Called to Serve……….

Today is our last full day here at the MTC.  I have been greatly blessed, stressed, amazed, frightened, grateful, inspired, humbled, and tried.  But now is the time to move forward.  Our whole group is getting a little antsy to get out in the great “world” of Nauvoo and see if we have learned anything while here at this amazing facility.
Tomorrow Richard and I will be giving our first official tour. It will be done in front of our whole group and it goes something like this.  We start out with
1. Welcome
2. Get to know the people, ask questions, relate to them on a personal basis, ask questions to allow the Spirit to teach us about their needs
3. Preset, basically explaining the referral card very briefly
4.  Lead into a short presentation about the gospel using the history and artifacts at the site.  Tomorrow I am using Grandmother’s wedding ring and the picture I got for mother’s day of our kids.  We are talking about the importance of eternal families and the dedication and conviction of the pioneers to work on the temple until the day they left.
5. Bear testimony of God’s love for us, invite them to see the film on eternal families,
SO, how many tours do you think we will be giving in the next 18 months? No longer any memorized scripts, but totally relying on the Spirit to teach us how to reach people and testify of God’s love and plan of happiness.  Puts a little (lot) of pressure on us. They want us to use our own personality and life experiences. I guess I have plenty of them both!!!


Two of my new friends.  The one on the left is recently widowed. She has come out as a single sister, wanting to continue to progress so her husband doesn’t get ahead of her in heaven!  She is going to Nauvoo with me.  The sister in the middle is so cute, she is actually 72 believe it or not!!!! She is going to be the mission presidents secretary in Ogden. So may wonderful people here.  They all think I am funny……

Elder L. Tom Perry spoke at our devotional tonight.  It is so amazing to have 2200 people stand in respect completely silent.  What a thrill.  He talked about the restoration of the Priesthood down through the ages from the early prophets through the Apostasy and the Restoration.  I thought for a minute he was going to pound on the podium his testimony was so strong.  How wonderful, how blessed.  Which made me think about how grateful I am for the Priesthood in my life.  Before I came here I had my Daddy give me a Father’s Blessing.  There is nothing more comforting, more special and fortifying than being blessed at the hands of my special man!  Thank you Daddy for being an amazing son of Heavenly Father and blessing me by doing so.

The opening song was, of course, “Called to Serve”.  You have to be there to experience the power and spirit of 2,000 missionaries singing that song, but none the less it is amazing.  I recorded it on my phone but can't seem to import it into the blog.

Tomorrow we go home, oh how I long for home and my family!