Craig is an official Tour Guide

This week Craig started giving tours!  Seniors give the tours on Tuesdays since that is the Sisters’ P day.  I am waiting until this coming Tuesday to give tours.  Memorizing is not my strong point and there are several pages to memorize.  In the meantime, Craig tries to give a tour every day we work.

Two of my three costumes finally came.  I was not there when the box was delivered.  We had gone to eat in Old Town after our shift and when we got back, it was there.  It had been opened and all of the young Sisters had already come in to look at them.  I think the seamstresses must buy bolts of material and keep making dresses until the bolt is gone.  The dress I got was exactly like several others.  But the skirt and blouse are new material and the Sisters all commented how much they like them.  My third costume will come next week, along with dresses of 3 new Sisters that are coming from the MTC.  I think the last dress of mine that is coming is new material, too.  I haven’t seen anyone else wearing it.  The Sisters will borrow dresses from each other for a little variety.  We each have 3 costumes and work 6 days a week.

The young Sisters work 6 hours at the Battalion and the rest of the day in their wards/branches.  They were assigned to the Mormon Battalion in their call, like we were, and are busy and work hard.  There are a total 27 of them at the moment.  Four of them are on “full pross” (full proselyting) for 2 transfers so they can have that experience.  Almost all of them are able to do that.  Six are leaving to go home this coming week.  It is hard to remember all of their names, but we work with 4 companionships at the Battalion at a time, and working with them makes it easier to remember their names.

Craig has a lot of responsibilities when opening or closing.  One of the things he does when opening is salting the gold panning table with fool’s gold.  The kids LOVE panning for gold.  Adults do, too!  I have just a few responsibilities when opening and closing, and I run the front desk during the shift.  I decide if tours are getting too full and if people need to go in and watch a documentary while waiting for the next tour.  I assign the Sisters where to stand to welcome guests (at the front door or by the statue at the end of the building) and make sure they get their meal breaks.  I also keep track of the Sisters at all times.  We don’t want anything to happen to them!  They like to do tours in pairs, but sometimes it gets too busy for that.  A lot of school and community groups come through.  People who run these groups really like how well run the Battalion is and how interesting and fun it is.  One lady who runs tours for adults tells them they have to watch the documentary about the Battalion before the tour, and makes sure they do.  She loves it.

Look what Laurel made for us!  This quote is from the Preach My Gospel manual.  We had it printed at Costco and it is hanging on the wall in our living room now.  I love it.  Laurel does such good work! (Please ignore the reflection of our living room in the glass.  The polka dots are from a pillow on the couch.  Sorry!)

 We enjoy working at the temple grounds, talking to people who come to see it and walk around.  We found out the San Diego temple is very famous in China!  Everyone who comes to see it takes lots of pictures of it and must show them to everyone they know when they get back.  Sometimes couples that get married other places around here will often come and take wedding photos at the temple grounds!  Who knows, maybe someday those pictures will spark some questions. 

Our friends the Nemrows from Chino Hills came to visit us on Friday, our P day.  They drove 2 hours to get here.  We had such a fun time with them, catching up and showing them our apartment and going to lunch.  They spent about 2 hours with us, and then drove back.  Their return trip probably took more than 2 hours since they were bound to hit Friday rush hour traffic.  Those are good friends!

Our schedules will change this week.  We will be working longer shifts at the Battalion and only one day at the temple.  OK. Just tell us when to be where.  We do what we are asked.

Arrived at the Battalion!

What a week this has been!  If we weren’t tired after a week at the MTC, we certainly are now.  On Monday, Tuesday and a few hours on Wednesday we had MTC Visitors’ Center/Historic Site training.  We went to the Visitor’s Center in Salt Lake and after a short class, took the tour.  We hadn’t taken it for years and it was nice.

The couple doing the training in Provo had been the Directors of the St George Visitors Center until Jan 2012. They were a lot of fun.  On our last day, we had our final costume fittings.

Thursday morning we got up bright and early for our trip to Los Angeles.  We were able to see Mom and LaMar, which was so nice. Too bad it was such a short visit.  Then we had a late dinner with Genna and Jeff.

Friday morning we drove to San Diego and our new apartment.  It is half way between the Battalion and the Temple.  We take shifts at the canopy in the temple parking lot that serves as a makeshift Visitors Center. The apartment is pretty nice.  Seven hundred square feet.  They did a good job of outfitting it.

Do you see all of the dishes stacked up in the sink?  They are clean.  That is the only way you get clean dishes since there is no dishwasher.  Surprise!  And the silverware tray is on the counter since it doesn’t fit in either of the two teensy drawers.  No silverware holder in Target will fit.  The right hand drawer can’t open unless the oven door is open.  We do have a table that will double as counter space.  I am sure the Kenningtons are not feeling sorry for us.  Our senior missionary neighbors are surprised that we have a matching couch and love seat.

Our costumes were supposed to come on Friday or Saturday at the latest.  Hopefully, they’ll be here on Monday.  We met with the Mission President and his wife on Saturday morning.  They are wonderful.  Then we met with the Battalion Director and his wife after that.  They took us to lunch at one of the many Mexican restaurants around Old Town.  That was fun.

The young sisters that usually run the tours are darling.  Every one of them gave me a hug.  They do a great job.  We got the scripts to learn and it is longer than I like to think about.  We’ll need to know it a week from Tuesday!  That is the sisters’ P day and so the seniors do the tours.  If anyone wants to come visit the Battalion, don’t come on a Tuesday!  You won’t get as good of a tour.  We are also learning how to open and close the Battalion and everything else we need to know.  I am kind of nervous about it, but think the young sisters can help me if I am at a loss running the tour and film times.  We are shadowing the departing couple until Tuesday.  That is their last day.

Lots of people have asked us what we did to get this assignment.  Evidently, San Diego is the second most requested mission.  Most people serving at the Battalion are here for 18 months.  One couple was told it is an 18 month mission and if they wanted it, they needed to change from 12 to 18 months.  But I know you are called to the mission you are supposed to go to, and we were called here for 12 months.

After our shift this morning, we went to the ward we live in.  It has a deaf branch attached to it.  The deaf members sit on the left side of the chapel and have interpreters.  There are two deaf and blind brothers.  They gave the prayers today and blessed the sacrament as well.  Missionaries who know sign language interpret what is being said, and the brothers put their hands over the hands of the missionaries so they know what is being said.  Today the speakers were from the deaf branch so they signed and someone interpreted for us.  Very interesting.  We stayed through Sunday School, then left for our shift at the temple Visitors Canopy.  Quite a few people came by, including 4 people from Chile, two were from Concepcion.  They are here touring California before going to Conference.  Craig and I are in charge of the Temple supplies and statistics.  We give everyone Battalion pass along cards, but not the ones that say “Pan for Gold!” right on the front.  The temple president doesn’t want those handed out at the temple.  Good call.

Wish us luck with learning our scripts!   

Missionary Training Center

We did it.  We finished our first week at the MTC!  This week was Preach My Gospel training.  Next week is two and a half days of Visitor’s Center/Historic Site training.  We are exhausted.

The MTC is amazing!  It is a well-oiled machine.  We were to report between 10:40 and 11 on Monday morning.  They checked us in out in the parking lot, told us where to park, and what to do in the MTC lobby area.  We picked up our tags and a packet we didn’t have time to look through.  We got our MTC IDs activated, and then went back to our car to drive over to the Jacob Hamblin building next door.  (They needed the parking spots at the MTC for the next seniors checking in.) We were only in the MTC 1M building 5 or 10 minutes, tops.

 

 We had 4 places to go in the second building: Travel Office, Bookstore, Immunizations and General Services.  The travel office handed us an envelope with a check in it for travel reimbursement since we will be driving to San Diego.  The bookstore handed us a bag of stuff we didn’t have time to look through.  (We put it with the first packet we didn’t have time to look through.)  The bookstore cashier also asked if we wanted to order another badge.  I thought it would be a good idea in case anything happened to the one we had.  Since we are Historic Site missionaries, our tags have extra writing on them and cost a little more than the other ones.  Ok.  They'll be ready later.

We were supposed to pay for all of our meals at  General Services, but since we are staying at home and not at the MTC we need to count the meals we eat and come back when we are done with our MTC experience and settle up.  We can do that.

Next stop was the stake center on the property next to the MTC campus.  That is where we spent the rest of the week.  We had some good informational meetings.  The MTC president spoke to us, as did one of his counselors and his wife. We were in a large group of 108 seniors, including 6 single sisters. Sixteen of the couples are going to Nauvoo.  Many couples are set apart full time MLS (Member and Leadership Support) missionaries in their own stakes.  Missionaries are going all over the world. At the end of the day we were divided into districts of eight people.  We were with 3 other couples: Elder and Sister Wright from WA going to Brazil (MLS), Elder and Sister Tanner from Lehi going to Argentina (MLS), Elder and Sister Larson from Alpine, going to Nauvoo.  

 

Robinsons, Larsons, Bro Vance, Wrights and Tanners

   Our morning teacher was Brother Zundel and our afternoon teacher was Brother Vance, both cute BYU students.  They did a good job with us.  We had role playing for 2 days and some practice teaching on other missionaries on the last day.  Plus other meetings mixed in.

 

Brother Zundel

 

I did find out the Nauvoo missionaries have to make their own costumes or pay someone to make them.  They also have aprons.  The ladies making our costumes came to the MTC to do some fittings this week.  I am lucky!

They served us lunch daily at the stake center, but we found that it was much more fun to go over to the MTC cafeteria with all of the young missionaries.  They are all so cute. 

We met such nice people here and found missionaries who have common friends with us.  One lady recognized Craig and realized she knew us from over 25 years ago!  She and her husband are going to Chicago.  Good to see Marti Calder Shelley again!  We picked right up where we left off.  She is always such fun.

It was a tiring week!  Here is a picture of half of the group. We couldn't all fit in one picture.  If you have very good eyes, you might be able to find us.

Costume Fitting!

Today I drove to the conference center in Salt Lake and went down to the basement to get fitted for my Mormon Battalion costumes.  I will have 2 dresses and one skirt and blouse.  It was kind of cool to be down there.  The Sister that helped me was very nice.  She asked if I had a favorite color for a costume and if there was a color I hated.  She said some people are very picky.  It didn't matter to me.  She wanted to make sure brown was ok.  Yes, brown is fine.  She had me try on several dresses and a skirt and blouse.  She took measurements and made notes.  She told me getting into the costumes requires a companion.  I think she is right.  There are buttons all the way down the back of the blouse and separating zippers on the back of the dress bodices.

The young sisters at the Battalion know they will be working there when they get their call and they have costumes made, too.  Three will be entering the MTC next week.  So the Sister from Salt Lake will come to the MTC next week to fit them and I will have another fitting, too.  When our mission is over, the costumes go back to Salt Lake.  I bet they are pretty worn out at that point.  She says they have found lots of different things in the pockets of the returned dresses.

Craig's vest just has to be ordered.  He gets to wear suspenders.  Yes, gets to.  Our bishop in Mesa told me our attitudes about our costumes are a choice!