Min Kaere Familie,
Our first week at the MTC is officially ended. Wow—what a whirlwind. I was impressed by how the MTC processes and
keeps track of so many people. And it
seems to go so effortlessly. Of course,
there are many people who help things run smoothly. We were met by some strapping young
missionaries to haul our 250 lbs of luggage to our room. That was so nice. I love wearing my missionary tag and was so
pleased to see 108 people just like us gathered together. We heard messages from the MTC Mission
Presidency. I was particularly touched
by an experience the second counselor and his wife had when they were called on
another mission. Their daughter learned
that she was expecting another baby.
Everyone was thrilled, but concerned when the sonogram revealed that the
baby had spina bifida. This news gave
the couple (particularly the wife) second thoughts about the mission. They were able to help the daughter while she
had in vitro surgery to close the baby’s spine.
This wouldn’t cure the disease but would significantly increase the
baby’s chances for a more normal life.
After the surgery the daughter would be on bedrest for 15 weeks. The mom was very concerned, but her daughter
told her to go on her mission and that they would all be blessed. So the mom organized help for her
daughter—other siblings, extended family, ward members to do the things she
wanted to do during those 15 weeks.
Everything went well and when the couple returned from their mission,
who was there to greet them? The
daughter and granddaughter from Tennessee had come just to be there so the
little almost 2-year-old granddaughter could run to her grandparents. That story gave me (and I’m sure a lot of
other grandmothers in our group) comfort and assurance that all would be well
at home while we are away. My setting-apart
blessing also gave me that reassurance.
Our FHE activity was viewing a wonderful MTC fireside which
Elder Bednar delivered at the MTC Christmas Day in 2011 called “The Character
of Christ.” I looked it up and found a
similar talk he gave at BYU-I in 2003.
The talk he gave at the MTC was longer, but the message was wonderful. It would make for a good family
discussion. Elder
Bednar's Talk He talked about
turning outward instead of inward.
The other highlight was Elder Bednar coming in person on
Tuesday night to speak to the entire MTC.
His talk this time was called “One by One.” Elder Bednar has had a song in his heart for
a long time, but his musical talents are sorely lacking. He recently got with a composer friend and a
lyricist to help him get the song out.
The result is a beautiful song entitled “One by One”—with reference to
the Savior’s visit to the Americas in 3 Nephi.
(11:15) The song was performed
for the first time that night—the whole MTC chorus plus 5 children who sang
verses. It will be published in the New
Era next month. The focus of the
talk was how God knows each of us individually. Christ ministers to ‘the one.’ His parables about the lost sheep, the lost
coin, and the prodigal’s son are examples of how He loves us individually. He knows us; He cares for us; and He wants us
to be concerned for ‘the one.’
On Wednesday night, we walked to the Provo Temple; we did a sealing session.
I loved our study of Preach My Gospel this week. But I especially loved how we put it in
action. I found myself ‘thinking out of
the box’ a bit as we worked on asking good questions and teaching by the
Spirit. Our district had a couple going
to serve as Military Relations on an air force base, a couple serving with
Public Affairs, and another couple going as Pathways, PEF/self-reliance, and
CES missionaries. We rounded out the
group with YSA. None of us are serving
as member leadership support. Why would
we need to know Preach My Gospel?
But the skills we learned are invaluable for any missionary—for any
member. We all have opportunities to
share the gospel. Having some tools
certainly will be helpful. We did a lot
of role-playing and practicing. Twice,
we visited with investigators (or members posing as investigators) and taught a
lesson. We taught lessons to each other
as well. I was particularly humbled by one
of our activities which was filling out the Christ-like Attributes Assessment (see
PMG p. 126)
One of the tender mercies we have experienced here is that
my insurance finally okayed a year’s supply of my medicine. I picked up 6 months of pills in Houston just
before we left. The other 6 months was
approved and filled here in Provo. The other tender mercy was that
I determined that the shoes I wore to pick up the medicine were not going to
make it two years. So, thanks to Lindsey’s Amazon Prime, I
ordered new shoes.
As much as I love the MTC, it was nice to go to Lindsey’s
house for the weekend. (There was
nothing happening on Friday night and Saturday anyway.) We were grateful just for some long walks and
down-time. Now back to work.
We are glad we came back to attend the two devotionals on
Sunday night. One was for all out-going
missionaries with talks from the MTC mission presidency and the other was for
all missionaries—the speaker was Mark Lusvardi, Director of Public Programs,
Missionary Department. It was a great
talk about making the most of your mission.
There is a special feeling when you sing with 1300+ missionaries in a
huge auditorium. Somehow the hymns just
sound better. I love the experience we
are having. I’m anxious to see what the
next week will bring.
Thank you for your support. We feel your love.
Med elsker,
Søster Shurtliff
Dear Family,
It's Sunday night and tomorrow will mark 1
week of the MTC experience. Hence, my first letter as a set-apart
missionary. It has been fabulous from the very start when they had a young
elder for every one of our bags to carry them to our room and then a very
orderly process to check in, pay for or meals and room, have a short
orientation and get lunch. The rooms are
not large but very nice with a double desk, a queen size bed, and pictures of
Christ on the wall. The food has been excellent with choices between
salads, fresh fruit, a hot entree, sandwiches, yogurt, and even Creamery ice
cream day on Wednesdays. My challenge has
not been to eat too much. It all looks
so tempting and the quality is very good.
We have young elders and sisters all
around us but our classes are separate.
Interesting, that there seems to be about an equal number of sisters and
elders in the younger set. I think our
young men still need to step up and get ready in greater numbers.
They are about 108 senior missionaries
that arrived on Monday with us, including 4 single sisters. I think we are on the young side of the
group, though Jean doesn’t agree with me, but most must be older than 65. We introduced ourselves in the first session
and the missions vary a lot, but no temple missionaries are here. I suppose they go directly to their temple
but I am not sure why exactly. They have
stressed to us that one of our roles is to “leaven” everything around us. That we should look for ways to strengthen,
invigorate, activate, etc. all around us.
If we find that we have some free time, we should be proactive in
finding activities ourselves that will invite others to Christ, or strengthen
member-missionary relations. They suggested things like: organizing service
projects, pot luck meals, working for food kitchens, teaching English classes,
visiting old folk homes, talking or teaching in school classes, taking new
friends to see local attractions, etc.
Temple missionaries can do that as well as we other types. So our group
is mostly stateside with a smattering of other countries including Estonia,
Ukraine, France, Solomon Islands, Congo, Australia, etc. The assignments vary a lot. There are several serving Military Relations,
PEF/welfare/self-reliance, MLS, public affairs.
Interesting that 2 other couples are going to our same mission and all 3
of us are working with YSA’s. That has us a bit puzzled because we were needed
so badly and now there are 3 of us. We
know however that one couple is assigned to another city and I suspect the
other couple will go someplace beside Copenhagen as well, or maybe it will be
us that is elsewhere. We will find out
when we arrive and receive our assignments.
In any case, President O’Bryant is putting a lot of emphasis on
YSA’s. It must be a real need in
Denmark. The other 2 men served missions in Denmark as young men so they are
refreshing the language while their wives are learning it. I am obviously a bit jealous of their head
start with speaking the language. We have learned as we have talked to several
people familiar with the country, that it is awfully hard to be a young adult
in the church there. The country is so liberal, morals are so loose and
drinking is really big with the young set that there is very little support for
them. Hence, our role begins to be a
little clearer as we will try to offer them wholesome activities built around
Institute.
Our instruction this week was
all around Preach My Gospel, with emphasis on listening skills to understand
needs, asking open ended questions and teaching simply to address those
needs. About half of
our class time was in the large group and the other half was in districts of 4
couples. Each district had a morning
instructor and a different afternoon instructor. Both of ours were returned sister
missionaries who work for the MTC. They
were great – vivacious, very capable and not afraid to boss us old fogies
around. We got pretty close as a
district after 4 ½ days. Mom has
mentioned more about our district couples I believe.
So it has been a great week. Very demanding, very spiritual and we have
learned a lot and we are having fun. My
sincere wish tonight is that each of our grand-children will have the
experience of the MTC and being full-time missionaries when they are old
enough. They are needed and the Lord will want them to serve. I see all the
happy, smiling faces of these young missionaries who are so anxious to get to
their missions so they can go to work. It is a marvelous thing to see the
transformation in a few weeks here that will continue as they serve their
missions.
All my love. Dad
A few visits to the Provo Temple while in the MTC
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