December 2012, MTC and Anniversary

   The MTC is a wonderful way to begin a mission.  Our first week we learned from “Preach My Gospel”, the missionary and member training manual.  The second week was temple training, led by kindly Elder F. Melvin Hammond, formerly of the Seventy, and his sweet and ebullient wife. (They are on the left, and we on the right in the photo.)  There were couples going to Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Washington D.C.

Temple Missionaries (Elder and Sister Hammond on left
Elder and Sister Jones on right)

   The MTC is beautiful at Christmas time.  The inner courtyard is reminiscent of Temple Square in SLC, with all its lights.  The surge of missionaries created by lowering the age of men to 18 and women to 19 is already beginning.  It will be interesting to see how it will be handled, since the MTC’s neighbors objected to building extra stories onto existing buildings.  One thing that is being done is to move the senior missionaries off campus, which will be a bit sad.  It has been fun to feel the exuberance of the young missionaries.  The large group devotionals and meetings have been inspirational.  

  The Brett Family from Branson sang at one of the devotionals.  Brydon Brett, a young returned missionary, bore his testimony while introducing one of the songs.  He spoke of the exact moment of his mission when obedience “ceased to be an irritant and became a goal,” and how from that moment he began to teach with power.  That statement sticks with me more than any of the inspiring talks, because I suspect it is applicable not only to missionaries but to Church members in general if we want to live with God’s power in our lives.

   It was a bit of a let-down to leave the MTC.  Others in our group left to serve, but we left for home to await our visas.  

City Creek Center

   A plus of our not leaving immediately is that we got to celebrate Christmas at home with Mike.  We also celebrated our wedding anniversary in Salt Lake City, enjoying wandering the new City Creek Center and Temple Square, eating at Lamb's Grill (an old favorite of ours), and attending a delightful free concert at the Assembly Hall.  The lights on Temple Square and the full moon rising over the Temple made the walk back to the hotel memorable.

Temple with Christmas Lights

   








We attended Mike's ward on Sunday, which also happens to be Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's ward.  When it came time for Sacrament Meeting, Elder Holland was there, and the bishop gave up his own speaking time to invite him to speak.  He spoke movingly about his love for the ward, how the work of the Lord goes forward through the volunteer efforts of members of wards world-wide, and gave the congregation a challenge--“At the end of the Book of Moroni we are told to become perfected in Christ, and to deny ourselves of all unrighteousness…  I give you the challenge this new year to just deny yourself of certain words, of words that are impatient, unkind, or discouraging—words that hurt others.  Deny yourself of saying anything that does not increase faith, hope and charity in yourself and others.  If it is not encouraging, deny yourself of saying it.  Just don’t say it.”—and left us all with an apostolic blessing, which he explained was as if he were laying his hands on the head of each of us in attendance and blessing us individually.  He then blessed us all that in the New Year we would feel happier and more encouraged, and that we would not feel the weight of the sorrows and trials that came.  We left for home feeling uplifted and content.  Now we are in a holding pattern, awaiting our visas.  We would love to hear from you, either as a comment here, or montijones@hotmail.