Tuesday was a busy day for the MTC group, it was fly to Greece day !!
Nine weeks of general missionary and language training are now over and its time to go serve the people of Greece.
Our day started with an email at 4.02am
"Hi! It's so early!
We're on our way out now, just thought I'd send you a quick email to let you know we're leaving. I had a busy night of packing and managed to get just about under the weight limit with both suitcases!
I've been made Transport Leader, which means I need to make sure everyone arrives safely. It's a big responsibility, but hopefully everyone will pull together and make my job easy.
I'm not going to ring from the airport, I need to make sure everyone is where they should be and we wont have much time in the airport as it is. Sorry! I should be able to email from Greece when I get there.
Ahhhhhh!
Lots of love,
Elder Teal"
At 5.24am we had a text with photographs from Janet Fletcher a friend that lives 10 mins from us. The Fletcher's son has been home from the Athens Mission for a short time recovering from a shoulder injury. They were at the airport to put him on his return to mission flight,with the rest of the MTC group.
The 6.00am flight from Manchester to London was followed by one from London to Athens. We tracked these flights on an iPad !! So we know he got there safely !
At 14.26pm we got to see some tiny pictures of the group in a training meeting in Athens. Courtesy of a senior missionary Elder Howels via the Mission Families Facebook page.
At about 7.00pm we had a phone call from Elder Teal to tell us he was "Safe Happy and excited" Mum was out at church Dad was walking the dogs !! So Elder Teals big sister answered the phone. Dad sprinted home after a call from the girls piano teacher that was at our house and mum got to talk via a mobile held next to the hose phone.
He also told us that he had been assigned to serve in the City of Athens area for the next 12 weeks. Missionaries serve for "transfer periods", In Greece these periods are 12 weeks long.
For the first transfer period missionaries receive additional, in the field training from a seasoned companion they are assigned to serve with. Missionaries are always in pairs and will go everywhere together. This group from the MTC has effectively doubled the number serving in the Greece Athens Mission so all existing missionaries have been assigned to train a newbie. (New missionaries are refered to as "greenies")
Elder Teals trainer is ... Elder Fletcher ! See above !!
It seemed strange for us as parents to go to bed one night with a trainee missionary 40 minutes up the road at the Preston MTC. Then go to bed the next night, with a missionary out in Greece....
