Today was our second day of training at the Provo (Utah) Temple.  The focus (or motto, or mantra, or whatever) is "How can we make the temple experience as uplifting and beautiful for the patrons as possible?"    (Patrons are those persons who come to attend the meetings at the temple.)  In South America and other parts of the world where there are not as many temples as in the United States, coming to worship at the temple may mean an all-night bus ride and a significant sacrifice of work-time and income.  Our goal is to help the patrons feel that every ounce of sacrifice was worth it because their experience at the temple was so spiritual, uplifting and strengthening.

We have fourteen couples in our training group.  We all started at the Missionary Training Center on March 4th and had one week of proselyting training (even though it's highly unlikely any of us will be doing any proselyting.)  Today we gathered after our training session and snagged a friendly passer-by to take our picture.  Here it is:

Sorry I can't make it bigger, but hopefully if you click on it, you will be able to.  Front row, L/R:  Elder and Sister Dominguez, going to the Mexico City Temple; Elder and Sister Bassett (age 80!), going to the Tegucigalpa, Honduras Temple; Elder and Sister Wade, London England Temple; Farron and I; Elder and Sister Gray, Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple.  Second row, L/R:  Elder and Sister Day, going to the Tampico Mexico Temple; Elder and Sister Jackson, Palmyra New York Temple; Elder and Sister (Garth and Jean) Morgan (whom we knew for 18 years in the La Verne Stake), going to the Boston Massachusetts Temple; Elder and Sister Crowley, Apia Samoa Temple; Elder and Sister Yorgesen,  Johannesburg South Africa Temple; Elder and Sister McEwan, Washington D.C. Temple; and on the very back row, Elder and Sister Barrus, going to the Papeete Tahiti Temple.    The picture below is just so you can see the Provo Temple itself, behind us.

We are having a lovely time this week, spending most of each day in the House of the Lord.  It is a beautiful, peaceful, uplifting place to be.  We are going to LOVE our mission!!