MTC photos and stories

 The halls of the MTC are lined with lots of fun pictures.  I took a few while we were walking to lunch one day.  The top photo is of two missionaries in front of the St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square in Russia

 Can you imagine being baptized with a chunk of ice taken out of the water to make room for you?

        This is the hallway leading to the cafeteria.  At lunch time it is swarming with missionaries.

We met many wonderful people while we were at the MTC.  We met Elders and Sisters and Senior Couples from all over the world.  We met them from Haiti, Australia, England, France, South America and Mexico, Hawaii, New Zealand, Tahiti, Tonga, Samoa, Hong Kong, and even Nepal.  There were many from other countries too.  The atmosphere there is so friendly and happy.  Everyone is polite and respectful.
One evening we were sitting outside getting some evening air and waiting for a devotional to begin.  A couple walked up to us and sat right next to us and we began talking.  To set the stage, I must go back a bit.  When we first decided to go on a mission we were then asked to serve in Salt Lake as part time guest service missionaries. (I think I posted about this before, but right now I'm not sure).  Anyway we told them that we were thinking of serving a full time mission.  We were told to go home and pray about it and then to let them know.  Well, just at that time we left to go to Maryland, Palmyra, New York, Oregon and then back home.  We were gone for about a month.  We couldn't decide and finally on a Thursday we decided to go to Salt Lake. The next day, Friday, Alec called and said that one of his patients was there that day and that after talking and discovering that both he and the patient were members of the Church, the patient told Alec that he and his wife were going to be mission president and wife in the England, Birmingham Mission.  He told Alec that he would love for us to serve in his mission.  That week-end he got permission from the area authority to request us to serve there.  Monday we spoke with him and his wife on the phone and Pres. Rasmussen said that he had permission to request us if we agreed to it.  We were excited and said yes.  He also told us that we had a 95% chance of serving there.  Imagine our surprise when we read that we would be going to Canada Montreal Mission.  Okay, back to the story.  As we talked the couple told us that they were going to be serving in the England Birmingham Mission.  Out of over 2, 500+ missionaries that were at the MTC, what were the chances of us meeting this particular couple?  We also found out why they were called and not us. (Besides the fact that the Lord wants us to be in Montreal at this time).  It seems that England has a new rule or law that whoever goes over there to proselyte must have formal ecclesiastical training.  We have never had that.  This couple had 4 years of seminary while in high school and they are also both graduates of BYU where they take a religion class every semester that they attend.  I found that very interesting.
Another fun story happened one afternoon.  We had a class where we heard an older senior couple tell of their experiences on their mission.  It turned out that they have served 4 missions together.  He had served as a young man in Tahiti and always wanted to go back to serve again.  They ended up serving in Tahiti 3 more times and one time in Australia.  The Australia mission was a change from Tahiti because Sister Tall had a stroke before one of the missions and so the church did not want them in Tahiti without close medical help available.  Instead they served that particular time in Australia.  Sister Tall said that on their first time over there they landed on Tahiti and reported to the Pres.  He asked them to go to one of the surrounding islands.  The Talls got on a boat and traveled for 8 hours to get to this island.  Sister Tall said that about 15 minutes into the ride she became very, very sea sick. She was sick the whole trip.  When they arrived, Elder Tall had to practically carry her off the boat.  He then sat her down next to some guy who was selling animal innards, roe and other smelly things that she did not want to be near, but was too sick to say anything or to even move.  Elder Tall went to find the Branch Pres.  Finally he found him and together they came to get Sister Tall and to take them to their home.  The home turned out to be a shack to which the Pres could  not find the keys.  "We've been searching for them all day, but we just don't know where they are," he said.  "You can just sleep in the driveway until we find them."  At that point, you can imagine that Sister Tall wanted to turn around and go home.  But they did not.  Their next week was spent in trying to find the members.  They had no addresses or much information except for their names.  As it turned out the members did not want the missionaries to be on the island and were hiding from them.  As they searched someone or another would occasionally say to them,  "You looking for the Mormons?  They are hiding in the bushes over there."
The first Sunday came and the Talls went to church.  They arrived and no one was there except one old man.  They waited and waited and no one showed up.  Finally after 1/2 hour the Branch Pres. showed up.  They all sand a hymn, said a prayer and had sacrament.  After that, the Pres. stood up, said a closing prayer and they all went home.  The Talls looked at each other and said, "We have a lot of work to do here."  They ended up staying on that little island for several months.  When they left, they left a congregation of about 70 people attending regularly.
Bro. Tall said that their only transportation was a rickety bike that he showed us a photo of.  It has a basket on it, but Bro. Tall said that his wife was too big for the basket so she had to run alongside him.  (He was teasing, of course.)  They later on another mission baptized a very large family who currently has  2 grandsons serving missions.
After that meeting we went out into the hallway and who should say hello to us but an Elder from, you guessed it, Tahiti. We asked him if he knew the Talls and he said no, but when we asked about the family, he answered that of course he knew them.  He said that all of Tahiti know about that man and his story and that he is the "Papa Missionary of Tahiti"  Another coincidence??????

I am sorry for some of my spelling and grammatical mistakes.  I have not had a chance to go back and edit my work and I am actually appalled at some of my mistakes in the last two posts.  It's just that we are so so busy right now from early morning to late at night and I am so tired that I barely have enough energy to even write.  Those of you who know me know that I am a night owl.  Well, this night owl has been going to be between 9:00 and 10:00.  Ha!