Sunday, July 31, 2016, we were set apart by our Stake President, Doug Watson, to serve as missionaries in the South America Northwest Area.  We will be taking the Open Chapel program that we used in our first mission in the South America South Area to our new assignment.  We will work out of the Area Office in Lima, Peru, under the direction of Elder Carlos Godoy of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy.  We spoke in Sacrament Mtg. in the Mesa Branch later that day and then had friends and family over to the house for a light lunch.  It was so good to have all of that support as we take off on another mission adventure.  Here is a picture of us with the Stake Presidency at our setting apart.  We were joined by some of our family.

                                                                     

                                                 
Monday, August 1, we entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah.  We were one of 100 Senior Missionary couples to enter that day.  Here is a picture of the MTC.

                                                                           

                                                                   
We were immediately assigned to a District along with 6 other missionaries.  The Nydeggers, from Highland UT, going to Federal Way WA, the Fultons, from Taylorsville, UT, going to Guam, and two single sisters headed to SLC to the Family/Church History Center, Sister Neff from Thatcher, AZ and Sister Kappel, from Oregon.  Elder Knapp was assigned to serve as the District Leader.  Here we are with our amazing teachers!

                                                                           

We have a pretty strict schedule with classes and meetings beginning at 8:00 a.m. after breakfast and going until noon.  After lunch we practice teaching until dinner at 4:30 and then we have had firesides or meetings in the evenings.  At times it seems that all we do is have class and eat!  Here is a picture of the cafeteria.  They told us that they serve over 300,000 gallons of BYU creamery ice cream every year.  Wednesday is ice cream day and the day new missionaries come.  We had over 800 new missionaries arrive this past ice cream day!  Here they are...

Saturday is Preparation Day for Senior Couple Missionaries.  We enjoyed visiting the Provo Temple, buying chocolate chips (which are hard to come by in Peru) and doing our laundry.  It was very crowded in the MTC laundry center as you can see.

                                                                  

The MTC is a busy, beautiful place.  There are so many missionaries here with name tags indicating their names and what language they will be speaking in their respective assignments.  It is fun to stop and visit with those assigned to speak Spanish.  Today we met an Elder from Arizona going to the Idaho Falls, Idaho mission, small world!

The grounds are beautiful and we love the flowers and the sculptures and statues on the grounds that remind us of great missionaries who have served in the history of the church.

                                                                      

Peru, here we come!