Manning camp out at Lost Creek (Uintah Mountains)

When we finished our first week at the MTC, we drove up into the Uintahs where Sister Waldron's siblings were camped for a family reunion of sorts.  This is their annual camp out but it was also the anniversary of their Mother's passing, not to mention Sister Waldron's birthday.  They had invited us to come up if we could so we joined them Friday night.  We enjoyed a dutch oven dinner after which we made smores with roasted marshmallows, Hershey's chocolate, and graham crackers around the campfire.  We bunked in Jerry's trailer with him, Cheri and Makayla.  It got down below 50 that night and we were glad for the generous blankets on our bunk.

This is Jerry's trailer parked at the Lost Creek Campground.  It is a nice fifth wheel and very comfortable.  Notice our van parked in front.  It sold the next day.

I took this because it seemed like a fun little garden just right for the front of the trailer.  It was covered with wild flowers blooming furiously.  Bluebells, paintbrush, asters, daisies, elephant head; all the fun stuff you can think of was right there.

While Sister Waldron and I were out on the lake in the canoe, Jerry fired up the grill and prepared a pancake breakfast to die for.  Sausage, eggs, pancakes with jam, applesauce and whipped cream toppings and cantaloupe.  We ate until we couldn't anymore. 

Here we are under a breakfast fly with a gingham table cloth on the picnic table--all the comforts of home.  Around the table clockwise are Sister Waldron, Uncle Roy, Uncle Jerry, Makayla, and Aunt Cheri.

We drafted a neighbor from the camp next door to take a family picture as we sat on the picnic table in front of Uncle Gary's trailer.  From left are myself and Sister Waldron, Jerry and Cherie, Roy and Jenny, Gary and Yvonne, and on the end Gary's Jared and Jerry's Makayla.

While we were up there walking the trail, we ran into a young lady who saw our missionary badges and told here little girl to ask us where we were going.  She was shy but we told them that we were in the MTC even now and leaving for the Marshall Islands next week.  She said her parents were in the MTC now, too, and asked if we knew them.  I'll say!!  We had lunch with them yesterday!!  Elder and Sister Larsen were going to the Dakotas somewhere as office support for the mission.  She asked us to say hello from their daughter, Heather, next week when we see them.  They will be another week, as will we, for their mission specific training.  The world just ain't big enough!!

Elder and Sister Waldron at the MTC

We have just finished our first week of training at the MTC in Provo.  We joined about 25 other couples in the church just north of the MTC for five days of training in Preach My Gospel.  This was a wonderful experience including devotionals, classroom training from returned missionaries (BYU students), and role play activities with volunteers from the community.  It was fun to see the willing faces of the seniors as well as the army of young missionaries who come through the gates for their training.  Some come for a week, some, like us, for two and others for longer (language training).  In that mass of missionaries, we managed to find Elder Braden Manning, our nephew, at the Tuesday night devotional.  It was fun to see him and know we are sharing the same training and spirit while at the MTC.  We had some fun, sweet experiences while there and hope we are, at least a little, better prepared to serve the Lord as missionaries on Tarawa.

 This is the big world map at the MTC.  All the missionaries usually wind up here taking a picture pointing to their mission destination.

This is the entrance to the MTC.  They have some of the countries' flags flying beside the front doors.

From left to right:  Sister and Elder Saunderson, Sister Pace (Teacher), Sister and Elder Bell, Sister and Elder Nielson, and Sister and Elder Waldron

This is half of the senior couples in our group.  There was another picture but I can't get it to load--we aren't in it anyway...

It does show, however that there were about 27 couples and three single sisters in the group.

Marshall Islands, Majuro Mission