What is fun?

Ilene and Norie Palmer, our tutor.

Being at the MTC is, plain and simple, fun.

It's beautiful here in Utah, with the mountains and the lake. Saturday on our preparation day Lee and I started our day with serving in the temple, and later walked in the brisk cold to the art museum on campus and spent about an hour. Nice!

I mentioned the food in my last blog. On Friday evening, they served pizza. Lee and I walked past the head chef as we were leaving the cafeteria and I told him we had been wondering how many pizza's they had made for 2100 or so people. He said that on Fridays they give the cooks a little break and order pizza from 6 different Papa Johns in the valley. Each Papa Johns brings 100 pizzas to the MTC. We were a little surprised it was only 600. We often saw the young missionaries walking away from the line with 4-6 large pieces stacked on their plates. Wouldn't it be fun to be responsible for 6300 meals a day? Not.

For some of our meetings in the LDS Church, we all meet together for a hymn, prayer, and announcements, and then separate into various classes. For some reason, that short time together at the first is called, "opening exercises." I've heard that all my life and never wondered why it was called that.

The Church is growing throughout the world, and people have to learn how to do it the same way everywhere. Sometimes when they are new, they haven't learned all the details. For instance, a while back in Brazil, a senior missionary went to visit a new group of women who were meeting together for Relief Society, the women's meeting. The president there suggested before the meeting began that there wasn't enough room for opening exercises. The missionary said she thought there were plenty of chairs. "Oh," said the president, "but we are doing side straddle hops for opening exercises today, and we need more room."

On our way to Provo Temple, Saturday morning.