Teaching with Elder and Sister Slade

I feel like I am being blessed here at the MTC to be able to attend everything and feel pretty good during the day.  Then when evening comes I have been feeling achy and not so well.  I had a rough night last night so I slept in a little this morning.  We were later for breakfast and then rushed to our first big meeting.  

The whole group of senior missionaries meets together in the big room by the cafeteria where the farewell meeting with families used to be held.  Then we separate into districts and go to smaller rooms in another building for instruction.  

This morning's larger meeting was about learning to use technology and specifically the Gospel Library app.  The large screen was in front of us as they were going to show us a clip of Elder Bednar.  Typically something went wrong and they were unable to show it.  Our cute teacher just commented, 'That's technology!'  I thought it very fitting for that is my experience whenever I depend on technology.  They did give good instruction about the library app and we learned about things we didn't know existed and how to use them.  We were able to apply what we had learned later in the day when we taught each other lessons.

In our smaller classroom where we did watch the Elder Bednar Video

In our classroom today the Bednar Video was played.  I would love to get some quotes of President McKay from that video.  He gave these back when  I was a youth and he spoke of inventions that the Lord would cause to come forth that would aid in the spread of the gospel globally.  We would be able to teach and flood the earth in ways that we simply could not comprehend.  He also spoke of how these inventions would not only promote the spreading of the gospel but also the spreading of great evil.  I will try to get those quotes tomorrow.

The first day we arrived we were assigned another couple to get to know.  We happily were given the Slades.  Elder Alan Slade and his wife Judy are wonderful people from Eager Arizona.  They will be serving in the Temple Square mission in SLC.  They drove here with a U-haul trailer filled with their king sized bed and comfortable recliner.  We have learned to love them.   

Elder and Sister Slade our teaching partners

Our assignment was to get to know them and learn about something that we could help them with in their lives right now.  Then we were to prepare a lesson using PMG (Preach My Gospel) that included 

1) an invitation to act 
2) promises for living the principle, and 
3) bear testimony of the principle
  
The lesson was also to include scriptures and always be centered in Christ. 

We got together at lunch to talk about challenges that we have and to try to find something that would help each other.  We were given time in our afternoon class to prepare our lesson with our instructor there to offer any assistance we needed.  Then we met with just the Slades in a classroom where they taught us for 20 minutes and then we taught them for 20 minutes. 

 It was a sweet experience.  There was no role playing in this exercise, for we were just ourselves with our real challenges and being taught principles of the gospel that we already knew but that if understood in a clearer way would help us with the challenges we face.  We interestingly both taught the same principles but they were tailored to our individual needs.  The Slades taught the Thatchers about prayer and faith and we taught them about prayer and fasting.  We all learned that these principles can be applied to whatever challenges we face and have meaning each day of our lives.  We accepted their invitation to pray tonight more fervently.   We received a sweet email from Sister Slade tonight:

"Thank you for such a great lesson today. I have been pondering it this evening. Just what we needed to hear. 

Love ❤️ you guys,

Elder and Sister Slade.

After class this afternoon we left the MTC and headed to Midway to visit Jeff, Amy, Megan, Emily, Brooke, Stockton and Kyle.  The canyon was beautiful and we loved being with family.  Amy made us a delicious meal that we all enjoyed together.  We listened to Brooke and Emily plead for a puppy.  They were very convincing about how it would build responsibility in them and how they would clean up every mess, but Jeff and Amy seemed pretty determined that it would not happen. 

Dad telling fireworks stories before dinner

I got this picture of father and son - they look a little stiff but not quite 'Monk' like

last hug for a year - good bye sweet Brooke

Kyle, Megan, Stockton, Amy, Emily, Jeff, Brooke, Sister Thatcher, Elder Thatcher

We are now back in our MTC room.  Another great day behind us.  We trust that all is well with all those we love and that the blessings of the gospel fill your days as they do ours.  You are in our prayers which will be more fervent tonight thanks to what we learned today from Elder and Sister Slade.  We love you all.

Elder and Sister Thatcher