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Well, we finally took a little downtime and went over to the Provo Temple across the street from the MTC.  Although the schedule says we have a couple of hours each night to ourselves, we simply did not have any time to do anything but study and get cleaned up from the day's activities.  However, since Thursday night was the last night at the MTC and we didn't have a lot to study for plus we had done most of the major stuff, or so we thought, we decided to take off for a short while and do a little more thought provoking activity.  That's if I could stay awake.  With the week's activities, it got harder every day.

The temple was beautiful, as usual.  Nice backdrop for this time of year.  With the warm temperatures the snow has melted off the mountains in the background.

On our way back to our apartment we stopped by the front of the temple for pictures.  

The temple looks even more beautiful in the late evening hours.

Tomorrow is our last day at the MTC.  We will finish up with classes in the afternoon then head back to Herriman, pack up the jalopy, then head to St. George Saturday morning.  We should be in our final mission area by late afternoon, just in time to shop for the weekend and prep for Sunday.  So looking forward to heading out!

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We arrived at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on Sunday, March 12th to get settled in and get ready to start our training week on Monday.

Here is the entryway to a week's worth of work for the beginning of our mission and training on how to be a great missionary.  Through these doors we got our name tags, ID cards and the stuff we needed to start an exciting week of training.

The new name tags!

Our room once we got the stuff dropped off.  Nicely appointed for a training center.  I've certainly stayed in worse over the years.

The other end of the room.  Had a nice shower that was big enough to have some room to shower in.

This is the building we were staying in, M2.  The Seniors have the 3rd floor to themselves with their own little gym with a couple of treadmills and ellipticals to play with, although, I was the only one I ever sawing using any of the equipment.  Had it all to my self every night.  Did have an ice machine, down the hallway, that actually worked.

This is the entry hall after we picked up our name tags and security badges.  The "Chow Hall" is on the right.  They feed about 1200 per meal.  Surprising enough, there were a lot of sisters there.  We were asked not to take any pictures in the eating areas.  No idea why.

Isn't that the biggest mailbox you have ever seen?  I guess they get an awful lot of letters mailed from there.

They had some unique artwork there that was just really outstanding.  It was almost everywhere.  

Another of my favorite pictures.

 

This has to be my favorite baptismal picture.  I mean, really, that has to be a dedicated Elder to have a baptism under those conditions.  I am in awe of this Elder!

 

From the far side of the parking lot is this Eastern view of the mountains and the Provo Temple across the street.  We are planning on attending one night if we can get some free time.

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We met with the Records Operation Center Temple (TROC) in downtown Salt Lake City at the Joseph Smith Building (the old Hotel Utah) so that they could get to know us a bit better.  They are the ones that oversee the whole ROC operations throughout the world.  They talked about their mission and goals for the ROCs and how they operate, a good intro into what happens at the ROCs.  We also met most of their staff.

This is Elder and Sister Karren, the ones that coordinate the whole operation from the TROC in Salt Lake, next to their cube.  Really nice people.  We were there about 2 hours.

 

A cube farm to be sure.

 

We then went down to lunch in the Nauvoo Cafe and brought back some memories from our last mission.

 

The building next to the Joseph Smith building is where the Apostles have the administration building.

 Later that night we went to visit our newest grandchild, Vyvian Sharleen Jean Seger, Jonathan and Angélic's new baby.

Proud Grandma!

More to come!

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Set apart this evening for our new adventure by Presidents Westin, Johnson and Gardner.

President Johnson, Jim/Arlene, President Westin, President Gardner.  A great stake presidency.  We love them all.  Tabbi, Nathan and the kids were there to witness the event and add some color to the background.

Everything we own is now packed in a 10x20 storage shed in Placerville.

Packing up the RAV4.  Yes, it was very full.  We learned from the first time what we really needed.

The snow pack on top of 50 was more than I have seen in a decade.  It was way taller than the RAV.

Looking over the Tahoe basin as we get ready to leave California once again.  More to follow in the next few days as we head to Herriman to stay with Marilyn Boekweg, visit our grandkids, and start training at the MTC in Provo. 

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Time to catch things up a bit...

We managed to get through the Christmas season without too much extra drama.

The Seger family and 2016 Christmas tree.  And Kevin...

At a Christmas party for the Turner's Grandpa's work (Quest Property Management), all the kids got to visit Santa and received special presents.  This is Hailye.

Garret gets his shot...

Allye and Santa...

Lastly, Avrye.  I took about a dozen shots of her and this was the only one I got that showed any kind of reaction from her.  Well, better than nothing.  Lots of good food and fun for the night.  The Seger kids did pretty well.

Christmas morning brings a lot of laughter and joy.  

Merry Christmas, Grandma!

"How do I get into this thing?"

This is kind of what everything looked like before everyone got up.  Before the storm was unleashed.

Later Christmas evening we all went down to the Turner's for a GrandKids Christmas.  

...kids everywhere...

Just to catch you up, we've been working on our papers for our next mission.  They were submitted and I received word today that they have been in the "to be assigned" status since January 12th.  So, they should be done with it any day now.  I will post the unveiling when we get it.

We are working in the Sacramento Temple on Saturday evenings and the Placerville Family History Center on Tuesday afternoons.  Both are keeping us busy.  We have a couple of medical issues that we are working through that should be resolved by the time we leave, hopefully.  'Course, that depends on when we leave.  I managed to screw up my shoulder during my last shutdown in Nauvoo and am still suffering from that.  Doesn't look like that will ever be resolved but one can always hope, right?  It does take a while to get all of our ducks in a row to fill out the paperwork and everything approved/completed.  I suppose someday they ought to offer classes on how to fill out the missionary paperwork.  But, it gets easier the more you do it...

So, more to come...

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Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  Hope you had a great day with your family and friends.  I know we had a crazy Seger Thanksgiving.

Michael and Henry.

Some of the kidlets..Garrett, Allye and Hailye (Nathan/Tabbi), Sophie (Michael/Nicole), and Elyse (Matt/Donae).  The house was packed so we had them eat outside just to keep the noise level a tad bit less than a just plane inside the house during the meal.

Nathan smoked the turkey, which is better than boiling it in oil.  No waste and there's no oil to dispose of afterwards.  Pretty tasty, too.  The turkey was deboned prior to smoking so it looked a little bit too relaxed.  But, it was very good.

Mike St. Claire, Donae's Father, was there and ws watching the games while most of use were talking and eating stuff.  I think he feels like most of the Seger's are pretty crazy and very loud.

Let the feeding begin.  Turkey, ham, nathan's secret scalloped potatoes and stuffing, gravy, and lots of other things.  Pumpkin cheese cake, caramel apple pie, cookies and lots of desserts.

Grandpa Sheldon Turner and Avrye getting ready for the meal.

Good thing we're not having corn on the cob, huh, Elyse?

Michael, Kate and Jeffrey.  Jeff and Kate just announced their engagement a couple of days ago with a planned wedding in May 2017 sometime.  Yeah.  We all like Kate.  Jeff has a real keeper on his hands.  Welcome to the family, Kate.

People everywhere.

After dinner we got to doing pictures.  Here are the brothers, all together, once again.

...and, of course, the picture with the old man!

So, what's the golden rule of photography?  Never take only one picture of an important picture?  I didn't take this and when I went to look at this, there was only one shot of the fam damly together...so...it is what it is.  Well, it's better than nothing!

So, in addition to all the family drama, Jon/Angéle did a "reveal" for the sex of their child that is due in February (I think).  Sorry this didn't come out so well, it's kind of difficult to focus on a video across a room on a TV...but, you will get the idea, I hope.

At any rate, to catch you up on stuff:

We have given our report to the HIgh Council on November 10th along with 4 other returned Elders.

We gave our mission report to the ward on November 13th along with Kevin.

We are almost finished with our mission paperwork for our next mission and only lack our physicals and then the submission.  We have been doing all of that pre-mission medical stuff that needs ot be done so we can submit the mission forms online.  It does take quite a while but we are now "experts" at doing it.  It's a bit easier this time around.  Hopefully, we will be able to do a Family History Mission somewhere and have a fun sort of mission with a little less work and pressure.

We will start work in the Family History Center in Placerville, CA this coming Tuesday afternoon and we are working in the Sacramento Temple on Saturday evenings from 4 till closing at 10 PM.

That is what is happening right now...probably no more reporting till Christmas is over.  Best wishes to all of you for the holidays.

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The last temple of our 2016 Temple Tour for this year.  We had originally planned to hit the Reno temple on our way through Utah and Nevada but it just was going to add too much time to our schedule so we headed home on our last leg instead.  Reno is about 3 hours from our house so we knew we could get there anytime we could squeeze it in.   However, when I looked at the temple schedule, I discovered it was closed for winter shutdown from the end of November until mid-December.  So, we had to do this last temple visit this week or we were going to need to wait until way into December.  that is probably not such a good idea given it's nearly Christmas time and all.  

Temples are about families.  About all we have at home anymore...

One last shot before we leave for home.  The south side of the Reno Temple.  Heading home from here.  Thanksgiving is only a couple of days away.