July 5, 2015  Sunday:

Well, this has been an eventful week—not with missionaries visiting with us, but with other things. 

SURPRISE, SURPRISE:  Monday, we were just getting ready to go to lunch when Dr. Gill rushed in and said he and his wife needed to be in the Music Room (small auditorium) to do a presentation, which none of us knew about, but was scheduled for 5 minutes earlier.  He had the 10 Commandments of Health on his computer, and we all rushed in, and he did it on the spot.  Amazing.  Neal and I are supposed to have had a 15-minute segment of it (45 minutes long), but we didn’t know.  So, I have been reworking this week two other Powerpoints (one Provo MTC uses, and another one from LDSFS) plus adding some of our stuff in it.  I’m so grateful for the training I received in making Power points from Lisa at the Fam Hist Training Center.  I’ve forgotten a lot, but thankfully found some of the notes from her training.  So, we will be giving this presentation once or twice every week.

ANOTHER SURPRISE, SURPRISE:  The administration called the Harstons and us into a meeting Monday morning regarding our new MTC assignments.  I have been asked to do the History of the MTC (not as big of a job as I thought it was going to be it turns out).  Sis Harston and I are both to teach English Class to 5 Intermediate staff members twice a week, and we are also to inspect missionary apartments (1-2 hours a week).  I’m to sort, and disseminate the choir and individual participant music, to organize tryouts, and to put out a memo once a week regarding choir practice. 

REACTION:  I’m actually glad for the extra assignments.  I’m a little overwhelmed with the English classes, because I did such a lousy job with it in the Philippines, but they have more resources here.  I’ve forgotten more than I ever knew about parts of

Speech, and Mexican people really emphasize that in their schools.   Hey, “They knew what I was when they picked me up!”  We’ll do the best we can.  I think Sis Harston is more intimidated than I am about it…and that takes some intimidation.

CHOIR:  We still have some good pianists here right now, so I haven’t played for choir or any specialty groups for a couple of weeks.  It has been kind of nice.  I had 3 missionaries this week—all from the field.  Neal had more, but we aren’t all that busy. 

WELCOME to the NO. AMERICANS:  We’ve started to help with the North American  reception.  They come in on Wednesdays.  They usually get to the airport about 3PM, but it rains just about every single day around 5PM, so that is when they are being bused here from the airport.  We’ve done it 3 weeks, and the buses have been inundated every time and so they’ve not got in until 5:30-6PM and later.  We mostly just do crowd control, point our fingers, smile and welcome them.  They are so cute, so excited…even though often soaked to the skin, tired, and hungry.  We P-Day on Fridays because one or the other doctors is on call and can’t leave the Center. 

HOSPITAL TRIP:  We went to visit an Elder who had had a ruptured appendicitis just before coming to the MTC.  He had developed an abscess in the time before his original surgery and now.  We (Sister Call, Harstons, Sis Gill, and us) went to see him yesterday.  The hospital is really modern and lovely.  The Elder has a private, very clean room, private toilet, and private dining room.  We did our Walmart trip, came home to sleep a little, and went to movie night.  FHE this last Monday by the Gills was scripture charades.  Anyone got any ideas of what we can do with adults (some speak Spanish, some speak English, some speak both) that would be fun and interactive.  We’d love to do something that helps them talk about themselves, their home life, and families.  Well, I think that gives you a bit of a rundown.

TEMPLE TRIP:  We usually take between 38-41 missionaries to the temple—a 30 minute to 45 minute trip every Tuesday.  Some speak English, some speak only Spanish, so we have a typed script in both languages.   We are refining what we do.  We were encouraged to have the sing on the way to keep the spirit up.  One English speaker Sister and one Latino Spanish sister is chosen that morning to choose the songs.  It is supposed to clip along without a break.  Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t so I’ve been typing song lists with both hymn numbers listed.