Week Two in Germany

Hello everyone,
This is our second week and we were in the city of Jihlava Czech Republoic, We were here to train the Pages who are the humanitarian couple in Czech. They are the 1st humanitarian couple in Czech so in their own way they are pioneers. The Picture is of the Pages, behind them are the Coltons whom we are replacing, mom, and the full time elders in the city. Our week of training was cut short because the Pages learned everything very fast, and had a zone conference to attend on Friday. So we drove home on Friday afternoon, which only take about 6 1/2 hrs. This enabled Elder Colton and me to go into the office and do some of the paper work that is ever present. This calling is all done with computers, which is a huge learning curve for. Mom is much more computer literate than me, so she is doing better and assimulating faster than me. But slowly I am learning (old but still able to learn).

Elder Colton doing the training, the Pages absorbing, me working at it

Elder Page and I in the city square of Jihlava. This town was established in about 1200 AD. As the residence were digging basments they discovered Silver, and the city quickly became the economic center of Czech. There are 25 Kilometers of tunnels from the mining days under this city

This is a typical street in the city of Prague ( the Czech spell it Praha) How we get Prague out of this I don't know. There was only minimal destruction of the city in WWII, so it still possesses it's old world charm. This picture was taken about 9:30 PM
Our first 4 days in Germany were spent being introduced to the many computer responsibilites we now have, which totally overwhelmed me. I am just now beginning to get a feel for some of the programs, which is encouraging. Susan keeps telling me and she is right that I must allow myself time to learn these programs. In 23 months my computer skills will improve exponentially. We still do not have a permanent place to stay, we are in an apt. but it is only temporary until the end of the month when our apt. is supposed to be ready for us to move in. That will help us feel more settled. And hopefully I will keep seeing my skills improve.
It is nice to be back in Germany, we have enjoyed some nice walks and have only been rained on a few times. Because of the frequent rains everything here is green,beautiful and clean.
We'll continue with blogging later this week. We love you all

This was our last week at MTC. We fly to Germany tomorrow morning, leaving here at 5 am and arriving in Frankfurt on Tuesday, the 14th at 7:20am. You can see us trying to show the area of our responsibility. This week training has centered more welfare and humanitarian services, and it will be a real opportunity to help other people. We didn't realize how much the church is doing throughout the world to aid and help others. However the church's focus is not to give aid, but rather to give aid that can be sustained and be on going. It truly is a program to help others become self reliant, and then in turn to help others become self reliant. The scope of the aid is amazing and impressive. The Brodericks left for the Cape Verde islands on Friday, and the Pages leave for the Czech Republic. We have received an email that both have arrived safely. We have enjoyed the all missionaries we have met here, all very accomplished in their fields and a lot of fun to be with. I foresee us remaining in contact with them for a long time to come.
We had a special treat this morning when Holly called and ask if she could stop by on her way with her friends to Long Beach CA. Our visit was short ,but great she is a special little person.

Week One The adventure begins!!!!!!

Monday, May 30th 2011, we entered the MTC with 5 full size suitcases containing everything we need for the next two years (we hope), from clothing to vitamins. Our room, though comfortable is training us how to live in a confined space. After a wonderful weekend spent with John's family, Dick and Lucille brought us to the MTC in two vehicles-Holy Cow.

We checked in a 10 am and after lunch began orientation and classes. Our day begins at 5am walking our usual 2 miles and ends about 8 pm after our 2 hour language training class.

This week we have focused on learning how to teach and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are approximately 34 senior couples and 4 single sisters in our group which has been divided into 9 districts of 8 missionaries each. Below is a picture of our district with our young trainer Sister Street. Sister Street was a wonderful instructor.
Seating left to right: Carey and Bryon Barnard, Larry and Joyce Sprouse
Standing: Jean Stucki, Kolleen Taylor, Sister Street, Us

We have met two of the couples we will be working with in Europe. They are wonderful people.

From Left to Right: Dennis and Janet Broderick , they will be serving in the Cape Verde Islands; on our left are Karen and Brian Page, they will be serving in the Czech Republic.

We have had a marvelous week enjoying spiritual messages that have been given in our classes and meetings, and have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost. As we went to our first simulated teaching experience, we taught a lady who shared with us a significant spiritual experience in which it was confirmed to her that she is a daughter of God and that He loves her. She told us she has not shared this experience with others here at the MTC, but felt prompted to share it with us. So Our first teaching experience became a listening experience and a very special and sacred experience. She gave us her address and phone number and asked us to keep in contact with her during our mission.

On Friday evening we had a testimony meeting with 15 other couples who are learning a foreign language in which everyone had the opportunity to share their testimony in the language they were learning. Both John and I shared our testimonies in German. This was my first time to share my testimony in German. I was really scared but with the help of the spirit it went well.
For John, the language just flowed, he only had to think about the concepts he wanted to express.

We surely have had our own testimonies strengthened. We know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are real, that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true.

Next week our training will center on welfare and humanitarian services.
We love you all, Oma and Opa