MTC

 

We entered the MTC on Jan. 21, 2013. 

What an amazing experience with all of these young elders and sisters.

Packing

 When we started packing we were planning on taking two suitcases each but then we had heard some nightmare stories of how much it was going to cost us to get our luggage to Tarawa.  We are only allowed one bag at 50 lbs. once we leave the states and after checking with the airlines we realized that Air New Zealand was going to charge us $70 each for the extra bags.  That isn't too bad but then Air Pacific charges $10 per kilo from Aukland, New Zealand to Fiji and another $15 per kilo from Fiji to Tarawa.  One extra bag was going to cost us about $700, which is way too much for us. Rich began putting as much as we could in seal a meal bags to take all of the air out.  That way we could get more in our suitcases but we still have to keep the weight to 50 lbs.  So we decided to ship everything else, which is mostly food products that we will not be able to purchase there. The large flat rate boxes only cost $15.45 each, much cheaper that paying per kilo.

 

 

Mission Call

About a year ago Richard and I realized that I could retire as early as Nov. 2012 and we could fulfill our long awaited dream of serving a full time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  We were aware that the church had some schools in the South Pacific as some friends of ours had served in Fiji so we began to search the lds.org website for missionary opportunities, discovering the International Teachers Education Program (ITEP) and called the number for more information. They referred us Elder Gary Carlston who happens to own the cabin next to ours in Garden City, UT. After visiting with Gary and his wife, Janet, they told us of an opening in January 2013 in Tarawa, Kiribati and asked if we would be interested.  Excited for the opportunity, we submitted our resumes to the Church Education System (CES) and were accepted.  Elder Carlston then directed us as to when to turn in our mission papers and what to write in the comment section. We understood that although we had been accepted by CES the Lord could call us to serve in any part of his vineyard.

After much anticipation, on Aug. 29, 2012, we received the big white envelope from Church with our official mission call.  We are excited to announce that we have been called to the Marshall Islands Majuro Mission with the specific assignment as education specialists at Moroni High School in Tarawa, Kiribati.  We enter the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Ut. on Jan. 21, 2012.