To quote Peter Pan...."....here we go!"

We leave for the airport at 5:30AM on Friday morning. Our first stop is Atlanta Georgia, then onto to Amsterdam, Holland and finally we arrive in Bucharest, Romania on Saturday afternoon. So our time at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) is coming to a close.

It is difficult to describe how incredible this experience has been to those of you who are not familiar with the MTC. Imagine thousands of people, 18 year old young men, 19 year old young women and senior couples of all ages being instructed to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ in all languages to take this message to the world. The same message is taught in all languages because the same principles for happiness in this life and the world to come apply to all of His children everywhere. Each week hundreds of missionaries finish their training and fly out to their destinations and hundreds of new missionaries arrive to begin their training. Some stay here for a week or two and others remain her for a few months to become more proficient in more difficult languages. There are 13 other MTC’s throughout the world; in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, England, Ghana, Guatemala, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines and Spain with a global count of over 80,000 missionaries serving fulltime missions from 18 months to two years. Ken and I will be serving in Bucharest for 23 months.

It has been such a choice experience for Ken and me to study and worship here and just be counted among the good people whose only desire is to serve others and share what we know about our Father in Heaven who loves us and the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.

We have been too well fed here so I hope I have a hard time adjusting to the food in Romania so I can fit back into half of my skirts!  I have never before been so spiritually “well-fed”. You know how sometimes you’re just so thankful for your family or so excited about an event that your heart “swells” inside you – so much so that it brings tears to your eyes or goose bumps. This feelings seems to wash over you time after time during the day as you feel the spirit present.

This past week we have learned how accomplish many tasks required in a mission office, for example newsletters, travel arrangements, transferring missionaries, mail merging, excel spread sheets, etc. Ken learned about mission finances, maintaining and assigning automobiles, cell phone distribution, housing contracts for missionary apartments and record keeping for current visas and passports. There is so much more learn about serving in a mission office than one would initially imagine ….. and while doing all that, we must keep a positive attitude … anyone who has ever worked with either of us knows that will be a modern day miracle (no sarcasm from me or growling from Ken). It’s funny, when we left home we thought our greatest challenge was going to be learning Romanian….we haven’t even thought about the language acquisition because our time has been so filled with so many other important assignments.

We, of course, feel nervous about our departure tomorrow, but even more than nervous we feel excited and thrilled that we have this opportunity for such a valuable experience. We feel very happy to be doing this together and we believe the Lord qualifies who he calls.

"COME ON EVERYBODY....HERE WE GO!"

Thank you wonderful children for your support.

Might as well call it "Shaving Cream"

It is really amazing the people you meet in the Missionary Training Center!!!! We were speaking with another couple who are here training for their mission in Japan, Glenn and Melody Rowe. Elder Nelson happened to notice that their last name seemed familiar. So he asked if they had any relatives that had ever lived in Virginia (Duh....what are the chances of that?) Elder Rowe replied that his brother Mark was from there. We discovered that it was the very same Mark Rowe who we had been friends with and served in the church with about 24 years ago. Elder Rowe contacted Mark and told him he was training in the MTC with the Nelsons and asked if he remembered us. I guess response was something like...how could I forget Ken Nelson.  He than forwarded this old picture which was taken at Mark's birthday celebration all those years ago. Yes, this is Ken Nelson decorated as Mark Rowe's birthday cake. Your past always seems to catch up with you!!! Yes, the candles are really lit and I now wonder if shaving cream is flammable. Ken's response to seeing this was, "you can't prove that's me." What do you think?

Avoid Dark Alleys - Go for Polka Dots.

At last night's devotional we heard from Elder Sitati and his wife. He is General Authority in the church who was born in Kenya and was the International Director of Public Affairs for the Church in Africa. His message to us was to always remember that we are representing Jesus Christ on our mission and as we honor our covenants we will leave spiritual footprints. People will be happy to see us, they will feel peace and comfort in our presence and will want to be like us. It will awaken a desire within them to come to know what we have. Sister Sitati told us about her grandmother's warning when she was leaving her farm in Kenya to attend school in Nairobi to avoid dark alleys. We all will encounter many dark alleys in life - avoid them and stay in the light.




As a missionary we are advised to dress conservatively so as not to draw too much attention away from our message. Well, I decided that polka dots was going to be my mission fashion theme after finding a black umbrella with multi colored dots - my form of rebellion.... I was surprised when I went into the store of the Missionary Training Center and found these skirts ..... I guess I'm not quite as rebellious as I hoped to be!

Last night at 11:30 the fire alarms went off in our building. By the time Elder Nelson got his clothes on including shoes and socks (shoes tied, of course) I'm sure I would have been charcoal if there really had been a fire. We were a pretty funny looking group of old missionaries standing out on the sidewalk for half an hour. I think only about half of us made it out because the rest of them didn't hear it because they either had their earplugs in or their hearing aides out!

Today at lunch we sat across from an 82 year old couple from Hawaii who were being trained to serve as Member Leadership Support Missionaries in the Salt Lake City area. He told us about his experience at Pearl Harbor when he was a young boy. We asked him what he thought his focus would be for his mission and he said reactivating members of the church. He told us about how he knew this family that hadn't been going to church for awhile and the parents didn't seem interested but they let their son become involved in the scouting program. This boys father later became the Mission President in Hawaii. This old gentle missionary said the best way to reach a family is to genuinely love their children,

Tonight at dinner (now mind you this cafeteria can seat over 1000 people) at a long table next to us two of the young girls who are also in missionary training started to sing a beautiful hymn about the Savior. Some young men nearby joined them in perfect harmony and then more joined in. Within a few seconds everyone around them stopped talking and there was this beautiful peaceful feeling throughout the room. Special things like this seem to happen all the time here. It is such an amazing privilege to be here.

First official day at MTC (FODAM) (wow Ken....I mean, wow Elder Nelson!)

ROMANIA/MOLDOVA MISSION 

We have arrived at the Missionary Training Center and will be here until September 19th. We are settled into our room right on the campus and haven't made too many foolish mistakes....yet. 

On Sunday night we attended a devotional with over 6,000 missionaries in attendance. When we sang songs dedicated to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to all ends of the world it was VERY moving. We feel privileged to be among them. 

Today we formally checked in with the group of Senior Missionaries who begin training with us for the next week. As we introduced ourselves it was exciting to hear that, just in our small group, we are traveling to the Dominican Republic, Utah (numerous locations), New Zealand, Philippines, Chile, Georgia, Germany, Central America, New Mexico, Japan, Toronto (Canada), Argentina, Marshall Islands (South Pacific), Slovakia, Kansas, Thailand, Zambia, Oregon, England, California, and Massachusetts to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. How amazing is it that the pure and simple truth of the gospel can be taught in all of these languages. We have always felt gratitude for the parents of the two missionaries who travelled to Naples, Italy to find us for sacrificing their sons for the two years they served their missions. Now we feel that same gratitude to my own children and grandchildren for sacrificing the next two years with us so we can travel to Romania and share our love and the message of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

There are a number of nurses going to some of the above locations in our group. There was some funny (sage) advice given to them this afternoon. In one particular mission area when a young missionary would call the nurse and tell her they weren't feeling well today and wanted to stay in bed the nurse would respond with, "that sounds fine. I hope you feel better soon. I will be over to your apartment in about a half an hour to give you an enema." They responded with "Okay". Because most young missionaries do not know what an enema is, it took them a few minutes to look it up. Within a half hour the nurse's phone would ring again and the missionaries seemed to recover miraculously and were ready to get up and out. The nurse would reply that she was so glad to hear they were feeling better.

We were also counseled today that we would be the eyes and ears of the mission and that we should relax, smile and do good. This is good advice. We were also told that we shall be watched over, that the Spirit would be with us, that we would be attended to by angels - as would our children and grandchildren. Blessing would be unfolded in regard to those things that deeply concerned us and as we look after the Lord's children, He will look after ours.

Unfortunately the food is fabulous (waist bands are feeling tighter) and I have located the ice cream in the cafeteria. I may even have some for breakfast. Until later....hugs and kisses from me and "right arm, farm out, out of Sprite, and in the groove" from Ken (Elder Nelson)

Saying goodbyes.....Looking forward.

This has been a summer filled with travel, visiting children, having children visit us as we share hugs and say goodbye. It is difficult to describe all the emotions we are experiencing - rather a balancing act between faith and fear. I found it almost therapeutic to finally start packing our suitcases so we would begin looking forward to the opportunity awaiting us instead of reflecting on what we are leaving behind. Surprisingly one of my two suitcases wasn't quite to it's maximum weight allowance so I enjoyed one last shopping spree before enduring one final root canal.

On Friday morning we will be set apart as full time missionaries by President Hunsaker. We will fly from Wenatchee to Seattle, then to Salt Lake City. We will spend the weekend with our children who live in Provo, bless our 10th grandchild on Sunday, and enter the Missionary Training Center on Monday where we will spend the next 10 days in classes focused on Preach My Gospel, the Romanian Language, and Church Office Procedures.

On Friday, September 19th we will depart for Atlanta, Georgia, then onto Amsterdam, Holland, and on Saturday we will arrive in Bucharest, Romania. At this point I know we have a reservation at the Ramada North in Bucharest and the next day we will visit the Mission Office and then began our search for our apartment. I understand we will be negotiating in Romanian with our prospective landlord. Yikes...I know bani means money and "nu scump" means not cheap....no problem!