Days 3 & 4 at MTC

Yesterday was a hard day for us.  It's a pride thing, mostly.  Liz and I have been teaching in the church for decades and now we have 20-something people trying to tell us how to prepare a lesson.  And they were doing it backwards!  So we were not feeling so good about it.  In the afternoon, we were planning the lesson we were giving to our "others" and we had a disagreement about a certain scripture.  In the middle of our heated discussion in walks one of the young teachers to offer to help.  We told her we were in the middle of a discussion, but she didn't leave until we got on her case.  So, she left thin-lipped.  We felt bad about it and apologized to her later.
  In actual fact, we are learning a lot and the training is very good.  Today it went much better and the young teacher even smiled at us.  We prepared our lessons the way they want, and it was OK.

This is our MTC "Group".  Husbands standing behind wives (mostly).  L-R: the Mecham's, the Cox's, The Ashurst's, the teachers - Sisters Donaldson (front) and Jensen, and Elder Hansen, whose wife was feeling poorly and didn't attend today.

  We got to visit the new MTC classroom building.  Among other things, they've designed it to be more relaxing and comfortable than the old ones.  One of the features are some huge murals.

This one is the Brother of Jared smolting stone into glass-like stones (aka, glass)

Here we are with our friends, the Ashtons.  They have been a wonderful help to Liz as she prepares to become the Mission Medical Advisor

This evening was a red-letter day.  We went out to dinner with the couple who will be the next mission president, come July.  They are a very fun couple, a bit younger than us (by about 15 years, I'd guess).  We got along famously and had some good talks about our histories and what is happening in the mission as far as we know now.  He served his mission in Yugoslavia, back in the olden days when there was a Yugoslavia.  He told me that he has no intention of changing anything until he's had a chance to observe things for a while and I like that!  So, we feel very good about what will happen at the changing of the guard in July.