We are in Spain!!!!!

For those anxious to hear about our experiences I apologize for the delay is getting the blog started.  Frankly after two weeks of what seems like a whirlwind of activity the dust is now beginning to settle.  Now that  things are calming down – we look around and find ourselves in the northern most part of the mission surrounded by guess what – foreigners.  The problem is, WE are the foreigners.  It’s amazing to go from somewhere you know intimately to a place that is new with each step.  New language, new town, new driving rules, new food, new members at church, new companion – oh wait…….same companion (and a good thing).

MTC

The MTC was a marvelous experience.  In 1970 I entered the mission home is SLC, then after a week, was sent to the Language Training Mission (LTM) at BYU.  That experience was totally different.  At that time the decision to serve a mission was much more difficult.  I was playing baseball at BYU and was hesitant to leave that behind.  To serve at that time however was the correct decision and the positive results are reflected in my life today. 

As Linda and I entered the MTC on Monday Feb, 1, 2016 we immediately felt the special spirit that radiates from within its’ walls.  President Bertasso a member of the MTC Presidency said the MTC is a special place, holy ground, and only second to the sacredness of the Temple.  We surely felt that.

On the first evening at the MTC we watched a video of a talk given by Elder Bednar at the MTC on Christmas of 2011.  The title of the talk was: The Character of Christ.  It was an awesome talk.  We were told that the talk is now only shown to the missionary couples when they enter the MTC.  I definitely took some good notes.  It was very inspiring. 

The senior couples were treated especially well.  We felt totally respected and appreciated.  We had a senior advisor that oversaw anything the senior missionaries needed.  His name was Elder Taylor.  He was a spitting image of Jay Sessions.  He was tall and built like Jay.  His mannerisms, voice inflexions and even his jokes were Jayesk.  We couldn’t believe there really was a parallel universe!  Elder Taylor was very fun, just like Jay.

The food in the MTC was good and definitely plentiful.  We certainly weren’t hungry. 

One Tuesday evening there was an excellent devotional given by Sister and Elder Zwick.  Elder Zwick is a member of the First Quorum of Seventy.  Their talks were excellent.  After the devotional we went to the Provo City Center Temple open house. The Temple is beautiful with much ornate woodwork.

Since we were at the MTC for just one week we were not able to get a whole lot of training but we did spend quite a bit of time in Preach My Gospel.  It was very helpful in understanding how the Gospel should be taught.  Of course it has changed greatly since my time as a missionary.  Members from the community came to the MTC and pretended to be investigators and we roll-played with them.  The instructors told us that even though these were just role-play scenarios we would genuinely feel the spirit.  It was amazing how correct they were.  The spirit was extremely strong as we taught and conversed with these volunteers. 

We thoroughly enjoyed the MTC.  It was fun to rub shoulders with other couples who were going throughout the world to serve as missionaries.  There were 78 seniors, which included 16 single sisters in our group.  Our district comprised of 4 couples and we spent quite a lot of time in training with our district.

On Friday we finished our training and Allan Hormann (son-in-law) picked us up and we went back to Holly’s and Allan’s home in Herriman.  We spent the weekend with them then on Monday afternoon Holly drove us to the airport and we headed to Spain via Paris.

Trip To Spain

The flight from Salt Lake City to Paris France was just over 9 hours which wasn’t too bad.  At least we had seats with just two of us on the row so we didn’t have people squishing over their seats onto us.

Our layover in Paris proved to be an eventful couple of hours.  Their was a young sister headed to the MTC in Madrid and then on the her mission in Barcelona. Her name was Sister Swanson.  She had never traveled before and was a little nervous since she was traveling alone.  There were 3 other senior couples on our flight to Paris.  They all went their own ways so we tried to help the young sister.  Her connecting flight was only an hour later so we helped her get through immigrations and helped her find her gate.  We were going up an escalator and I was a little preoccupied with looking at my passport to make sure the immigration officer had stamped it.  When our Mission President, President Andersen and his wife applied for their Spanish residency card they found out that their passports had not been stamped when they first entered the European Union so they had to fly to England just to get them stamped.  With this is mind I was looking at my passport as we got on the escalator.  I had my carry-on luggage and a heavy leather bag.  Somehow because of the size of my luggage (or just being a klutz) I stepped awkwardly on the escalator.  I was ok until we were close to the top and suddenly I lost my balance and fell down the escalator.  Now it wasn’t like a little slip, it was a full-on head over heals, tumbleweed type rolly-polly plummet.  I thought my mission was over before we even got to Spain!  As the floor above disappeared and the sight of my companion faded into the distance, I attempted to stand up.  However, since I was falling and the escalator steps continued their up and down motion, I was not able to secure a foothold.  A nice French lady at the top of the escalator was able to hit the emergency stop bottom (who even knew there was one?). By this time I was at the bottom.  At this point I knew my new suit was trashed and more importantly I was certain at least one bone was broken.  Since I still had some pride remaining (but very little), I tried to quickly jump up, expecting a bone to be sticking out somewhere.  As I got to my feet I was stunned to not be in excruciating pain.  Now I didn’t say I wasn’t hurting but thankfully not too bad. When I found out that the people around me, asking me if I was hurt, were not spirits but actual earthly beings, I realized that I was still in this realm.  I tried to summon a smile and say I was OK.  I’m just glad that I won’t see these people again because my embarrassment was extreme.  We quickly sent the young sister missionary to her gate so she wouldn’t miss her flight.  I am so glad she won’t be in our mission to tell and retell the story of this old missionary dude who did a flying mare in the Charles de Gaulle Airport.  

Honestly I am sure the Lord had a hand in protecting me because the fall could and probably should have injured me badly.  At least we can look back and laugh at the experience and count our blessings.  Oh yeah, and after I realized that I was still ambulatory I noticed my left hand was covered in blood and my white shirt cuff was now a bright red.  Thankfully somehow my suit coat was still blue.  I went into the men’s room and remembered what my mom taught me as a kid – cold water removes blood, hot water sets blood.  

So here I was, an American in a French bathroom running cold water on my shirt trying to get rid of the blood.  Holding my wet shirt under an electric hand dryer must have also been quite the sight.  Of course the flight from Paris  had to be delayed for about 40 minutes due to a heavy rainstorm and winds.  Needless to say I was very happy to see France far below as we climbed into the sky headed to Malaga.  Just over two hours later we landed in Spain ready to began our adventure as a senior couple in the land of Don Quijote de la Mancha.

I have more but you will have to wait until the next blog.

Next blog coming soon………..

Hasta Luego