From Aimee: If you remember back in week 2, Michael took a trip to the French Consulate in San Francisco, and said:"We had to wake up at 3 AM in order to make our flight, and the entire trip, things kept almost going wrong. It was a true testament to me that God watches over us when we follow His commandments." I was of course curious what sorts of things could almost go wrong, so asked him for details. He sent a summary today, and I thought his blog readers might enjoy it as well.
To preface this, Murphy’s Law took effect, and it was only countered by the fact that we’re missionaries. Also remember, this was our one week anniversary in the MTC, and they’re already trusting us to go to San Francisco by ourselves. What did they think was going to happen?!
We woke up at 3AM in order to make it to the travel office by 3:45. When Elder Bunker, Elder Gardner, and I got there (at, or probably slightly past 3:45) Elder Birch was nowhere to be found. This was a problem. So we went back to the residence to try and track him down, but to no avail. His door was ajar, but from what we could see in the dark (we didn’t want to wake up his roommates) he wasn’t in there. We checked the bathrooms and anywhere else we could think of, then decided it would be better for one Elder to miss the flight rather than all 4 of us. Of course, when we made it back to the travel office, Elder Birch had taken a different route than us and showed up just after we went looking for him. He later told us how he had fallen back asleep and re-woke up at (I think) 3:43.
Side note, there were 4 sisters going to Canada heading to the airport with us, so we had fun helping them with their luggage. The MTC bused us to the Frontrunner station, from which we took the train system to the airport (much like how I got there during winter break).
On the train ride, we took a closer look at our flight details, and found some conflicting information. The three missionaries in our district (me, Elder Bunker, and Sœur Petersen) were for sure flying Delta, and Elder Birch was flying Alaskan, but the 4 in the Lyon district had two papers, each saying one of these two flights. Needless to say, we had no idea what was going on. It turns out that the 7 of us were all on Delta, and “poor” Elder Birch was on his own flight.
Transferring from the Frontrunner train to the city train thing, Elder Bunker forgot his packet (with his passport, visa application, etc.) on the train. Luckily, Elder Birch grabbed it on his way off. Otherwise, I have no idea what would have happened.
Side note, getting off the train at the airport is where I met Taylor Ballard. He noticed our nametags and started talking to one of the other missionaries, when he mentioned Paris, France and his name, Elder Ballard. I quickly asked, Taylor Ballard from Oregon? And that’s how it went down.
So while we were slightly worried for Elder Birch, leaving him after figuring out the flight situation, there was literally no reason to. As he was checking in for his boarding pass or something, the person working there asked where he was serving. After replying with “Tahiti,” the guy then mentioned how he has family in Tahiti, and since he’s hoping for some extra blessings, decides, “You’re flying first class!” Like I said, no need to worry.
However, when we landed in San Francisco, we knew nothing of this. What we knew was that we planned with Elder Birch to meet him outside his gate, but for some reason, his flight was landing in the International Terminal. That meant we had to exit security to get there, and had to wait outside the terminal, hoping he would come out to meet us. Some of the sisters went to go page him just to make sure he’d come out.
Side note, we met the Head of Security. He came up to talk to us and compliment us for our humanitarian work. Apparently he worked for the military and had to deal with unruly sailors, and was impressed by the MTC he saw there in whatever Pacific area he was stationed in. It was cool to meet a nonmember who was that interested in missionaries, but he seemed disappointed we were going to a first world country like France, since there isn’t any humanitarian work to do there.
Elder Birch finally showed up during the time we were talking, and he came with a friend he made. Apparently she had overheard him talking about heading to Tahiti and mentioned that she was going to serve there too. She introduced herself as Ivy, but she actually just showed up to the MTC on Wednesday, so now she’s an official missionary. I just can’t remember her last name. She was traveling to the Consulate as well. For some reason the Church sent her before she went to the MTC, but not us.
Then we took BART to the Montgomery station, and tried to follow the directions they gave us, but they were surprisingly unhelpful. We were standing on a street corner near where we thought it was supposed to be, but we had no idea where to go from there. Then a couple came up to us to say hi. Turns out they had just been to the Consulate! They kindly took us there so we could drop off Ivy (her appointment was before ours) and then they helped us find a nice place to eat, Super Duper Burger. After lunch we just wandered the streets. This meant walking around the block a couple times.
We showed up at the office building or whatever early for our appointments because we noticed there was a small window for us to get to the airport and make our flight. When we tried to use the elevator, the 6th floor button didn’t work. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong until we talked to the front desk and they told us they were on lunch break until 2. At 2 we could finally press the button and get to the Consulate. Then we had to wait in line. People started worrying and convinced them to take us two at a time, which wasn’t really an issue since they just took our packets and got our fingerprints.
When we finished there was enough time to take BART back to the airport to get to the gate just before they would stop boarding. We hurried back to the station, but at the airport, BART wouldn’t accept our tickets. We were trapped in BART. One of the Sœurs talked to the attendant or whatever and he let us through, luckily.
When we got to the gate, we were shocked to see that the flight was delayed. There was no reason to hurry at all! We also met that couple again, so it was nice to see them and thank them again. Then Ivy showed up a little later. She had taken a wrong train and if the flight hadn’t been delayed, she probably would have missed the flight.
Unfortunately, the Lyon missionaries’ ticket was voided for some reason. This meant the other 5 of us (including Ivy) left them in San Francisco. When we landed, we luckily had Ivy’s phone to call the travel office and find out what was going on. The missionaries we left also had their travel office provided phone, so that was lucky.
We waited for them in Salt Lake, but Elder Birch realized he left his iPod on the plane, so he had to talk to someone to get back through security so he could retrieve it. We also realized the shuttle may not be coming. Luckily we were in Utah, so it wasn’t hard for a couple of missionaries to borrow a phone. We called and they told us they had called back the shuttle because the missionaries in San Francisco had been stuck, so it would be back when they landed.
Then they all showed up and we were able to make it back to the MTC without further complications. Except that we hadn’t eaten dinner and it was way past lights out. They were kind and let us in the sack lunch room. Then we wrote many pages in our journals that night and got to bed very late. Good times.
Friday, June 29, 2018
Week 4 (MTC)
There’s not much to share this week, it’s starting to get pretty routine.
The main thing of note is that this week was the Mission President training. That means every new mission president as well as the Quorum of the Twelve and pretty much every other General Authority was at the MTC. Funnily enough, almost everyone else in my district got to meet and/or shake hands with one or more of the apostles, but I didn’t see any of them. Pretty disappointing.
Other than that, French is coming along; slowly but surely. Teaching the gospel is actually pretty difficult, especially when your amis d’église won’t keep their commitments. It’s impossible to grow your faith if you don’t put in some effort.
Hopefully I’ll have more to report next week,
Elder Wood
From Aimee: I had asked him what a typical day was like - here's that:
On an average day, we wake up at 6:30 and get ready for the day. We head over to breakfast and then we have about 3 hours before exercise time. Those are ideally used for an hour each of Personal Study, Companion Study (during which we plan our lessons for the day), and Language Study (following the Plan-Study-Teach cycle they've taught us here). We also have to spend time planning, so it's hit or miss whether everything gets done before 11. After exercise we have lunch and get ready for class where we teach our investigator a 20 min (usually more...) lesson. After class we eat dinner and sometimes do some more language studying with this computer program, TALL (Technology Assisted Language Learning I believe). Then we have another class and head back to our residence. There we socialize and write in our journals until about 10:30, then we go to sleep.
The main thing of note is that this week was the Mission President training. That means every new mission president as well as the Quorum of the Twelve and pretty much every other General Authority was at the MTC. Funnily enough, almost everyone else in my district got to meet and/or shake hands with one or more of the apostles, but I didn’t see any of them. Pretty disappointing.
Other than that, French is coming along; slowly but surely. Teaching the gospel is actually pretty difficult, especially when your amis d’église won’t keep their commitments. It’s impossible to grow your faith if you don’t put in some effort.
Hopefully I’ll have more to report next week,
Elder Wood
On an average day, we wake up at 6:30 and get ready for the day. We head over to breakfast and then we have about 3 hours before exercise time. Those are ideally used for an hour each of Personal Study, Companion Study (during which we plan our lessons for the day), and Language Study (following the Plan-Study-Teach cycle they've taught us here). We also have to spend time planning, so it's hit or miss whether everything gets done before 11. After exercise we have lunch and get ready for class where we teach our investigator a 20 min (usually more...) lesson. After class we eat dinner and sometimes do some more language studying with this computer program, TALL (Technology Assisted Language Learning I believe). Then we have another class and head back to our residence. There we socialize and write in our journals until about 10:30, then we go to sleep.
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| Close-up of the Provo Temple |
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| With Elder Bunker. They needed to vacuum their classroom, and looked too cool as Ghostbusters, so had to take a picture. |
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| This is Michael with Elder Skinner, someone he met at HEFY in 2016. You can see Michael's "New Missionary Host" sticker indicating that he's been there long enough to be able to show new arrivals the ropes. |
Friday, June 22, 2018
Week 3 (MTC)
Not much time to write this week, MTC life is busy!
We’ve been busy teaching our Amis de l’Église this week. Every class we have to teach a lesson to one of our instructors posing as an investigator. So, we’re planning two lessons per day, with the same amount of time we used to use to plan one!
French is coming along, but we recently learned it’s IMPOSSIBLE to make some of the French sounds (like the "U" and "R"). It’s getting easier to teach in French, but it still takes a lot of mental gymnastics.
On Tuesday we had the first councilor in the General Relief Society Presidency speak and it was super spiritual.
I wish I had more time to write, I’ll make an effort next week to make more time to write this.
À bientôt!
Elder Wood
Addendum from Aimee: We asked about whether everyone in his zone (big group photo below) was French speaking, and he said "We're French-based, so we have French, Haitian Creole, Tahitian, Malagasy (Madagascar), and I think that's it. The French people are going to both French missions and Montreal I believe."
We’ve been busy teaching our Amis de l’Église this week. Every class we have to teach a lesson to one of our instructors posing as an investigator. So, we’re planning two lessons per day, with the same amount of time we used to use to plan one!
French is coming along, but we recently learned it’s IMPOSSIBLE to make some of the French sounds (like the "U" and "R"). It’s getting easier to teach in French, but it still takes a lot of mental gymnastics.
On Tuesday we had the first councilor in the General Relief Society Presidency speak and it was super spiritual.
I wish I had more time to write, I’ll make an effort next week to make more time to write this.
À bientôt!
Elder Wood
Addendum from Aimee: We asked about whether everyone in his zone (big group photo below) was French speaking, and he said "We're French-based, so we have French, Haitian Creole, Tahitian, Malagasy (Madagascar), and I think that's it. The French people are going to both French missions and Montreal I believe."
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| Zone in front of the Provo Temple |
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| District in front of the Provo Temple. Elder Ellsworth, Elder Wood, Elder Bunker, Elder Poulson; Soeur Petersen, Soeur Andreasen |
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| Walking back to the MTC in the rain - "I felt at home :-)" |
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| Elder Birch (in his zone) and Elder Bunker (his companion) at the fountain near the Provo Temple |
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| French flag flying at the MTC |
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| His room at the MTC |
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| "It was Elder Ellsworth's 19th birthday, so he was sent a cake. We didn't have anything to cut it with, so we went full college style and used the cardboard box it came in." |
Friday, June 15, 2018
Week 2 (MTC)
It’s officially been one week in the MTC, and it’s amazing!
My first Sunday here was super spiritual, I’m not sure if I’ve ever felt the spirit so strongly before. Church was great of course, and every week there’s evening devotionals on Sunday and Tuesday; both of those were amazing. But the cherry on top was the video we saw afterwards. It was called “Character of Christ,” and in it, Elder Bednar talked about Christ’s tendency to turn outwards when the natural man would turn in. He was always focused on how He could help others, and He never once did anything to only help himself. It was really inspiring, and I’m sure every missionary left there wanting to be a better representative of Christ.
The rest of the week turned out to be all about visas. Tuesday, our whole district (except Elder Ellsworth) got called to the health clinic. They needed some of our blood and, get this, a stool sample (Belgium wants to make sure we don't have parasites). If you’ve never given a stool sample, let me tell you this: it kinda sucks. But at least it was a bonding experience. We had good fun scooping our poop into a vial.
Then on Wednesday, a bunch of us France missionaries traveled to San Francisco to visit the French Consulate there. We had to wake up at 3 AM in order to make our flight, and the entire trip, things kept almost going wrong. It was a true testament to me that God watches over us when we follow His commandments.
Merci for your support!
Elder Wood
My first Sunday here was super spiritual, I’m not sure if I’ve ever felt the spirit so strongly before. Church was great of course, and every week there’s evening devotionals on Sunday and Tuesday; both of those were amazing. But the cherry on top was the video we saw afterwards. It was called “Character of Christ,” and in it, Elder Bednar talked about Christ’s tendency to turn outwards when the natural man would turn in. He was always focused on how He could help others, and He never once did anything to only help himself. It was really inspiring, and I’m sure every missionary left there wanting to be a better representative of Christ.
The rest of the week turned out to be all about visas. Tuesday, our whole district (except Elder Ellsworth) got called to the health clinic. They needed some of our blood and, get this, a stool sample (Belgium wants to make sure we don't have parasites). If you’ve never given a stool sample, let me tell you this: it kinda sucks. But at least it was a bonding experience. We had good fun scooping our poop into a vial.
Then on Wednesday, a bunch of us France missionaries traveled to San Francisco to visit the French Consulate there. We had to wake up at 3 AM in order to make our flight, and the entire trip, things kept almost going wrong. It was a true testament to me that God watches over us when we follow His commandments.
Merci for your support!
Elder Wood
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| District at the Provo Temple - Soeur Petersen, Soeur Andreasen, Elder Ellsworth, Elder Poulson, Elder Bunker, Elder Wood |
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| The view from his classroom building towards the Provo Temple |
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| He bought himself a French hymnbook |
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| Nametags of the elders in his district |
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| Double band-aid from the blood draw |
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| The French Consulate in San Francisco |
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| Riding on the BART train in San Francisco. His companion (Elder Bunker) and Elder Birch |
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| Heading to the Provo temple early this morning |
Friday, June 8, 2018
Week 1 (MTC)
Two days down, two years to go!
Today is my first Preparation Day in the MTC. I'm surprised it came so soon after getting here, but I'm not complaining! For anyone who doesn't know, P-Day is the one day a week where missionaries get a small break from missionary stuff. It's when we do our laundry, go shopping, write home, and do anything else to prepare for the coming week. We also went to the Provo Temple this morning. It was amazing. I'm looking forward to going the next five weeks I'm here.
Backing up a bit, after I finished writing on Wednesday, the other people in my district showed up. There's six of us, four Elders and two Sisters, divided into companionships: me and my companion Elder Bunker, Elder Ellsworth and Elder Poulson, and Sister Peterson and Sister Andreason. We're all in the same class learning French together, and it's a lot of fun. All of us except Elder Ellsworth are going to the France Paris Mission, he's going to New Hampshire. It's also stressful though, we have to teach our first amie de l'Eglise (investigator (person interested in the Church)) tonight. It's only our third day here! I'm sure we'll do alright, but it's still nerve racking.
It's so spiritual here, you can feel the Spirit almost constantly. I've only been here for a few days, but I can already tell I'll be sad to leave. The MTC is so great and I love it here. But I know France will be great and I'm looking forward to serving the French (and Belgian and Luxembourgian) people.
Au revoir!
Elder Wood
Today is my first Preparation Day in the MTC. I'm surprised it came so soon after getting here, but I'm not complaining! For anyone who doesn't know, P-Day is the one day a week where missionaries get a small break from missionary stuff. It's when we do our laundry, go shopping, write home, and do anything else to prepare for the coming week. We also went to the Provo Temple this morning. It was amazing. I'm looking forward to going the next five weeks I'm here.
Backing up a bit, after I finished writing on Wednesday, the other people in my district showed up. There's six of us, four Elders and two Sisters, divided into companionships: me and my companion Elder Bunker, Elder Ellsworth and Elder Poulson, and Sister Peterson and Sister Andreason. We're all in the same class learning French together, and it's a lot of fun. All of us except Elder Ellsworth are going to the France Paris Mission, he's going to New Hampshire. It's also stressful though, we have to teach our first amie de l'Eglise (investigator (person interested in the Church)) tonight. It's only our third day here! I'm sure we'll do alright, but it's still nerve racking.
It's so spiritual here, you can feel the Spirit almost constantly. I've only been here for a few days, but I can already tell I'll be sad to leave. The MTC is so great and I love it here. But I know France will be great and I'm looking forward to serving the French (and Belgian and Luxembourgian) people.
Au revoir!
Elder Wood
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| Elder Poulson, Elder Ellsworth, Elder Wood, & Elder Bunker |
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| The elders in his district, backlit |
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| The view from the computer lab, Heritage Halls/BYU campus |
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
MTC Arrival
(From Aimee):
We took Michael to the airport this morning for his 6 AM flight to Salt Lake City. My sister picked him up at the airport, took him to lunch, and then dropped him off in Provo at the Missionary Training Center. He will be there for 6 weeks, after which he will head to France. We expect to get letters from him weekly, which will be posted here on the blog.
(From Elder Wood):
After a long one-hour flight, I finally got to Salt Lake where my aunt picked me up and brought me here to the Missionary Training Center. Things move fast here, and it's all set up like clockwork. Almost as soon as I got here I went to go get my nametag, dropped my stuff off in my room, and headed straight to my classroom. When I got there, an instructor started talking to me...in French of course! I think I got most of what he was telling me, mostly just to come and write home that I'm doing OK!
Well, time to go try and learn French in six weeks. Love you all! Wish me luck!
We took Michael to the airport this morning for his 6 AM flight to Salt Lake City. My sister picked him up at the airport, took him to lunch, and then dropped him off in Provo at the Missionary Training Center. He will be there for 6 weeks, after which he will head to France. We expect to get letters from him weekly, which will be posted here on the blog.
(From Elder Wood):
After a long one-hour flight, I finally got to Salt Lake where my aunt picked me up and brought me here to the Missionary Training Center. Things move fast here, and it's all set up like clockwork. Almost as soon as I got here I went to go get my nametag, dropped my stuff off in my room, and headed straight to my classroom. When I got there, an instructor started talking to me...in French of course! I think I got most of what he was telling me, mostly just to come and write home that I'm doing OK!
Well, time to go try and learn French in six weeks. Love you all! Wish me luck!
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| Arriving at the airport |
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| Last photo with the PDX carpet |
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| Arriving at the MTC |
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