The Mission Story Begins

(I am finally getting this blog going!  Please bear with me for these first few posts while I get caught up to the present. We want this blog to cover the entire mission.)

I guess I'll start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. We received our call to The Alpine German Speaking Mission on March 2 and opened it March 3 when we returned from a trip to Hawaii early in the morning.  We had Brandon and Julie Ann and their family at our home and everyone else on FaceTime or watching the recorded version later. We also had our bishop, Eric Belnap, with us since he had picked us up at the airport.  Bob let me read the call because it was my first time to receive a mission call.  We were called to work with the Young Single Adults.  We were super excited.  We were told we would report to the MTC on May 8, 2017.  Just over two months to get ready.  We had no idea how fast the time would go or how much there would be to do to get ready.



The next step on this journey was the Open House we had on Saturday, April 29, at our home from 2:00 until 5:00.  We had lots of help from friends and family and it was terrific! We had the Open House so we could see family and friends before we left.  Lots of people came and we loved it!  We felt so much love and support and it was truly a blessing.


Sunday, April 30, we spoke in our Sacrament Meeting and again we felt tremendous love and support. We were grateful for the opportunity to share our testimonies and our gratitude for the opportunity to serve a mission.


On Tuesday, May 2, we headed to the MTC for two days of immersion language training.  We had been receiving language training by Skype once a week for about 6 weeks.  We each had our own tutor and we also each had a learning coach.  This was great but they encouraged us to come to the MTC and spend full days with tutors and volunteers immersed in the German language.  We took advantage of this service and really enjoyed it.  Each hour we had a different experience.  We wished we had been able to spend more time there because it was very beneficial.  The spirit of missionary work is very strong at the MTC and it was inspiring and motivational.

Language tutors, Jaron Thorley, Natalie Motto and Grace Hendricks.

The following Monday, May 8, was when we reported to the MTC to stay for the week and be taught how to be missionaries.  We had a group of about 120 senior missionaries.  We were very impressed by this group of dedicated and faithful seniors heading all over the world to help build the kingdom. We met some really terrific people.  We were taught by outstanding returned missionaries and we all learned a lot. This was an amazing week that we will never forget and we loved it!  We were sad to see it end.  We went home for the weekend and celebrated Mother's Day with our family.  On Monday, we returned for two days of CES training to learn how to teach the Young Single Adults in our mission.  We were joined by the other senior couples who were called to teach as well. The Church has put together an incredible manual for teaching.  These two days we were taught by Church Education instructors who have a lot of experience teaching young people.  We hope we will be able to put into practice all the principles they taught us.

Our MTC district with our teachers. The Grants, the Mechams,and the Dearings.
Sister Donakey and Sister Anderson.

The Senior couples in our CES training.

We came home Tuesday night and finished packing so we could leave early Wednesday, May 17, for Germany.   Our kids and grandkids in Utah came over to help us get ready to go and to say goodbye. We had already said goodbye to the families in Missouri when we visited there at Easter.  It was very difficult to say goodbye because we will miss them all so much, but we hope our mission will bless them as well as us.  Thank goodness we will be able to call and FaceTime frequently.