Nonnegotiable

[Scott Lloyd]

5 minutes ago, bluebell said:

I hope your SIL gets better quickly.  That would be heartbreaking to miss a trip getting sick again.  Just so you are aware, the temple has changed a lot of their presentation so that there is very very little close contact.

And hand sanitizing is mandatory for ordinance workers and encouraged among patrons. 

[bluebell]

Just now, Scott Lloyd said:

And hand sanitizing is mandatory for ordinance workers and encouraged among patrons. 

We were in the Bountiful temple a few weeks ago when my oldest son was endowed, and I noticed that the witness couple was provided, and used, hand sanitizer every time they sat back down after having any contact with the ordinance worker leading the session.  

[rongo]

2 minutes ago, bluebell said:

We were in the Bountiful temple a few weeks ago when my oldest son was endowed, and I noticed that the witness couple was provided, and used, hand sanitizer every time they sat back down after having any contact with the ordinance worker leading the session.  

Did your son get a mission call?

[bluebell]

1 hour ago, rongo said:

Did your son get a mission call?

He did.  Nashville Tennessee mission, spanish speaking.  He starts home mtc Feb. 21st and then goes to the Mexico MTC a week and a half or so after that.  Then to Nashville in the beginning of April.

[Scott Lloyd]

1 hour ago, bluebell said:

We were in the Bountiful temple a few weeks ago when my oldest son was endowed, and I noticed that the witness couple was provided, and used, hand sanitizer every time they sat back down after having any contact with the ordinance worker leading the session.  

That’s consistent with instructions given to the witness couple in our temple, and they are told not to pass the bottle of sanitizer around. Also, there is a sanitizer dispenser available  when one approaches the veil. 

[rongo]

45 minutes ago, bluebell said:

He did.  Nashville Tennessee mission, spanish speaking.  He starts home mtc Feb. 21st and then goes to the Mexico MTC a week and a half or so after that.  Then to Nashville in the beginning of April.

Exciting! Our daughter starts home MTC tomorrow, and then goes to England for the other four weeks. 

She will make it 2 for 2 with a counselor setting her apart (2 different stake presidencies; our son was also set apart by a counselor). Despite my thought that it has to be the stake president, and the handbook (I can't find any permission to delegate it in the handbook), it seems that many feel free to "delegate until they breathe for you" (Elder Anderson) with missionary setting aparts. 

It will be interesting to see how all day zoom goes (with who knows how much companion study over zoom). I'm glad that cup passed from people our age!

[Scott Lloyd]

1 minute ago, rongo said:

Exciting! Our daughter starts home MTC tomorrow, and then goes to England for the other four weeks. 

She will make it 2 for 2 with a counselor setting her apart (2 different stake presidencies; our son was also set apart by a counselor). Despite my thought that it has to be the stake president, and the handbook (I can't find any permission to delegate it in the handbook), it seems that many feel free to "delegate until they breathe for you" (Elder Anderson) with missionary setting aparts. 

It will be interesting to see how all day zoom goes (with who knows how much companion study over zoom). I'm glad that cup passed from people our age!

Apparently there is a lot of leeway with home MTC — more than I would have expected. 
 

Make sure your home Wi-Fi is solid for the Zoom connection. Things can interfere with it that I would not have anticipated — like microwave ovens and household Wi-Fi use. 

[bluebell]

12 minutes ago, rongo said:

Exciting! Our daughter starts home MTC tomorrow, and then goes to England for the other four weeks. 

She will make it 2 for 2 with a counselor setting her apart (2 different stake presidencies; our son was also set apart by a counselor). Despite my thought that it has to be the stake president, and the handbook (I can't find any permission to delegate it in the handbook), it seems that many feel free to "delegate until they breathe for you" (Elder Anderson) with missionary setting aparts. 

It will be interesting to see how all day zoom goes (with who knows how much companion study over zoom). I'm glad that cup passed from people our age!

My son had to report to the high council this morning, which I had never heard of before.  I know they report after they return but had never heard of any reporting before they left or were set apart.  He's also already started zoom MTC language classes a few times a week.  

A lot has changed.

[rongo]

8 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Apparently there is a lot of leeway with home MTC — more than I would have expected. 
 

Make sure your home Wi-Fi is solid for the Zoom connection. Things can interfere with it that I would not have anticipated — like microwave ovens and household Wi-Fi use. 

Track season has started,so she will be by herself the while day, and sometimes until 9:00 at night. Her teachers are in England, so classes are 7:00 to 2:00 our time, then presumably companion study, personal study, etc. She will go with our local sisters a lot (and probably welcome the chance). 

We have good internet. I've never had Zoom issues with a national org I'm state president of. 

I know the Church has extolled the virtues of home MTC ("we've learned a lot during the last two years, and we're keeping what worked well for a hybrid"), but I hope the experiment gets ditched. I think that personal interaction is always better than hours of zoom.

[Tacenda]

1 hour ago, bluebell said:

He did.  Nashville Tennessee mission, spanish speaking.  He starts home mtc Feb. 21st and then goes to the Mexico MTC a week and a half or so after that.  Then to Nashville in the beginning of April.

Congrats bluebell! 

[rongo]

2 minutes ago, bluebell said:

My son had to report to the high council this morning, which I had never heard of before.  I know they report after they return but had never heard of any reporting before they left or were set apart.  He's also already started zoom MTC language classes a few times a week.  

A lot has changed.

Reporting to the high council before you've even started is weird. What are you reporting on? Goals and expectations?

My daughter's group is already pretty advanced. She's had three semesters of college German, and one of the girls is the daughter of the previous president in the same mission (she lived there for three years). They didn't even offer the pre-lessons (which, I think, are often from missionaries in the field to give them something to do).

[bluebell]

3 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

Congrats bluebell! 

We are excited for him.   

[rongo]

6 minutes ago, bluebell said:

A lot has changed.

They also just use a pamphlet of phrases ("The Core"), but not the books written by missionaries, or the textbooks they used to, apparently. 

We'll see how it goes. I'm going to be fascinated as a language teacher myself with my daughter right there.

[Scott Lloyd]

9 hours ago, rongo said:

Track season has started,so she will be by herself the while day, and sometimes until 9:00 at night. Her teachers are in England, so classes are 7:00 to 2:00 our time, then presumably companion study, personal study, etc. She will go with our local sisters a lot (and probably welcome the chance). 

We have good internet. I've never had Zoom issues with a national org I'm state president of. 

I know the Church has extolled the virtues of home MTC ("we've learned a lot during the last two years, and we're keeping what worked well for a hybrid"), but I hope the experiment gets ditched. I think that personal interaction is always better than hours of zoom.

You’d better check into whether she can be at home alone all day. I think the rules say there has to be somebody in the home at all times to be her “companion”. I think she can be alone in her room with the computer, just not by herself in the house. 
 

Also, I don’t think she can go out by herself. 
 

Regarding ditching the experiment, I think it was always intended that this be provisional, just long enough to see us through the pandemic. 

Edited February 7, 2022 by Scott Lloyd

[Scott Lloyd]

20 minutes ago, bluebell said:

My son had to report to the high council this morning, which I had never heard of before.  I know they report after they return but had never heard of any reporting before they left or were set apart.  He's also already started zoom MTC language classes a few times a week.  

A lot has changed.

My son concluded virtual MTC and went to Argentina without having to report to the high council. And that was as recently as November. 
 

I wonder if reporting to the high council is a locally based practice. 

[rongo]

13 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

You’d better check into whether she she can be at home alone all day. I think the rules say there has to be somebody in the home at all times to be her “companion”. I think she can be alone in her room with the computer, just not by herself in the house. 
 

Also, I don’t think she can go out by herself. 
 

Regarding ditching the experiment, I think it was always intended that this be provisional, just long enough to see us through the pandemic. 

We knew about needing a companion to drive or go somewhere,but our understanding is that she's okay at home by herself. Her "companions" are all virtual. 

From what the Church has said, I don't think the plan is for the experiment to be provisional, just during Covid conditions. It's been pitched as applying what has "worked well" during Covid conditions as part of a new hybrid MTC. 

I hope you're correct, though . . .

[bluebell]

47 minutes ago, rongo said:

Track season has started,so she will be by herself the while day, and sometimes until 9:00 at night. Her teachers are in England, so classes are 7:00 to 2:00 our time, then presumably companion study, personal study, etc. She will go with our local sisters a lot (and probably welcome the chance). 

We have good internet. I've never had Zoom issues with a national org I'm state president of. 

I know the Church has extolled the virtues of home MTC ("we've learned a lot during the last two years, and we're keeping what worked well for a hybrid"), but I hope the experiment gets ditched. I think that personal interaction is always better than hours of zoom.

I don't think they'll lose those first couple of weeks at home even when covid is a thing of the past.  From what I'm hearing, the success rate with it, rather than going to the MTC from day one, is huge.  Missionaries are adjusting much better.

[bluebell]

45 minutes ago, rongo said:

Reporting to the high council before you've even started is weird. What are you reporting on? Goals and expectations?

My daughter's group is already pretty advanced. She's had three semesters of college German, and one of the girls is the daughter of the previous president in the same mission (she lived there for three years). They didn't even offer the pre-lessons (which, I think, are often from missionaries in the field to give them something to do).

His lessons are from an instructor at the MTC in Mexico.

At the high council meeting they had him stand, say his name, where he is going, when he starts, what made him want to serve a mission, and then bear his testimony.  Then they opened it up for questions.  Most of which centered on whether or not the youth activities from previous years helped at all with his testimony and desire to serve, and why.

[bluebell]

30 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

My son concluded virtual MTC and went to Argentina without having to report to the high council. And that was as recently as November. 
 

I wonder if reporting to the high council is a locally based practice. 

It probably is.

[bluebell]

24 minutes ago, rongo said:

We knew about needing a companion to drive or go somewhere,but our understanding is that she's okay at home by herself. Her "companions" are all virtual. 

From what the Church has said, I don't think the plan is for the experiment to be provisional, just during Covid conditions. It's been pitched as applying what has "worked well" during Covid conditions as part of a new hybrid MTC. 

I hope you're correct, though . . .

If it actually has worked really well and is helping the majority of the missionaries, then why would you hope it stops?

[Scott Lloyd]

26 minutes ago, rongo said:

We knew about needing a companion to drive or go somewhere,but our understanding is that she's okay at home by herself. Her "companions" are all virtual. 

That made me curious, so I boned up on the written instructions sent to us on the occasion of our son’s call. Apparently it’s a “best practice” sort of thing. Here’s what it says:

“Missionaries should do their best not to be alone. Having a companion helps to keep missionaries safe spiritually and physically. In most cases, a companion will be a family member. Family circumstances may require that missionaries be alone in their training room or in their home during scheduled training activities, but it is especially important that they have a companion whenever they leave home.”
 

Edited February 6, 2022 by Scott Lloyd

[The Nehor]

8 minutes ago, bluebell said:

His lessons are from an instructor at the MTC in Mexico.

At the high council meeting they had him stand, say his name, where he is going, when he starts, what made him want to serve a mission, and then bear his testimony.  Then they opened it up for questions.  Most of which centered on whether or not the youth activities from previous years helped at all with his testimony and desire to serve, and why.

Sounds awful. I didn’t enjoy reporting to the High Council. They asked questions about what happened on my mission and I could tell they were mostly basing their questions on whether the mission was following President Hinckley’s new directions. It was pretty pointless. If the mission wasn’t what were they going to do about it? I was also mentally dead that day and I think I convinced them I was a moron. Turned out to be a blessing. None of them wanted to haul me around to different wards to talk about my mission on their speaking assignments which used to happen a lot back then.

[rongo]

2 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

That made me curious, so I boned up on the written instructions sent to us on the occasion of our son’s call. Apparently it’s a “best practice” sort of thing. Here’s what it says:

“Missionaries should do their best not to be alone. Having a companion helps to keep missionaries safe spiritually and physically. In most cases, a companion will be a family member. Family circumstances may require that missionaries be alone in their training room or in their home during scheduled training activities, but it is especially important that they have a companion whenever they leave home.”
 

Yeah, that's pretty much what I've found (your statement made me curious). 

Her driving days are over, unless she visits people with the sisters(they're excited to have someone who might be able to later during the day).  Her mission doesn't have many cars.

[bluebell]

4 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

Sounds awful. I didn’t enjoy reporting to the High Council. They asked questions about what happened on my mission and I could tell they were mostly basing their questions on whether the mission was following President Hinckley’s new directions. It was pretty pointless. If the mission wasn’t what were they going to do about it? I was also mentally dead that day and I think I convinced them I was a moron. Turned out to be a blessing. None of them wanted to haul me around to different wards to talk about my mission on their speaking assignments which used to happen a lot back then.

It was actually really nice.  Afterwards all the men came over individually to shake our hands and wish him well.  We have a really great stake.  I'm sorry your experience after your mission wasn't great.  I was supposed to report to the high council after mine but somehow I fell through the cracks and never had to.  I was not sad about that.

[bluebell]

10 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

That made me curious, so I boned up on the written instructions sent to us on the occasion of our son’s call. Apparently it’s a “best practice” sort of thing. Here’s what it says:

“Missionaries should do their best not to be alone. Having a companion helps to keep missionaries safe spiritually and physically. In most cases, a companion will be a family member. Family circumstances may require that missionaries be alone in their training room or in their home during scheduled training activities, but it is especially important that they have a companion whenever they leave home.”
 

I was wondering about that and not looking forward to being stuck at home all day long or having to drag my son out with me on errands.  Good to know the instructions.