Transfer Day

For those of you who know the procedures for missionaries in the field, you know that world-wide transfers are done every six weeks.  Hence, for missionaries learning a foreign language (except those learning Russian, but that another story), they are here for six weeks, after which they leave the MTC and travel to the mission, meet their mission president and his wife, receive a few hours of orientation, and then are assigned their new companion, and off they go to their firs area of labor.
On the last Sunday evening prior to their departure we have a "Talent Show" at the end of the day, allowing the missionaries to share with each other any particular talent or interest they may have.  These are always lots of fun and often quite amazing as we find our talents and skills some of the missionaries possess of which we had no idea.
Last night was no exception; in fact it was one of the best and most diverse Talent Shows we have had.  I took lots of pictures and videos which I cannot post, mostly because of how long it takes me to post them, but also because I would not want to put on a public site so much personal information about these wonderful missionaries.  However, below are a few pictures, and I've especially posted a video of President and Sister Sitterud singing their favorite song.  There's a really wonderful story about why this happens to be their favorite song, and for fear of getting some of the details wrong, I'll just say it was the song they sang, a lot, to an older woman Joan took care of while they were dating at BYU.  Sadly, this song was removed from the hymn book when it was revised in 1986 (I think that's the correct date).

Elder Nyland shares his "cheek" trick

Sister Samuelson from Draper shares her love of drawing - Madrid Temple

Amulek District - North Americans going to Barcelona, Malaga or Madrid

You might notice in the forgoing that the ratio of Sisters to Elders is quite unbalanced in the group.  We, for the first time in any really obvious way, had more Sisters than Elders, by more than 2-1.  I speculate that THAT may have been part of the reason why this was such a well-behaved and obedient group.

Sister Vasilachi from Romania, living in Italy, going to Rome mission.  Recited I Nephi 3:7 in 6 languages. An amazing young woman, convert to the Church.

At each Talent Show, President and Sister Sitterud sing their favorite song, which is always a highlight.  The hymn has 3 verses, but I only recorded one.  We will miss these wonderful leaders.  Many of you may know that President Sitterud was my old boss at Beneficial Financial for several years.  I've never met a kinder, more gentle, and loving person, and Sister Sitterud is just like him.
(PS: I'll add the video later today-technical difficulties)