This Has Been Kind of a BiG Deal

    Well, this is it!  This is what we have been working on for the last month and a half!  We were asked to develop a training plan for all departing missionaries- missionaries who will be returning home to enter the unknown world of RM's.  We received a booklet from a couple working on the same project in the England mission, but it only had part of what we wanted to include and the outline was different than we had in mind.  So, with that as a base, finding information online and in other church publications and with the help of Antonio Paulo, we created a 42 page booklet to give each departing missionary.  We use it as a discussion guide for our 3 hour seminar.  It is made to be a workbook with the idea of helping these missionaries remain focused on moving forward in their lives both spiritually and temporally.  We have spent a great deal of our time up until now preparing it. It has been a labor of love and a fun project for Elder Anderton and I to work on together. 

Since this copy, we have refined and revised this book several times.  I am sure there are still things we might find that need  changing.
 Hopefully we will also improve the presentation every time we give it. Last Monday was our first class.

We will be teaching this class twice every 6 weeks...covering both missions.  The Porto mission is about 4 hours away by car.  It is always so awesome to spend time with these bright, young enthusiastic missionaries- it's a huge blessing for us!

This is our first group of guinea pigs (returning missionaries.)  Of course we had food there because everything is better with food, right!?!  But, it seemed to go well and they seemed to enjoy it.  The mission president is concerned about the number of missionaries that get home and don't know what to do next...some seem to get lost in a fog both spiritually and in setting goals for their future as far as education, career and marriage are concerned.  That is the purpose of this course and then hopefully their Stake Presidents will follow up from here.