31 August - 6 September 2025
The Setting Apart
After a whirlwind experience of submitting our missionary paperwork, being offered an opportunity to be one of the office couples at the Utah Salt Lake City South Mission, meeting with the mission president and visiting the mission office, we were set apart on 31 August 2025 as full-time missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our whole family attended the setting apart in our stake offices.
Monday - Day 1
We arrived at the Provo Missionary Training Center (MTC) at 9:00 a.m. and in-processed. We were given our name tags, the first week's schedule, and security cards to allow us access through the MTC gate and into all the building. They also gave us several informational papers and maps of the MTC.
While digesting all the handouts, we chatted with a couple going to the Ivory Coast. They had previously done a document preserving mission to Sweden, so we talked about Swedish genealogy and learned about a book that has an index of Swedish deaths. We took a short walk around the campus and then sat in the lobby while waiting for lunch and talked to a couple from Arizona who is going to Boston.
At lunch we met one of Elder Hoffer's students from the American Heritage School (AHS) and after lunch ran into four other elders who went to AHS and knew him.
At our first meeting as incoming senior missionaries, everyone introduced themselves, where they were from and where they were assigned. We estimated that there were about 150 missionaries, both couples and single seniors, that began their training with us. Afterwards the MTC presidency spoke. Then we were divided up into districts and met with our afternoon trainer who our granddaughter trained while on her mission in Arizona. What a coincidence.
The other couples in our district were Elder and Sister Otterson who were given a communications assignment in Europe, Elder and Sister Richardson who were assigned to serve in the Congo, and Elder and Sister Chipman who were assigned to serve in Toronto.
After a couple hours of PMG training we met back as a big group where the MTC senior missionary branch presidency spoke and district leaders were assigned. Our district leader was Elder Richardson.
Since we live close to the MTC, we did not have rooms at the MTC and traveled home after an exhausting day.
Tuesday - Day 2
When we arrived at the MTC, we took a different path to our classroom past a crowded line of elders and sisters in exercise clothing lined up to go in for breakfast. Our grandson Cael saw us first and ran to greet us. What a wonderful meeting. Of course we gave him hugs which technically might be against the rules, but we didn't know (and still are fuzzy about it).
The morning classes last for almost 4 hours. Our PMG training was on the plan of salvation. We also had a meeting with the Elder and Sister Wooley, a couple from another district that we practiced teaching with. We did more practice scenarios with our district members and then went to lunch. We looked for Cael, but did not see him.
Afternoon classes were on asking questions and listening. We met with the Wooleys again and practiced these skills.
At dinner we ran into Cael again. Cael's companion took our picture. What you don't see in the picture is the 2,000 missionaries standing in line to get their dinner. The young missionaries are kind enough to let the senior missionaries butt in line. After dinner we went to choir practice for an hour. The director was awesome. Elder Hoffer likes to sing, but Sister Hoffer also participated, and not only because it guaranteed her a seat for the devotional that followed. There were many who had to view the devotional from an overflow location.
Elder Pedro X. Larreal and his wife spoke at the devotional. The choir did fantastic. Afterwards, we did a recap session with our district which was visited by the MTC senior missionary branch president.
We finally got home about 9:30 p.m. after a long day.
Wednesday - Day 3
In the morning, we learned about extending invitations to investigators (friends), scheduling your day and using your time wisely, and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At lunch, we ran into Cael again. We really enjoy being in the MTC with him at the same time.
After lunch, Sister Hoffer learned how to post on Facebook and Elder Hoffer learned about teaching with young missionaries. Together, we had lessons on being a disciple of Jesus Christ and then we prepared our lesson that we were to teach to the Wooleys.
We needed more time to prepare this lesson (and we were so tired from the day before) so we skipped the evening "fireside" and went home. After we ate, and rested, we researched some articles and quotes for our lesson with the Wooleys. We got to be later than planned, but we were prepared for the next day.
Thursday - Day 4
Training began at 8:00 a.m. as usual. Our PGM topics were Using the Power of the Book of Mormon and Relying on the Spirit. We had elective classes next, and we both chose to learn how to better use the church's library app. We learned things like bookmarks, notebooks, and links. We did not see Cael at lunch and afterwards the PGM topics were Teach to Build Faith in Jesus Christ and Christlike Attributes.
Inspirational Story
Elder Otterman, a member of our district, told a great story about and interview he did with the BBC.
We gave our final role play lesson to the Wooleys and enjoyed their lesson to us. Finally, Otto and Randi (my sister and her husband) invited us to dinner. We ate Chinese at a restaurant in the Riverwoods shopping complex.
Friday - Day 5
Friday was a shorter day. We finished up with our PMG training in the morning and in the afternoon we were given a really good briefing on missionary safety and security.
Next week begins mission office training.
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