We are here!  The road was long, long, long, but the Lord cleared the way each day.  There were mornings when we would start out and the sky would be cloudy and looking like a storm was coming; then the clouds would part and the sun would shine and we would drive on dry roads.

We saw many things:

Trucks

Signs: like Des Moines, Iowa

Beautiful farms and country sides

Wonderful Kirtland Ohio

We are happy to be here in little South Royalton, Vermont.

Today is our last day at the Provo, Missionary Training Center.  We have had an incredibly enlightening experience that has touched our hearts deeply.  We have met many other wonderful couples called to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world. There are seventy couples in our large group preparing to serve in seventeen different countries.  We have made wonderful friendships.  As we each part ways today we will each be "inviting others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." There is a hastening of the work.

We were divided into district groups of six couples where we learned a great deal of how good these people really are.

Our District
Left to right: The Hart's, Petersen's, Sanders, Sister McAdams, Lee's, and Daly's

We each taught non member/ less active people from the community.  These were wonderful people who had life stories that touched my heart.  I was very apprehensive and a lot scared.  I was amazed how the Lord blessed our lessons and we felt His guidance as we taught.  When I read Alma 14 my heart was broken and the tears softly fell.  The scriptures have always been dear to my heart but when I read this story I gain a deep assurance that God lets these things happen to bring about his righteous judgments.
  
Yesterday, (Monday the 17th) we met at the Salt Lake Temple Visitors' Center to have the young Sister Missionaries give us a tour of the center.  I don't believe I have ever seen the display on the "Family."  It was very tender; in fact, the whole tour was.  These two sisters, one from Thailand and the other from Japan, were able to convey the Spirit of the Lord.  My heart is full to bursting,  I wish I could have everyone I meet have these sweet feelings and know that God is in the Heaven and Jesus Christ is our Savior.  I love them with all my heart. Susan

Sister from Thailand, Susan, Sister from Japan, Roger

Susan asked me (Roger) to tell this story from Monday.  As we were finishing our tour of the Salt Lake Visitors' Center.  A young man came up to our small group.  The sisters immediately knew him.  He was a recent convert to the Church.  He was very bright. His father was Jewish and his mother a Catholic.  He had studied carefully both cultures.  In his studies he found that the Jewish scriptures talk of a Messiah who has already come.  He talked to the Rabbis and showed them the scriptures.  They told him not to come back.  He went to the Catholic priests and read with them for a while, but here he found scriptures that said the priests should be married.  He told them so.  And they asked him not to come back.

He then began to travel across the the United States looking for answers.  He came to his mother's house.  On TV he saw an add for a free Book of Mormon.  He sent for it, and when it came he read it from cover to cover.  He noticed the many Hebraisms in the text, and he read it with great interest.  When he came to Moroni 10 he actually prayed about the truth of the book.  He received a powerful answer.  So, he called the Call Center at Temple Square.  A wonderful sister began talking to him.  By this time he had come to Salt Lake City.  He was sitting on the reflecting pool at Temple Square and he was talking to this sister.  He didn't know where she was located.  He thought she might have been answering his call from a foreign country because she was a foreign missionary.

He finally said to her, "Where are you speaking from?"  She answered, "I'm in Salt Lake City."  They were only 100 yards apart. She immediately came out of the Call Center and met him for the first time.  To make a long story short, he was baptized on 26 August of this year.  And he just received the Aaronic Priesthood last week.  To hear his story was truly an inspiration. 

Susan and I had an interesting discussion tonight.  It began when we were trying to anticipate a lesson we're going to teach in class. We began reading the lesson diligently; suddenly we asked ourselves what we believed, personally.

We are supposed to teach the concept that God is our Heavenly Father.  I asked Susan how she knew God was her Father.  How so I know that!  We have two kids who are asking themselves this same question.  I finally answered Susan that I knew God was my Father first because the scriptures testify that He really is our Father.  1 John 3:1-3 says "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see him as he is."

When Anne died I was devastated.  So was Susan.  There was no way to face the reality that she was gone without believing in God our Father.  we reached a level in our prayers that we had hitherto not known.  Since that time we have had communications with her from the Spirit World.  Like Joseph Smith we KNOW.  And we know that God knows that we know,

So that's where it begins.  The scriptures teach us what is right, and then our own personal experience with the Holy Spirit confirms the truth.    

Roger and I have been called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We have prepared our whole married life for this opportunity. 

With this call we will be leaving our home and family and our normal everyday life.  We will be leaving this beautiful Morgan Valley and this view from our deck.  However, we will be in another part of this amazing nation where trees are thick and change to beautiful colors in the fall.  We are excited.

                                               Our Mission Begins November 10th 2014.