Hooks Report from Fort Wayne, Indiana

The Hooks, who want everyone to know they are safe and well in Fort Wayne, Indiana, started their 6^th MTC experience on the morning of Monday, August 11.  “We stayed in the new senior apartments but were not required to attend the ‘Preach My Gospel’ sessions because it had been less than two years since the last time we were at the MTC.  I think it was also because they felt if we hadn’t learned PMG lessons by now, there was a possibility we were too old and decrepit.”

Rather than fight commuter traffic driving to Salt Lake City every morning, the Hooks decided to ride the Front Runner train with MTC personnel dropping them and picking them up each day at the station in downtown Provo.  When arriving in SLC, they transferred to Trax, a city-wide electric rail system, which dropped them 1½ blocks from the Church’s high rise office building where classes, on the Nikon camera they would be using for the next year, were conducted for four days.

The evening before they were to depart for the mission field, they enjoyed dinner with two of their adult grandchildren, after which security personnel at the MTC allowed them through the gate to the drop off point where thousands of families have dropped their sons and daughters. 

“We stood there with our grandchildren hugging, crying and laughing.  How good it that?  Our grandkids dropped us off at the MTC!” notes Sister Hooks.

They traveled across the USA on Interstate 80 with hardly any hassle arriving at their14th floor  apartment at 1401 Three Rivers East, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46802 on August 19.  “Our apartment oversees the city of Fort Wayne and we are only 4 blocks from the Allen County Courthouse where we will be working throughout our mission.  The space allotted to our work is on the second floor in the records department.  Several long tables are in the center of the room and the records are brought up from the basement.  The rest of the Records Preservation missionaries who live in our apartment building are assigned to the library.”

The countryside is “lush and green because of more rain in the first few weeks than we see in St. George in a year.”

The Hooks do not currently have access to the internet but hope to have this communication tool soon.  In the meantime, they send their love.