Saturday, October 31, 2009

Missionary Training Center

These are the Elders and Sisters who are the MTC with me. Some of them have already flown, but most of us will be there on Monday and Tuesday. What a marvelous group of people! Some of them have served three and four missions. When we talk about a worldwide church, this is.



This is my district. The young returned missionary is our teacher. She served in Nauvoo. In fact, I kept looking at her, trying to figure out where I knew her. Finally, we figured it out when she said she had served in Nauvoo. She had been assigned to us at the pageant. Small world? My companion is the sister standing next to me. She runs marathons. Obviously I'm gong to have a hard time keeping up.
I have had some marvelous experiences. We have been teaching volunteers who come to the MTC and pretend to be non-members or less active. What a great opportunity this has been! The spirit is very strong here and I am grateful for the opportunity to serve.
I want to share one experience. We were talking about reaching out to people. I kept feeling prompted to tell my Nauvoo experience with the sticks and I kept ignoring it. Finally, I shared it and the trainer for all senior missionaries said, "It couldn't be better said than that and we got a break. For those of you who haven't heard that story, we were training the children of the pageant how to approach people. We told them to pick up a stick for each person they talked to. When time was up, there were three sticks left on the ground. Being taught by the spirit, those weren't three sticks, but three of Heavenly Father's children whom He loves that no one cared enough to offer the gospel to. When I picked up those three sticks, I realized how it important it is that I give everyone the opportunity to hear the message.
In case you can't tell--I love being a missionary!!!

7 comments:

Ryan Cowley said...

Yeah! You're posting! Glad to hear things are going so well for you!!

Mr C said...

Way to go Marcia! We loved our MTC experience, too! The Spirit is indeed very strong there. But they also keep one VERY busy there. We remember well the volunteers pretending to be investigators. One guy really got into it and gave us a hard time! Every missionary should have had the opportunity to teach him!
Don't you just love those trainers? They are so young, but they really have the spirit with them. We are excited that you have this technology down now and we will be able to be a part of your mission as well. Great job on the pictures!
From one side of the world to the other--we love you!
Elder and Sister Caldwell

Mr C said...

Just a note--we saw your post BEFORE Becky. She snuck on while we were doing a long post so she could be first! Happy Halloween!

Bressler Bunch said...

Oh, duh. I was trying to figure out why it was taking you so long to get to Nauvoo! I didn't think it was really that long of a drive. Forgot you had to go to the MTC first. Oops. Well, when you get to Nauvoo, you will have a letter from Jarod and a (late) Halloween card. Hopefully they will hold on to them for you!

Anonymous said...

I've waited all week for you to have P-day to be able to post. I'm glad to hear things are going well. I loved that you shared the experience from Nauvoo. I can't wait to hear about more of your missionary experiences.
Love, Donna
PS I couldn't remember my password to publish this under my name.

The Fendleys said...

I know that you will not have any trouble keeping up with your marathon running companion, you are pretty good at 'running marathons' yourself, so to speak.

byumeaganlee said...

Holy Cow! That's Clark and Laurel Christian in the back left of that group. They were my teacher's during my semester in Nauvoo!