Senior Means OLD!

We just completed day 3 of our missionary training and we are exhausted! We get up at 6:00am, eat breakfast at 7:30am, hit the classroom until lunch at 12:00pm, back to class at 1:30pm and finish by 4:30pm, dinner at 5:00pm and bed by 8:00pm! I know that sounds pretty cushey for most of you but for Elder and Sister Zollinger and 90% of the couples in the class, it's grueling...and we love it!

Not having done this before we were pretty green coming into it all. Some of the couples have served as many as two and three times before so they kind of knew the drill. It's all exciting and a little scary. It's not that we don't know the material, it's mostly that we need to begin to "teach the people" rather than "teach a lesson". There is a huge difference in concept.

We begin class time with instructions on how to teach the lesson/concept. Then we break into small groups. Dad is the "district leader" of our group. We love our group; the Wheeler's (called to the Ohio Akron Mission), the Pattee's (San Salvador Belize Mission), the Howell's (Africa Congo Mission) and the Weber's (Samoa Mission). We have two trainers (Brother Sillitoe and Brother Johnson), returned missionaries, who lead our small group class everyday. We've really grown to love our group and parting will be sad, but we'll all be prepared to do what we've been training to do.

I'll have to make time on our prep day to write more because evenings are meant to study. Leaving family in the care of others is difficult but Trevor's on the mend and we have to continue in the faith that the ward is taking care of him and his family. We love what we're doing and feel that the time is right in spite of the challenges. We definitely have much to write home about!

Much love,
Elder and Sister Zollinger