I will go and do...

We entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on Saturday, August 12th (my sister Stacey's birthday).  Before arriving I gave a big goodbye hug to my sister-in-law Winnifred who has stage 4 cancer.  It was inspiring to spend three days with Winnifred and Charlie and feel an affirming witness that they are right with the Lord.  Whatever happens in the future they recognize it is God's will and they are at peace with the path their lives will take.  Luckily before we took off in the car Winnifred ran out to give me my tennis shoes that I had left at her back door.  I had been working to try to get goat-weed out of Charlie's vegetable garden all morning and didn't want to track dirt through her home.  We got out of the car to take pictures and then after getting situated Winnifred ran out a second time to give me my glasses.  Since I had packed so fast it caused me to wonder if I had left anything else behind.  It was good we delayed our departure so that Greg could help communicate with a Spanish speaking man who bought Charlie's van while I was busy packing.  The timing was great!  We had a vehicle to drive around for a week with a for sale sign in the back window and Charlie successfully sold his 2004 van immediately after we no longer needed it.

We filled up Charlie's car with 6 pieces of luggage plus a box we plan to ship home and a couple of carry-ons.  Once we arrived at the MTC we said goodbye to Charlie, received our name tags, key cards, and a metal key to get inside our room.  A key card is required for the elevator to access the 3rd floor of the senior missionary building.  The MTC is at max capacity and there are senior couples who are staying in a hotel to make room for incoming senior missionaries.  They expect to get 800 single missionaries on Wednesday to replace the 700 missionaries that are leaving.  It is the largest group of missionaries they have had this year and they expect to house 2,500 missionaries until the end of November.  The Lord really wants His work to go forward.

After putting our luggage in our room we headed to the BYU Cougareat to eat lunch.  After walking through the BYU bookstore we were amazed at the amount of construction happening in front of the BYU library.  There was barriers everywhere.  It reminded me of when I went with my sister Roberta to watch the Music and the Spoken Word at the Conference Center a week earlier.  There was only one entrance into the Salt Lake City temple grounds and the only building available to go inside was the assembly hall (where I had my seminary graduation).  We went inside and met two delightful sister missionaries who shared a scripture with us.  We noticed how extensively their scriptures were underlined and had tabs on the sides.  When Roberta asked about their system of marking their scriptures they shared how they were following another sister missionaries example.  They plan to give away their scriptures, if prompted, to an individual who needs their testimony strengthened.  We then tried walking through the Joseph Smith Memorial building and it also had major construction going on.  After visually seeing the construction going on in different locations, it made me realize the massive amount of money that is being spent on building renovations around the world.  Again, this is evidence that the Lord is moving forward with his work on a massive scale. 

It was a hot walk back to the MTC so I took a shower and unpacked my luggage.  It was a lovely day that ended with companion prayer with my husband.