This week we ended our MTC training. It was pretty intense, and we didn't have much time for anything except rushing to the cafeteria (always an adventure), sitting in class, or attending devotionals. Unaccustomed as we are to being in a classroom, we were pretty tired by the end of the week. Fortunately my sister Susan and her husband Blair live not too far from the MTC campus. They kindly picked us up and brought us to their home for the weekends, which we mostly spent doing laundry, eating normal food, and taking naps, along with taking long walks along the paths under the trees, and catching up on each others' lives.
Elder Rooks on one of our walks through the neighborhood
The Māori Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ displayed in the main hall of the MTC. The alphabet of Te Reo Māori ("the Polynesian language of Māori") has 15 letters: A, E, H, I, K, M, N, O, P, R, T, U, W, NG, and WH, so the letter B is pronounced using a P. The macron (horizontal line) across certain vowels gives emphasize or length of pronunciation to that vowel. Using a double vowel is the equivalent of a macron. The only consonant clusters are WH, pronounced as an F, and NG, which has a soft pronunciation; all consonants alternate with vowels, and all words end with a vowel. The word "scriptures" is "karaipiture." Jesus Christ is "Ihu Karaiti."
More flowers on the MTC campus
In one of the halls of the main administration building are pictures of all the current mission leaders. Our former stake president Dr. Brad Barlow, an emergency room physician, and his wife Angie, are now mission leaders in Resistencia, Argentina, for three years.
Skylights to the T3 building basement
We saw this lady who was so familiar. Sister Michelle Ray was an ordinance worker in the Meridian, Idaho, LDS Temple, at the same time we were, and she recognized us, too. She and her husband will be going to the Philippines. I thought she was much shorter than I am, but as you can see I was wrong.
An amazing 12.5' x 27' painting called "The Last Judgment" took up the entire wall in one of our classrooms. Formerly hung in the Washington, D.C., temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it depicts Jesus Christ at the Second Coming and what joy or pain all who have lived may feel at that event. Seventh-Day Adventist artist John Scott painted himself and his wife on both sides of the canvas.
Mural inside one of the buildings: Matthew 28:19, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
Next week, I will be writing the blog and posting pictures from Hamilton, New Zealand.
