MTC is Great

After a long delay, we finally began our mission training at the MTC. There are a few popular places to take pictures: The Big World Map 

and the Boat statue where it shows some of Jesus's first disciples/Apostles when he asked: "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

There were many other murals of Jesus Christ and other scripture based stories that we enjoyed looking at and pondering their message.

Esther

Moses

Nephi looking at Jerusalem

Paul

Jesus and child

We received more name badges that we will probably use on Sundays at church. 

On our previous 2 missions together, English was the spoken language in the wards and branches we attended. Ethiopia shows "Amharic" as the language spoken at church. They say, many we work with will speak English, but it's still a little concerning to receive these new name badges. Thanks to google translate the 3 lines literally translate to: "Latter day Saints", Jesus Christ, Church (House - Christians). During the last few months we've been trying to learn to speak some Amharic from a teacher who lives in the city where we will live. Video chat is great when it works, as they have internet and power challenges there.

During our orientation and introductory meetings, we were excited to see about 50 other senior couples called all over the world. The MTC President mentioned that there will be about 2900 young missionaries. During the meeting a delegation from Vietnam were receiving a tour and we waved to them. 

So far we have been challenged, strengthened and edified...truly a spiritual high. 

All except the cafeteria. With over 2,000 missionaries getting food there it is quite the crowd. Even though everyone is polite and kind to each other, the place really isn't designed to handle that many. With so many answering the "Call to Serve", it is an expected problem that we have to deal with. 

We saw and met Elder Deeds. 

We originally met him as a young man while serving our mission on Guam. We have seen him since but I wanted to post a picture of their family when we saw them 10 years ago. He is the one in front.