On the first day of his training, Jonas rides alongside Fiona who will receive her training at the House of the Old. When he enters the Annex which is located behind the House of the Old, an Attendant greets him respectfully. Although doors in the community are never locked, Jonas notices that the door leading to the Receiver's room is. Noticing Jonas's discomfort, the Attendant politely reassures him that it is to give the Receiver privacy.
The Receiver's room is a well-furnished room, but some pieces of the furniture are different from those he is used to seeing. The chairs and the sofa as well as the table and the bed are slightly more ornate and luxurious. Along the walls are bookcases filled with books he never knew existed. Seated on a chair by the table is the pale-eyed, bearded Elder he had seen at the Ceremony. He is a tired looking man with wrinkles on his face. He explains that his job has wearied him, making him look older than he really is. Having failed to properly train a Receiver, he needs to devote his remaining energy to training Jonas. As a Twelve, he was selected just as Jonas had been at the Ceremony, and had come to this room to receive training.
He explains: "Simply stated, although it's not really simple at all, my job is to transmit to you all the memories I have within me. Memories of the past." Chapter 10, pg. 77 When Jonas does not fully understand, the man explains again that he will give Jonas memories of not his own childhood, but those of the "whole world" as far back as generations and generations before him from Elsewhere.
As a Receiver-in-training, he had been given all those memories from the Receiver before him. The heavy burden of these memories makes him tired and old. The man tries to explain his state of mind by comparing it to going downhill on a snow sled, but Jonas does not know what sled and snow are.
Saying that it is "a place to start," the man instructs Jonas to remove his tunic and lie face down on the bed. He then goes to the speakers and turns them off. Jonas is astonished that the speakers can be turned off. The man returns to the bed where Jonas is and sits on a chair by the bed. Telling Jonas to close his eyes and relax, he explains that he will give Jonas the memory of snow and places his hands on Jonas's back.
