Hello Friends and Family!
We officially started our mission on Sunday, February 14, 2021, with our stake president setting us apart in our home.
We both knew that serving a mission would require some changing of habits as we’ve both become very spoiled with regard to setting our own schedules. This past week has been a good “break-in” week as we only had formal training meetings (all on Zoom) in the afternoon (from 1pm-5pm). Our mornings (8am-12pm) were designated as “Personal Study, Companionship Study, and Class-time Preparation.”
Highlights:
Working with the MTC trainers: They were all young returned missionaries attending school and working at the MTC. We ended up learning from six amazing trainers.
Meeting the other missionary couples: There were three other couples in our group (district) and it was crazy to hear how everyone’s path has been impacted by Covid. One couple who lives in Middleton, ID originally received their mission call in January 2020 to serve in Tahiti (And no, that wasn’t a typo…they have been on hold for over a year!). Their mission kept getting postponed so they finally decided to approach the Boise Mission Office to ask if they needed any help (this is one of the options given when your call is postponed). Sure enough, they will now be serving in the Idaho Boise Mission. One of the other couples will be serving in Botswana, Africa (this is their 4th mission!) and the other couple will be serving in England on the church’s farmland reserve (this is their 2nd mission). The church is requiring senior couples serving internationally to receive the Covid vaccine, and all these couples have received the vaccine. We’re having a struggle getting the vaccine since we don’t fall in any of the eligible categories yet.
Studying and learning from Preach My Gospel: From Monday to Thursday our training focused on some of the key aspects of missionary work. To be honest, I (LeAnn) was very apprehensive about this as I suspected that we would be “invited” to leave our comfort zone. In the past, I have had some less-than-ideal missionary experiences and I may have used the word “dread” when discussing this with Lane. But, thankfully, everything went well.
Participating in the “Safety and Security Training”: This occurred on Friday afternoon, and was eye-opening. We also watched the church-produced “Safety Zone” videos, which we highly recommend. These videos document real safety-related experiences of missionaries serving in the field, and you can find these on the churchofjesuschrist.org website. Just search under “Safety Zone.” These would be great for older children and teens (may be too graphic/disturbing for littles).
After surviving this first week, both of us are feeling VERY grateful for our incredibly wonderful parents who set a stellar example for us and are so supportive of all that we do. We testify with Nephi that we have “been born of goodly parents.” Our parents are the best!
¡Tengan una buena semana! (Have a great week! Yes, we’re working on our Spanish!)
Love,
Lane & LeAnn
Setting Apart
Studying
Day 1 Done – Notice how fast Lane changed out of his white shirt and tie!
