We finally made it here.  We got to the MTC on Monday Feb. 27th at about 11:00.  There are about 50 senior couples in our group going everywhere from Russia, to South Africa, to Cape Verde, to Puerto Rico, & the USA.  Many of the couples are serving a second or third mission together.  They are amazing and have amazing stories to tell about how they got here and how their finances worked out, how they got called, etc.  The young missionaries are so enthusiastic and excited to get to their missions.
     The cafeteria is unbelievable! They serve restaurant quality food in huge quantities.  Can you just picture several hundred missionaries sitting at these long tables with their companions, trying to live their mission language that they are beginning to learn.  It is a closed campus so you have to swipe a card to get in every door that goes to the outside.  The elders always hold the doors for us "old folks".
     Dale has had a cold for about a week with a bad cough so we got him an appointment with the doctor. He seems to be on the mend.  Jason insisted that they wouldn't let us leave here if Dad was sick, and if they did and he was sick, we would just end up in the hospital in Guatemala. We had to agree.
     Last night we got to go to a devotional with Jeffrey R. Holland with all the young missionaries.  There was a mission choir that sounded fantastic. Several hundred missionaries all singing "Called to Serve" prettty much takes your breath away.  Elder Holland spoke about how missionaries might be the most prayed for people on the earth, how they have a huge responsibility to the Church and they have no right to compromise that.
     He told about how Pres. Monson stood up in a meeting several years ago and said there was something wrong with the missionary program. Elder Holland was on the missionary committee so he really paid attention.  From that day they changed the program to convert the missionaries and then left the missionaries  figure out how to convert the investigators instead of focusing on the investigator and allowing the missionaries to serve their whole mission and remain without being converted.  He emphasized over and over how he did not want the missionaries to return to their old selves after a mission but that they needed to be different, better, for the rest of their lives.
     He taught an awesome lesson about the first chapter in 1st Nephi.  It containes lessons about prayer, revelation, prophets, scriptures and if you can get an investigator to read it they will be well on their way to a good understanding of the gospel. We all felt the spirit very strongly .
     Our schedules are loaded with classes about teaching discussions and tonight we had our first Spanish class here in the MTC.  It was great to talk together and be able to practice back and forth.  We have had great tutors prior to coming here. They are extremely patient with us.
      I'd love to write more but it's late and tomorrow will be a busy day also.  Dale and I gave our first discussion together today about The Restoration.  We had a golden investigator (they have tons of volunteers who come to the MTC to be pretend investigators and help us with our Spanish) and it went pretty well.  Tomorrow we get to teach about the plan of salvation.  It is pretty special to be here with Dale and feel the spirit so strong.  It makes you appreciate one another more.  I wouldn't want to have to do it without him. By the way, he's a darn good missionary!