Talent Night at the MTC

We have two groups of missionaries who come to the Madrid MTC: 

1.  Those who know their mission language and are only here for 2 weeks orientation and instruction from Preach My Gospel, the basic missionary handbook, and, 

2.  Those who are here to also learn a language.  They are here for 6 weeks.

Up until now the only 6-week missionaries have been those learning Spanish 

and who are called to one of the three Spain missions, Barcelona, Malaga or Madrid.

2-week missionaries come from Russia, Ukraine, Cabo Verde, Brazil, Italy, France, Madagascar and Portugal.  

We have teachers here who speak Russian, French, Portuguese and Italian who teach the 2-week missionaries.  

Vivienne usually gives these groups lots of immunization shots because they have not received them all in the native countries.  

Most of the North American missionaries are fully vaccinated, but not always.

At the end of the 6-weeks on the last Sunday evening we have a "Share Your Talent" time 

which is always one of the highlights of their time here.  

Following are some shots of our last group, which left 2 1/2 weeks ago.  

It was the first "big" group to go through since the change in age for young missionaries, so I had to pick only a few of the many pictures to put on the blog.

Sister Wirthlin, an incredibly gifted flautist, with some 200 compositions to her name.  

Could play in any orchestra in the country.

 Hermanas Noakes and Christian performing pushups.  They both did 50, as I recall.  It's incorrect to say the were "buff" but they were certainly fit.

 Elder Dansie, a yo-yo enthusiast and great entertainer.

 Hermana Bracken brought her violin on her mission and played for us several times.

 Hermana Israelson brought the house down with this "Dear John" song.  

It was the highlight of the night for me.

 Elder Smith memorized the story of the First Vision in Spanish while juggling, 

which he demonstrated for all of us.

 Hermana Peterson, a talented dancer, displayed an unusual skill: 

unwrapping a Starburst candy in her mouth using only her tongue in less than 20 seconds.

 Hermana Israelson & Hansen competing: 

who could move a cookie from their foreheard to their mouth without using their hands.  

Pretty funny to watch.

 President Jackson, who along with Sister Jackson spoke to all the missionaries that evening, brought his accordion and favored us with "Lady of Spain".

And, of course, Nana and Bubba: "When Skies Are Grey"......Nana was "in a zone" that night.