Our First Week in the MTC

We just finished our first week.  We have been so busy our heads are spinning. Up every day to work out at 5:00am, dressed by 7:15am, to breakfast by 7:30am and in class at 8:00am.  We are in class until 12:00.  We go back to class until 4:30 pm, break for dinner and have German from 6-8:00pm.  It is a long day. Our classes are preparing us to be missionaries.  We taught our first lesson on Wednesday.  Boy were we nervous.  We did great.  The spirit was so strong as we tesified our belief in Christ and told of his love for us.  We were filmed while teaching so the instructor could give us suggestion about where we coud improve.  We did the same sort of thing on Thursday afternoon.  We  also started German tutoring this week.  It is really fun.  Our instructor has taught us a pattern to use to construct sentences using 25 words.  It makes it a lot easier to remember.  We had a testimony meeting with the other language missionaries on Friday night.  We all had to bear our testimonies in our new language.  Both Dan and I were abel to do so without too much difficulty.  Mine was short, but that is ok.  Saturday we awoke to no power so no hot water, no hot food, and no lights.  They have a generator going now but the main transformer won't be fixed for a couple of days.  At least we have normal power to our room.  Saturday morning we went to the Provo Temple.  It was cold walking up the hill.  There was a light dusting of snow on the ground.  We enoyed our time in the Temple.  Our German tutor and his wife picked us up for lunch and we went to In and Out for our last hamburger before going to Germany on Friday.  It was good!  A lot of the senior missionaries have left the MTC for their missions so it is quiet here.  The preceeding  pictures are of friends made while in the MTC.  They are Bro Wosniak, one of ou teachers, Our group with Bro Silitoe, our other teacher in the middle and of  Our district pointing to where we are going.  The Kennleys are going to Indiana, The Moss' are going to South Africa, and the Perrys are going to Southern France.  We are going to Germany.

Life at the MTC

We entered the MTC on a clear sunny crisp morning.   We were nervous but excited to be there.  We got checked in, found our room, went to orientation and were busy the entire day.  We ate in the cafeteria with all the other missionaries.  The food was good and plentiful.  We retired to our room after dinner and did some studying, and were in bed by 9:30 pm.  We awoke to cold rain.  It snowed in the mountains around us.  It stayed cold all day, but the rain cleared out about dinner time.  We went to a Devotional with Craig Zwick of the Seventy.  Both he and his wife Jan spoke.  Both were inspiring.  Tomorrow we teach our first lesson and start German class in the evening.  It will be another busy satisfying day.

We are getting ready to go!

Time is flying and soon it will be time to pack the suitcases and go. I can't believe we will be leaving for 18 months and living in Germany. All the kids were here on Sunday for our farewell talk in church.(Glad that is over.) It was great to see them. Dani and Emily fixed a great dinner for everyone. Thanks Dani and Emily.
We are trying to learn German. We have been studying with the roseta stone and now we have a tutor from the MTC. Progress is slow for me and better for Dan. I understand better then I speak. I've decided I'll just be quiet for the next 18 months.
I have been watching the weather in Berlin, it is getting colder there. We all know how much we I like the cold! That being said, I can't wait to get there.

We are going on a Mission

Our Trip to Utah

We left for Utah on May 30th . Tami Holmes went with us.  Her husband couldn't go, he had to work. 
The OCMCO choir Tami and Debbie sing with was recording at Abrevenal Hall in SLC and performing in the Historic Tabernacle on Temple Square.  What a wonderful experience.  It was a long week of recording but I would do it agin in a heart beat!  Performing in the Tabernacle was awesome.  We had a standing room only crowd of 3-4000 plus the assembly hall and one other building was full of people watching the video feed of our performance.  I was able to get my Aunt Tessie and her missionary friend Joanne tickets to attend.  Dan was also there. He got to Temple square 1 hour early and there were 500 people already in line.  He attached himself to a family group at the front of the line and went in with them.  One lady thought she knew him and said it was nice to him again.  He doesn't know who she was.  The next day, we performed in Abrevenal Hall across the street from Temple Square.  My cousin Susan was there but I didn't get to see her because BYU was doing a documenty about our choir and had to finnish filming after the concert.

While Tami and I were busy, Dan played GOLF!.  He played every day, some days twice.  I was worried about him being alone so much of the time.  Silly me.  He was off doing what he loves best.  the trip home was uneventful and we arrived home tired but happy.

OCMCO Choir

On April 30th, the choir I sing with performed at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.  We performed Messiah in America, an original oratorio writen by Brett Stewart( our conductor).  The text is straight out of 3rd Nephi in the Book of Morman and tells the story of the people living in the Americas at the time of Christ.  It was a lot of hard work and a lot of fun.  The first week of June, we travel to Salt Lake City, Utah to record this great oratorio and to perform in the Morman Tabernacle on Temple square.  I am looking forward to this.  I was able to sing in the Tabernacle once years ago and it was a great experience.  Dan, Kevin, Bob, and Emily were all able to come to the performance.  I know it wasn't my son's cup of tea but I've set through enough of their things that I thought it was ok for them to come and get some culture!  They actually liked it.  Em flew down with the 2 kids so she coud go.  We had a nice visit with her and wished that Brian could have come too.

Postcards from the Central Coast

Last week, Dan and I took a trip up to our friends Barb and Jim Cutshaw.  They live in Arroyo Grande.  We took  a couple of drives around the country side.  The wild flowers were just begining to bloom.  There will be lots more color in another week.  We also took a hike along the coast of Morro Bay.  The California coast is one of the prettiest places on earth.  We had realy nice weather,only 1 day of overcast gloom and fog.  The rest of the days were cool but sunny.  thanks Barb and Jim for a great time.