We are on our way!

We are at the SLC airport waiting for our delayed flight to Dallas and then on to London then Rome. It is snowing like crazy upside and our flight is delayed for two hours.  I guess we didn't need to have gotten up at 4:30 this morning.  I am so thankful that we made it safely to the airport though.  There were crashes reported all over the freeway due to the snow and ice.
We said goodbye to all of our kids and grandchildren.  Nathan and Natalie woke up at 5:30 this morning for last hugs and goodbyes.  It has been such a blessing to have been down in SLC for this last month because we not only got to be a part of the language immersion program to give me a start on my italian but also to see our kids and grand kids.
At church on Sunday , my son in law Ryan, leaned over to me and asked me if I realized that this was the last church meeting that I would understand what was going on for quite a while. Uh oh!

38 senior couples in our MTC group

Here we all are on our last day in the MTC.  2 couples are on their 6 th mission.  Over half of the couples are going to be working with young adults.  The Others are working in the office, are on military bases, humanitarian, and then about 1/3 are doing member and leader support like we are.  Here are the names of the couples and where they were from and where they were going.  The Halberts were from Call, I'd going to Budapest,  The Williams from Fruit Heights going to Okanawa, Sister Ray going to the West Indies, The Johnson's from Taylorsville going to Finland, Sessions from IF going to Honalulu,  Millers from Centerville Utah going to Mongolia, Hagens from West Point Utah going to Oslo Norway, The Smarts from Draper going to London South, Cullimors from Mesa Arizona going to Washington DC,  The Bensens from Spanish Fork going to Romania  (they are nearly 80 years old), the Truman's from Las Vegas going to California Ventura Mission, The Haucks from Kaysville going to Northern Italy (Paul served with elder Hauck back in the 60's) , The Patraws from Indiana going to Chili, The Sills from Layton going to London England,  The Browers from star Valley and Cache Valley ( we lived in their house on Allred Rd) going to Tampa Florida the Haitian Brach) , The Richies were going on their 6 th mission and were going to Washington DC, The Calls from Rexburg were going to Halifax Canada, The Taylor's from Sandy were going to Singapore, The Todd's from Provo were going to Madagascar, The Rasmussens from Ogden were going to the Marshall Islands, The Petersens from Gilbert AZ were going to West Africa, The Clarks from Caldwell were going to San Antonio TX, The Cranz from IF we're going to Manilla Phillipines, The Smedleys from Lehi were going to Reno Nevada, The Burdens from Blain Washington were going to  Frankfurt Germany,  The Helmentollers were from Sandy Utah, and were going to Fort Wayne

Indiana to do Record Preservations, theLynns from Caldwell ID were on their 6 th missn and they were going to Minnesota, The Fords from Colorado were going to a military base just 85 miles from home at Fort Carson, The Tappens from Pueblo Colorado were going to Manhatten, The Hasseltimes from Murray were going to Sierra Leon/Liberia, The Wires from Kanab, UT were going to the Ukraine,  the Jensens were going to Poland,  The Bijalands from Bellevue WA were going to the Phillipines, The Vermasons from Cedar Hills, UT were going to Tacoma WA, The Linz were military specialists , The Nuttals were going to Berlin, The Nelsons (Sarah Hancock's in laws) were going to Equadore, The Watkins were going to San Diego, and we get to go to Rome Italy.

WE WISH THAT WE COULD ALL MEET UP AFTER OUR MISSIONS FOR TO SHARE WHAT HAPPENED ON OUR MISSIONS.  WHAT INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCES ARE ABOUT TO HAPPEN TO EACH AND EVERYONE OF US.

1/19/13

We went to the temple in American Fork this morning.  Christy and Mike, Shelly, Paul and Sarah, and Paul and I.  we missed getting a picture of Christy and Mike though.  (Sorry about my poor typing.  I haven't got the hang of this iPad yet.  Hopefully I will get better)

We are all finished at the MTC

Our training finished up yesterday afternoon. So we have come back to Shelly's house and will be here til Wednesday when we fly to Italy.
The highlights of the MTC were many. I will try to recap a few.

we got so close to th people in our district. It was surprising how we connected with everyone as if we had known them for years.

The young returned missionaries that taught us in our small groups were so outstanding.  They were so  happy and fun to be around.  they were wise beyond their years and we learned so much from them. Paul and I wanted Jonathan to meet and or marry every single one of the girls there.

We loved going to the missionary devotional on Tuesday night.  elder Evans from the 70 spoke along with his wife.  All missionaries, young and old filled the auditorium at the MTC to capacity.  Just thinking about what is about to happen to each of those missionaries over the next 18-24 months gives me goosebumps.  The world has no idea that things are going to change with all these sister missionaries flooding the earth along with the valiant young men.  We feel so very blessed to be a part of it at this time.

I saw how fast the spirit comes when we invite it and when we are teaching others about the Savior.
We practiced teaching non members and Inactives and we learned how to ask ?'s and then listen to the spirit as to what to say next.  We didn't do anything in Italian all week long, so we practiced everything in English only.  That was hard enough.  I sure need to know a lot more italian so I can do this in italian.

we learned that we need to stay out of the way and not block the teaching of the spirit that goes on between the investigator and The Lord. Listen more and talk less.

Preach My Gospel is so packed with things to teach and we need to discern the needs of our
investigators before we can know what to teach them.  again....listen more and talk less.


keep the mottos of the hardware stores in mind:
Lowes: Together we can build it.
Home Depot: We're here to help
Other: if we don't have it you don't need it

Think of how many people all around the world are praying for us.  We are so thankful for all of your prayers.  We hope we can give The Lord our very best.


I goofed my gmail address.  It is really gerischerbel@gmail.com
That is the best email to use.  My old email address at  svwy.net is full and I can't empty it as it goes to my computer in Afton.

Thursday January 24 the next to last day at the MTC

Here is our District in the MTC.  On the left are the Tappens from Pueblo Colorado.  They are going to Manhatten NY to work with the 4 single adult branches in Manhatten.  Both are converts as young adults themselves.  He was a college professor in Southern Colorado.  The next couple are on their sixth mission.  They are the  Lynns.  We get to hear a lot of varied experiences from them.  They have been to Russia, Hawaii, Salt Lake, Romania, ?, and now Minnesota. hey will be CES specialists. amazing.  The next couple are from Mesa and they are the Colormors.  He was a HS Math teacher and football coach.  They are going to Washington DC South as member support also.You know the couple on the right!
We have grown to love all these couples and we love doing our small group training with them. today we all got a chance to meet with a non member so that we could practice a real teaching opportunity. It was a good experience.  We got to do it in English so I could even help. Yesterday, we had a practice session also but it was very difficult.  Our non members were a couple who had so many weird questions and it was hard to zero in on any meaningful discussion.
There are so many moments each day that the spirit touches our hearts.  Paul and I are both crying so much that we need our own box of Kleenex!

2nd day at the MTC

It has been a great day today.  The MTC is great!  Paul and I get to stay at the Marriott and we have such a comfy bed. I did have the flu yesterday, so day #1 was a bit difficult, but today I am feeling great and it felt like being at education week with so many good teachers and speakers.
  We heard a couple of good jokes.   "Who was the first prophet to go through the MTC? " Moses, he went through the empty sea!  

What is the forgotten beatitude?  "Blessed are the flexible for they shall not get bent out of shape!"

Today we learned how to teach from Preach My Gospel.  There are four steps to share whatever principle you feel prompted to share with your investigators. 1. Ask a question to find out what they need I regards to whatever principle you discern that you need to teach them about.  2. Teach them about the principle. 3. Share a scripture or two about that principle. 4. Testify or share a personal example of this principle.
We practiced and did role plays within our district.  We had two darling returned missionaries in the morning sessions and then a darling sister in the afternoon. And we didn't get elder Harper, who was Jon's companion in Mesa, and we didn't get Dani's roommate who looked so cute to be our teachers today, but we really liked each of our teachers and we learned a lot.  we have training time with just our district. There are four couples in our district and each of them are wonderful and they are all so different.
There are 38 couples in our group of senior couples.  Yesterday when we went onto th chapel to sit down for our afternoon session, we sat right down next to elder Browers and his wife. We asked them where they were from, and he said he grew up in Star Valley but now lives in Cache county.  Wouldn't you know but it is the very same Browers whose house we lived in on Allred rd, when we first moved to star valley!  They are going to Florida to serve in a Haitian branch.  We have run into the  Nelson's who are Sarah Hancock's  in laws. there are a couple of couples who are going on their 6th mission as a couple.
We have loved meeting each and every couple.
Picture us happy.  I will post more tomorrow.
Mom

Update information

Paul and I flew to Chicago on January 7th to apply for Visas, in person, at the Italian Consulate. While we were there, we visited the top of the Willis Building  ( AKA Sears Tower building). It is the tallest building now I. The USA.  It was really impressive.  Salt Lake Sr Mission Travel called us yesterday and they have the Visas already, so everything looks in order for us to travel on the 30th  to Italy.

Yesterday at the MTC  we heard that there were  over 600 new missionaries!  Out of that 600 there were 250 new sister missionaries.  It's really incredible to see this change in the missionary age and see the response.  We have heard that the MTC usually has abut 2500 missionaries in it.  In March, there will be almost double that. 4800! They have moved in an extra set of bunk beds into all the bedrooms and many missionaries including us oldies will be staying at local hotels.  WE will be staying at the Marriott Training Center.  The initials remain the same. MTC!

We know what city we will be serving in!

We are so so excited to find out which city we will be serving in.  We got an e-mail from our mission president and he said that he is assigning us to serve in Battipalgia which is just below Naples.  It is located about 9 miles inland from the Medditeranien Sea and is very close to the Amalfi Coast which is beautiful.  Battipalgia is a small town of about 50,000 people, and most all of them speak Italian!  Paul and I have been taking Italian Immersion lessons at the MTC for the last 4 weeks.  We go for 8 hours a day 3 days a week.  Paul is just polishing his skills and I am just trying to get some skills.  We enter  the Sr. MTC on Monday and we will be there until the 30th when we fly to Italy.

Here we are with Benjamin, who has been one of our Italian teachers.