First Week of MTC

June 3, 2012

Well we finally made it to the MTC.  Yeah!!!  We absolutely loved our first week.  Upon arrival we were greeted by an enthusiastic group of strong and willing elders who helped us get our 300lbs + of luggage to our room.  We are very fortunate to be in a brand new building.  Our room is great, they really have thought of everything to make our stay as nice as possible.  Then we were escorted to our check in area, got our pictures taken and received lots of different materials and schedules for the week. This week we are being trained in “Preach My Gospel” and next week will be Welfare/Humanitarian.   We are the largest senior group so far – about 110 missionaries this week.  The number of seniors has doubled in the last two years.  Awesome!  Everything was very organized.

When we went to lunch we were overcome with a feeling of gratitude to be a part of this great missionary effort.  Being among all these young missionaries (about 2,000+) and the seniors all here to do the Lord’s work is so wonderful it’s hard to describe.  The spirit and enthusiasm is infectious.  We want all of our loved ones to experience this and especially our grandchildren as they approach mission age.  After lunch we started our training.  One of the things that stood out for us was when Brother Stock promised us “Your mission will be an enormous blessing for your families, beyond anything you can imagine.  He also said that the Holy Ghost will touch their hearts and your families will be blessed for generations and for eternity.”

Bill is so cute, he keeps saying over and over “We are really missionaries now”!  I think he likes it. (I do too!)  Here is a typical day. We get get up at 6:00 am, exercise (Bill runs around the MTC Campus 4 x), study, eat and report to class at 8:00.  Classes go until 12:00 and then a lunch break.  We have classes again from 1:00- 5:00 pm and then an hour for dinner.  We have language training from 6:00-8:00 pm except for Tuesday night which is the Devotional (a general authority comes).  After language training we take a walk to the temple or to the BYU campus.  Then we do our homework, say our prayers and fall into bed. 

It has all been so great especially our simulated teaching experiences. Thursday night after language instruction we had a testimony meeting for the missionaries going foreign, where we bore our testimonies in the language where we’ll be serving.  It was a little scary but so thrilling to hear all these humble seniors bearing testimony with some barely able to speak the language.  We have missionaries going all over the world.  We both bore our testimonies in Spanish.  It was a major accomplishment for me (a piece of cake for Bill).

The other senior missionaries are wonderful people.  We have made a lot of friends already.  Many of the class instructors are returned missionaries.  They are outstanding! We have felt the Spirit so strongly in each class.   I said to Bill the other day that I was loving this whole experience so much that it will be hard to leave.  However, we are both looking forward to getting to Argentina and officially start our mission in the field.  Saturday is P-day, however we did have Welfare training in the morning.  We went to the temple Saturday night.  When we came out we marveled at the beauty surrounding us with the mountain behind the temple, the view of the lake and the flowers and fountain on the grounds.  There is so much evidence everywhere of Gods love for us.  Sunday we had testimony meeting with the young elders and sisters, followed by an outstanding Mission Conference. 

A final thought:  Last night as we walked home we talked about how we can read the same scriptures over and over many times and yet not get the full impact.  Yesterday as we studied D&C 31. Thomas Marsh was concerned about what would happen to his family while he was away on a mission.  This was the Lord’s response to him.   We both had a powerful witness that these blessings are for all of us.  We encourage you to read  the 13 verses and to and put your name in place of his in verse 1.  These are amazing blessings!

We love you all!!!

Elder & Sister Ashton

Arriving at the MTC

Us in front of the world map