Well we have survived our first week at the MTC! Things have been going great! We are actually in St. George this weekend visiting with Diane and Chris. The rules are much different for the senior missionaries. There wasn't anything planned for the weekend and we received permission to leave. That was nice. We didn't tell Diane and boy were they ever surprised! We got to watch Zach and Lauren play their soccer games yesterday. Luke finished his season of flag football last week. Shelley brought us down so it has been nice to spend some extra time with her also. I went to the temple with her and Stephanie last Wed. We are planning to go again this week.
We had Preach My Gospel training all week and it was really amazing. We really felt the spirit strongly all week. We had the opportunity to "teach some investigators" two different times during the week. Volunteer members (or not) come in to help us practice. We don't know for sure if they are members or not. One couple in our group actually had a real investigator so that was interesting for them.
We had to say good bye to our "district" on Friday. Some of them left, one couple is actually going to Lynda and Don's mission and will be in their branch. One couple has gone to Mexico and the other is going to Mississippi. It is really weird because I felt that I had actually known these people before and had seen them. They felt the same. It was like I had know them all of my life. They are really neat people from all different backgrounds.
All week most people had trouble saying our name, but once in a while someone would say, "I had a Sonderegger at Ricks College; or Ralph (Renee's brother) is a good friend; or I had a class at BYU from a Sonderegger." I guess the most special experience we had regarding our name was on the very first day. We had a large group meeting and everyone was to introduce ourselves briefly. We were sitting on the side with 4 chairs and another couple came and sat by us. Their last name was Price. After Dad introduced us, Sister Price leaned over to me and said, "My husband's grandmother was a Sonderegger. His Great Grandfather was Johannes." My jawed dropped and I replied, "My husband's great Grandfather was also Johannes!" Turns out that they are 2nd cousins! That is really close and we didn't know them from Adam. We got to talking about family stories and they all match! It was really neat. We also met a "shirt-tail" relative of Renee. Her brother-in-law (married Carol) has an identical twin brother and we met he and his wife. In fact, we will be doing welfare training with them this next week. They are going to Kazakstan. It has been a neat experience.
Tomorrow we will be in Salt Lake City all day receiving Welfare training at Welfare Square and other places. We are supposed to meet with the head of the church welfare dept. for lunch and questions. It should be a huge learning experience for us. We have never been to Welfare Square so that will be neat.
This is a very special place. I've never experienced anything like it before in my life. The spirit is very strong here. Even in my practice teaching moments there were times when I felt completely overcome. It is hard to explain.
We fly out on Friday morning. We leave SLC at 11:00 a.m and fly to New York (JFK), then off to Brazil. I think we arrive at 7:30 in the morning next Sat. For now, until we go back on DST in March, we will be 5 hrs ahead of MST, then it will go to a 3 hr difference. I'll send you all the info this week so you can "watch" our plane.
We love you all very much. You are all very important to us. We hope and pray every day that you will all be blessed in all that you are doing. You are always in our hearts and minds. This is a neat but difficult experience for us. It was very hard to leave our family and our home. It will be hard to say goodbye to Diane and Chris again today. They keep telling us that our families will be blessed while we are serving the Lord. We are hoping and praying for that.
We love you all very much and are proud of the things you are all doing.
Love,
Mom and Dad
You're in our missionary prayers everyday - we love you!
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