September 11, 2012 - New Missionary Training

When our new missionaries come into the mission, the first day is probably the longest day of their lives!  They start the day in the MTC, getting up around 4:00 a.m.  They pack all of their worldly possessions into two suitcases and load up on a bus.  When they get to the mission office, they fill out about a bajillion forms, meet hundreds of new people, are given instructions for dozens of new situations that they don't understand and haven't ever heard of before.  They are suddenly expected to know an entirely new dialect of English with phrases like "he killed his father" (That means that a missionary was serving with his trainer the last transfer before his trainer went home.) and "there are great hook-ups in this area".  (That is not what you think it is.  It means you can eat for free.)  They are sent out into the streets of Salt Lake City, where they are expected to talk to perfect strangers and invite them to be baptized.  They drop their suitcases off at an apartment, not to unpack and settle in, but heading right back out for dinner and teaching appointments.  They come in at 9:00 or 9:30, plan for the next day, write in their journals and have to be in bed by 10:30, by which time they are totally and completely exhausted!!  We try to not add any more to that cacophony of missionaryism - so we give them a week to acclimate, and then we bring them back to do some training and ask questions.  By a week in the mission, they are seasoned veterans!  Here are some pictures of our September 5th missionaries on September 11th, at their new missionary training:

Elders Thevenin, Helmstetter, Hsu, Eyster, Boyd, Lewis, Brown and Johnston

Elders Hollingshead & Nelson, Sisters Sprouse & Bragg,

Elders Reidhead, Selin, Pulsipher & Driskell

Elders Remington, Ricks, Guo, Webb, Sato and Villanueva

Missing are Elder Daines and Elder Holmes, who got shipped off to Wyoming

and just have to figure things out for themselves!

 Listening to Elder Linder, who takes care of the money.

 Elder and Sister Boyer, who take care of apartments and supplies.

 Being trained by the Assistants to the President, Elder Savoia and Elder Humphries.

Elder  Yang Cheng Guo from China

 Elder Michael Pulsipher from California

 Elder Trey Reidhead from Arizona

 Elder Keith Lewis from California

 Elder Taylor Johnston from Utah

 Elder Craig Nelson from Illinois

 Elder Spencer Thevenin from Texas

 Elder Jonathan Ricks from Arizona

 Elder Cameron Brown from Kansas

 Elder Charles Webb from Idaho

 Elder Zachary Driskell from Tennessee

 Elder Yuki Sato from Ohio

 Elder Wei-Hung Hsu from Taiwan

 Elder Jaron Remington from California

 Sister Jenny Bragg from Washington

 Elder Eric Eyster from Pennsylvania

 Elder Raul Villanueva from Chile

 Elder Colin Selin from New York

 Sister Emily Sprouse from Wisconsin

 Elder Patrick Helmstetter from California

 Elder Joshua Boyd from Canada

 Elder Dayton Price from Utah

Elder Winston Hollingshead from California

 Elder Adam Holmes from Washington is serving in Wyoming.

We send them out there, and we never let them come back!

 

 Elder Aaron Daines from Florida is also serving in Wyoming.

Some day we will get one of those fancy-pants threesome pictures with

the mission president and his wife, and these two will get their own blog!

More missionary training, click here:

2012.09.11: New Missionary Training