February 6, 2014 We finished the MTC training

January 27, 2014 Senior Missionary Training Center Group

 

We have completed our MTC training.  Wow!  What a place.  We thoroughly enjoyed our experience there.  Because it is in Provo, we saw quite a few people that we know who serve at the MTC as branch or district presidents and their wives.  Besides Caleb (grand nephew) we saw a couple of other missionaries that we know.  So that was good.   And of course, we made new friends with many of the 26 other senior missionary couples who arrived the day we did ready to serve at home or in many places around the world.  

The Spirit was very strong, the teachers are amazing, Preach My Gospel  is an inspired teaching tool, our testimonies of the Church’s welfare program are certainly strengthened.  This is the Lord’s Church and His work.  It simply would not work if it wasn’t.   We did a lot of role play, were a bit out of our comfort zone; we toured Welfare Square, and learned much.  Here’s a few things:

• We are first called to be missionaries – to do whatever is needed.
• We teach people, not lessons.·         
• Building relationships are so important; listen twice as much as you talk. 
• The Book of Mormon is the most powerful resource in conversion. 
• Never say “this is the way we do it in Utah.” 
• You can’t stay in the comfort of calm waters forever.  In the deep waters, life is about others. 
• “Every stone laid and every temple built lessens Satan’s power”  (Joseph B. Wirthlin) 
• You can always tell when a testimony is being borne or a doctrine is being taught in a language you don’t understand because the Spirit will bear witness. 
• There are no small rules. 
• You have 18 months to serve and an eternity to think about it.  Have no regrets.  
• The Spirit’s job is to convert; ours is to love and serve. 
• “If you give something to the people, give them the very best.” 
• “You can’t have peace of mind and be in want materially.  You can’t have the spirit of the gospel in your hearts with an empty stomach, and so in the plan of the Master there is provision not only for the salvation of the spirit of man, but also for his physical being.”  (Matthew Cowley) 
• “The great blessing of the quorum and the ward is that instead of one person feeling lost and alone, he will feel that there are a hundred people or more working to help him find a job.  We as a people do not understand the quorum organization yet.  When we do, we will find there will be a ‘power surge’ through the Church that will electrify the world.”  (Vaughn J. Featherstone)
• We are not a humanitarian organization; we are a church doing humanitarian work. 
• Our spiritual progress is inseparably bound together with the temporal service we give to others. (President Uchtdorf) 
• Water is the best drink.  Other beverages do not prevent dehydration.  In fact, carbonation, chocolate and caffeine slows gastric emptying. 
•  There are many temples built to God.  The only temple to the Holy Ghost is our body. 
•  Small and simple people can do what the Lord needs. 
• Whom the Lord calls He qualifies. 
• Welfare services is not a program; it is the essence of the gospel. 
• True happiness is not found outside the commandments. 
• The whole purpose of this organization (the Church) is to prepare the earth for the Second Coming of Christ.  (David A. Bednar).
• You can’t do it all, but you can do much.

(l to r) Elder McCarrey, companion to Elder Caleb Hensley (our nephew), MTC President and Sister Lon Nally, Sharon and Stan Miller. The Nallys are friends of Elder Hensley's grandparents, John and Kathy Hansen, Stan's sister.