Dave & Sharon Barrus Mission

The second week of our training, we stayed at home. Dave had training on the mission financial software  and procedures via Zoom while I had medical training at the Residence Inn in downtown Salt Lake. There were 8 mission health advisors (mission nurses), an area medical advisor going to Africa, and an area mental health advisor going to Chile. The MHAs were going to Malaysia, Hawaii, Florida, Samoa, Texas, Alabama, Chile and Brazil.  Our classes were taught by medical professionals on various topics--dermatology, gastroenterology, orthopedics, mental health, etc. We also had classes from the senior missionaries who work at missionary health as well as the ones who work with the companies that provide health insurance for the missionaries. It was a lot to take in, but they shared their PowerPoint presentations with us to refer to later. We really enjoyed getting to know each other. My favorite quote from the training was: "Come, let US go down that WE may labor together." Ja...

 I'm going back to the beginning of our mission to catch up. I'm only 5 weeks behind! We entered the MTC on March 4. It was different than any other time we've gone to the MTC to drop someone off for their mission. We just drove our car straight in through the gates after they checked us in to a parking lot. A young missionary met us at our car, told us what we needed to bring for the day, then escorted us to the very room we needed to go to. (I guess some of the senior couples were getting lost???)  I remember my dad always used to say that he felt like he needed to show his temple recommend each time he entered the MTC. There really is an amazing spirit there--it is after all a temple of learning.  We met with the other senior missionaries entering that day. First we went through a big room with tables set up to help seniors with various tasks--international travel, meal information, housing information (we stayed at the Marriott SpringHill Inn and Suites about 2 miles ...