Our First Day at the Visitors' Center

This picture was taken last night - our first day serving in the Visitor's Center - September 13, 2009. The Visitor's Center is staffed by one senior couple and about four sister missionaries. Donna manages the front desk and I make sure all systems are working and all guests are being taken care of. The VC is open 365 days, including Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, etc. It opens at 9:00 am and (starting tonight) closes at 8:00 pm. In "high season" it will be open until 9:00 pm. Our shifts are about four hours each day. In addition, I will be handling finances - paying bills, maintaining budget, etc. Now I'm typing (Donna). Donna's extra duties include sewing and maybe apartment inspections. So far so good. Shirley left today and we really enjoyed her and Leana. We appreciate the good bed and company they provided. Tomorrow is zone conference and a social after 9pm at the Eubanks.

MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER

The MTC was a great experience.  We arrived on Monday, August 31st and stayed the full week.  On Friday we returned to our home for the weekend, returning Monday to the MTC for specific Visitor Center training.  We finished our MTC experience on Tuesday around noon and returned home to sleep in our own bed one more time before embarking for Hawaii on Wednesday.

Here are a few pictures from the MTC.

Oahu, Hawaii...a mighty small island in a mighty big ocean.

This is a picture of all of the senior couple missionaries in the MTC with us for the first week.

These are the misisonaries in our District.  I was the District Leader which means I asked people to give the prayers.

One of the MTC highlights was the Tuesday evening Devotional.  Here is a picture of those attending.  We heard from Elder and Sister Paul Sybrowsky of the Seventy.  You can see Donna left of center, five rows up from the bottom of the picture.

We enjoyed seeing Elder Shaun Kleiman who arrived two days after us.  He is serving in Roseville, California.  We also met Micah's friend, Elder Costello who is going to serve in the St. Louis, Missouri Mission.  (That's his MTC companion on his left.)

Donna in the Referral Center waiting for a phone call from someone wanting to know more about the church. They receive 100's of calls a day.


Our group spent about an hour in the Referral Center, each of us with the head sets on, some hoping the phone would ring, and some hoping it wouldn't.  Donna's phone didn't ring.  Don got a call but it was a wrong number.

Elder and Sister Woodhouse are also going to the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. They will serve at BYU Hawaii. He recently retired as president of LDS Busines College. Their home is in Thanksgiving Village - bought from Village Communities.

Here we are on our last day in the MTC.