Two Weeks of Awesomeness!

We survived, in fact, we flourished!

It was a wonderful experience spending the entire first week with 80 other 'senior' missionaries and dining with 1600 young, enthusiastic, bright, loving, and happy young adults (18+ year old males and 19+ year old females).   

The second week was spent with three other missionaries (one other couple and one single sister) and our instructor. We were all asked to serve as a Record Preservation Specialist. Our small group bonded and fell in love with each other.  

Week One

We walked in the doors of the MTC and were given the badges we would wear for the next year: Systir Shepherd and Oldungur Shepherd. This translated from Icelandic reads, Sister and Elder Shepherd. Beneath our names it says, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. What an honor to wear our Elder brothers name close to our hearts as we serve his brothers and sisters, and our Heavenly Father's children.

Here we are standing at the famous MTC (Missionary Training Center) world map. We're pointing to the fabulous country of Iceland! 

This is the group of Senior Missionaries who all arrived at the MTC the same day we did. We spent the week being reminded to love, serve, and assist those in the world who needs and has even been praying for happiness, peace in their lives, and a variety of many other things.

The men are standing behind their wives. The women in the middle of each picture are single (widowed) and have chosen to spend their time loving and serving His children. It was fabulous to get to meet each of them.

It was amazing within our group to hear where they would be serving, all as volunteers, all paying their own expenses, and all HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY! Some in Salt Lake City in the Family History Genealogical Department, while others would be traveling to a location in the United States, and then others to France, Peru, New Zealand, Africa, Denmark, just to name a few. 

This is Brother Taylor, he greeted us every morning the first week. He answered ALL of our questions, loved us, and gave us confidence to go out in the world and do what we have been called to do.

Our large group was broken down in to 10 Districts (groups) with eight missionaries per group.This is the training room we spent much of our time in.

Terry was asked to be the District Leader for our group of eight. He took the position seriously and prepared to meet the needs required.

This is our District along with our morning instructor Sister Walker. She recently returned from serving an 18 month mission in Berlin, Germany. She was fantastic.  

This is another picture with some our District plus our afternoon instructors, Elder Wade and Elder Cardillvo. 

This is Elder and Sister Shumway. They came and spoke to our District the last hour on Friday. They have served 10 full-time missions. They were filled with the spirit of love, service, and sacrifice for the benefit of others. They touched our hearts for another reason, you'll see below why.

Week Two

 This is Karma Tomlinson, our AMAZING and WONDERFUL instructor the second week at the MTC. She proved to us, old people can learn new things. Not only is she an excellent teacher on the camera system we will be using to capture the images of the ancient records, she is a beautiful and precious daughter of God. We so appreciate her kindness, patience, and love she freely shared with us. 

This is the camera imaging set up we were trained on. Lights, camera, computer, and capture.  

Still smiling, after our brains were on overload. I'm so grateful Terry is by my side to assist with learning and remembering all of the details.

The second week our training consisted of just five missionaries, two couples and one adorable single sister. Elder and Sister Gardner will be serving in the archives in Montreal, Canada, Sister Larsen in the archives in Ohio, and Terry and I serving in the National Archives in Reykjavik, Iceland.   

We had the opportunity of spending one day of our training in Salt Lake City where we learned there are approximately 300 camera capturing setups throughout the world.  

We had had the opportunity to spend an hour at the Discovery Center at the Family History Center. There's an activity you can do to see 'where you come from' which details exactly what percentage your heritage is from. Just in case you can't see the image, I'm 57% American (which stems to one of my ancestors who arrived in America on the Mayflower, 39% Icelandic, 2% German, 1% Irish, and 1% United Kingdom. Terry didn't capture his image, darn it. Pretty interesting, gives you much food for thought. 

The last stop for the day was showing Elder and Sister Gardner the beautiful view of Temple Square from the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. They were in awe and so grateful for the stop. 

As we left the MTC on Friday afternoon, the sky was blue, the air was crisp, and our hearts were full. As we drove home to Spanish Fork, I captured this beautiful picture along the drive. The majestic mountain in the background is what we have grown up with. It tells us we're home, it says we're safe, it brings memories of childhood and days gone by. We'll miss home, but our hearts are content and we know we're going and doing what He wants us to do. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve Him and His children.  

 As we entered our chapel today, our Missionary Plaque was hanging in the display case (hence the glare). Really, we are really Missionaries! Words can't even touch what our hearts are feeling.

I'm on the left, my precious sister, Vina, is on the right, and in the middle is our Navajo sister, Margaret Upshaw.

Remember Brother and Sister Shumway in the earlier picture, and I said they touched our hearts in another way? This is why! As Brother Shumway shared his history of service and missionary work, he mentioned he had worked with promoting and assisting with the Indian Placement Program. He shared that of all the things he has done over the years, working with this program was his favorite. After the class, I approached Brother Shumway and told him I had a Navajo sister from the program he spoke of. He asked me her name (now keep in mind there were thousands of kids that went through this program over 50 years ago), I said Margaret Upshaw. With a big smile on his face, he said "Oh, I believe she was from Ft. Difiance, and she was from a family with a bunch of beautiful girls". WOW, I about fell over. What he said was all true and correct. I'm certain Brother Shumway must be nearing 90 years old if not already past that mark. My heart knew the words he spoke were true. He LOVED serving and caring for Heavenly Father's children. What a perfect example of Christ-like love.    

Margaret lived with our family for four years, her high school days and her first year of college. She brought to our home such joy, happiness, love, and peace. During the summer months she would return to the reservation and be with her family in Arizona. Every fall she would come 'home' to us again. Her and I were the same age, we had the same friends, and shared a bedroom. It's been almost 50 years since she came to live with us. We might not be blood related, but we're certainly one family. Our parents adored her and claimed her as one of theirs. They always loved it when she would come to Utah and visit. She just happen to be in Utah with her handsome hubby, Harry, TODAY and stopped by to say hello. 

It was the perfect ending to the past two weeks of training, preparing, and tomorrow we'll pack our bags. We leave for Iceland bright and early Tuesday morning. And again, I have butterflies and Terry says, 'piece of cake'!