a special meeting in order to prepare for our Go-and-Do activity, in which we spent a couple of hours of quiet time pondering. Then, we attended two more church meetings, one at 4:00 and another at 7:00. After every day like this, we are exhausted but really happy because we love the speakers and the topics. We are doing great, and we feel really blessed to be together experiencing the magic of the MTC.
