Training....

We got into Provo about 1:00 p.m. today.  We checked into the MTC and got our badges!  They are housing the Senior Couples at the Marriott.  So we have a really nice room.  We will drive back and forth to the MTC.  We got all unpacked, and went to dinner at the MTC.  We went to the fireside tonight.  It was really good about how to judge success on your mission.  Success is a gift from Heavenly Father.  We should think that we deserve it or that we merit it.  We have to totally desire to serve the Lord and let things happen according the the will of the Lord, and be thankful to observe the miracles.

We got here at a good time because about 3 hours after we got here the snow came.  We were blessed to have left early, and not have to drive from Idaho to here during this storm.   So many miracles.  Coming back from Corona to St. George yesterday, we stopped at an outlet mall and got some shirts for Creig.  That little bit of time we spent there put us behind quite a big rainstorm that went through the canyons we had to pass through.

The visit with my Aunt Kathryn was really, really great.  We sat and talked about family history and she showed me some pictures that she had from the Godsey and Kelley families.  Some I had never seen before.  She said she would copy them for me and send them to me.  Then she showed me her mother's Bible.  It is so very old.  It was such an honor just to touch it and know that my grandmother had held it in her hands and turned the pages.  Then Aunt Kathryn gave me that Bible!  Oh Golly, what a gift!  Oh Wow!  I am so truly blessed!

We went to where I lived when I went to high school there in Corona.  I did remember that we lived on Penrose Drive.  Of course the apartments are all run down now, but I was able to remember which one we lived in.  They were new when we lived there.  We drove by Corona High School where I graduated.  It is so very different now...so built up and big.  It was nice to go and see where so many memories were made.  Of course Corona itself is so big and grown up that I couldn't even recognize it.  All the orange groves are gone now and built into houses and businesses.

On the morning we left, I gave Aunt Kathryn a Book of Mormon and talked to here about the book.  She listened nicely.  I guess I had sent one years ago (I had forgotten), but maybe she will read a little of it now.  I was very, very nervous to do that.  But I did bear my testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and how good the Lord has been to his people everywhere.

We will get our schedule tomorrow and find our how our days will go....It is just so wonderful!

On the Road...

We didn't make it to Aunt Kathryn's today.  We even gained an hour, but couldn't make it.  We stopped in Vegas to see my brother Bill.  It was just so wonderful to see him.  He is doing really well for a 70 year old.  He is still playing baseball with his league that he plays with, but he has to move up this spring to the 70 year olds.   He had all his really old movies put on a DVD.  We sat and watch some.  He had some of me and my sister when we were visiting him in Roswell, New Mexico.  It is hard to remember myself that young...I must have been about 13 or 14.  Mom had put us on a bus to Roswell and we stayed about a week and rode back with Bill and his family.  Then there were some of us at the beach and at the Old Knott's Berry Farm when all it was was a farm.  So funny.  We then went and had a buffet at a casino .  It was a real nice buffet.  We sat and talked about growing up.  We really grew up poorer than dirt...moving all the time.  Anyway some memories.  We stayed way to long visiting, but it was so worth it! 

We only traveled to Barstow, CA and it was getting dark and there was over 90 miles to go.  So we followed the counsel we got to not drive after dark, and found a hotel.  We are tired and so it was a good choice.  We will get up early and go in to Corona, CA.  We also had some experiences in staying within sight of each other.  One time when we were trying to find Bill's place, Creig went around the car to the back door and I couldn't see him...wow, I panicked.  So we must keep reminding ourselves to stay close.  Pres. Jacobsen told us to remain close to each other and not loose sight of one another.

well, time for bed...

On The Road...

St. George, Utah....Well....we are missionaries for our Lord, Jesus Christ!  We packed everything up yesterday, and got it all fit into the car.  We then had a wonderful dinner with all our family at Chuck-a-Rama.  It was so fun!  It was Chinese night, and everyone was trying to eat with chopsticks!  They were eating everything, even ice cubes! 

Then we went to the Stake building.  President Jacobsen set Creig and I apart for our mission. Oh, what beautiful blessings!  I don't know how to put into words the feeling in the room.  How do you put into words when the Spirit is so strong?  I could feel the calling settling into my soul.  It was all that I had thought in my mind about becoming a full-time missionary would be. The thought of my Savior has been constantly on my mind.  He is always on my mind.  I have watched the full-time missionaries, and see in their eyes the Lord...the complete desire to serve.  That is how I feel. 

We then said our good-bys to our precious family.  How do you say good-bye for two years?  My grandkids wrote me such sweet notes.  I am going to scan them into my journal for keeps.  The girls just kept hugging me over and over again.  The hugs were so warm to my soul.  I just couldn't get enough hugs.  But then all too soon it came to an end.  They went home.  Then it was just Elder Nelson and myself.

We woke up early...about 5:00 a.m....waited until 5:30 and got up and got ready to hit the road.  We were off by 8:30.  The trip was good today.  We stopped in SLC and got our cell phone connected to our car.  Now we just use hands free calling.  Really uptown, huh?? 

It seems weird that all we own now is in our car.  Our life, all in the car.  But it seems so right and so blessed.  And of course each other.  We were told to stay within sight of each other at all times.  So it has been today.  Such a wonderful companion!

Well, tomorrow we will see my brother Bill in Vegas.  He is taking us out to a buffet.  Then on down to my Aunt Kathryn's place.  Now to bed for a good sleep.  I was blessed to be able to sleep, which is something I have had trouble with lately.

PS...

We have been told that we will be working on the Homestead Act records.  Isn't that exciting!  Here is a link to the video that she sent us:

Down to the wire preparing....

Things are moving along with our preparation for our mission.  Only 7 days till we take off.  It is totally unbelievable.  The Sister missionaries that are here in our ward so just so wonderful.  They kept asking me..Please let us do some service for you.  So last week after we had pretty much finished cleaning out our kitchen cupboards and packing and giving away food, I had to swallow some pride and let the missionaries come and help me clean my cupboards and cabinets.  I went to get them, and let me tell you how much they worked.  Now, you know that cabinets and such can collect a lot of greasy dust, not to mention the tops of the cabinets!  My word!  I was embarrassed until I realized that I am mortal and not a perfect housekeeper and that is OK.  The 3 of us worked for over 3 hours.  Can you image the blessing I felt by their service to me?  It saved me so very much time!  Plus they were able to take home a lot of groceries which helps them.  The next day I conquered the refridgarator!  That is one of my top jobs jobs in the world that I hate to do!  I took me most of the day, but I washed every square inch of that fridge and freezer.  It is a one man job, and I got through it by listening to the oldie goldies on Pandora.  Then we cleaned out the laundry room.  Not so bad.  But by Saturday night, we were finished!  We saved this week to do our little things that need to be done....like our talks for Sunday:), and packing the boxes we are going to ship on Monday.

Jaden decided to go and move in with Chad and his family.  He is really being blessed ... I see it in his eyes.  Little Mackayah just has attached herself to Jaden.  It makes Jaden feel so good.  But it has been hard on this Momma.  Letting the apron strings go.  I want to call everyday and see how he is doing.  But I have controlled myself - only every 2 days:)   It is an exercise in turning things over to our Loving Heavenly Father.  I feel such a peace about things when I make myself think about the "letting go" instead of giving the anxiety control.

We had another miracle happen last week that, again, shows the Lord's hands in our preparation  for this mission.  We thought we had paid all that was needed to get Jaden's guardianship done.  But a bill came in the mail for over $400 we still owed.  We thought, Ok, how are we going to get this paid?  The very next day a check came in the mail for an overpayment when we paid off our car....guess the amount?  The exact amount we needed to pay the attorney.  Amazing.

Creig and I have been reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish each morning.  He reads a verse in Spanish then I read it in English.  It has been such a powerful experience.  The Spanish language is so beautiful!  I am learning words and doing well.  Yesterday we were reading about Nephi's vision.  It was so powerful and spiritual.  It had us in tears.  Then Chad called and told us how he had taken his kids and had a very heart to heart talk to them about Jaden's abilities and disabilities.  Weston had done some pretty mean things to Jaden when he is with his non-member friend.  Jaden is taking it stride.  Anyway I felt the Spirit so much from talking to him and his commitment to Jaden.  Such a wonderful experience spiritually on how much the Lord loves us.  It was like a moment of partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Life.  Later that night, I lay awake (I have not been able to sleep very much lately because I can't shut my mind off!)... so I lay there and thought about how and why Nephi got to see the vision that his father had seen.  I thought to myself, do I have the faith of Nephi to ask for a vision?  But then I suddenly got such a warm feeling all over me.  It said to me that I don't need to have a vision.  I have Nephi's vision to read and believe.  I know that the fruit of the Tree of Life is God's love.  I feel it inside so strongly.  Nephi had to have the vision to write it down so that I could believe his words.  It took the faith of both me and Nephi to get that confirmation.  I know that this is the Lord's Church and His way to Eternal Life.  I have no doubt in my mind at all.  I am so very very blessed to have this testimony.

Well, I guess I had better get started on that talk for Sunday. (Oh, man, do I hate to give talks! One of those top 5 things I just hate to do.)  But onward and upward....It must be done.  My topic is how family history and missionary work  go hand in hand.  I just absolutely love family history.  So.......I best get busy.

Getting Close Preparing....

Wow...what a week or so.  This week we have been working on the kitchen.  We want to get everything over to our storage unit this week.  Next week we have misc. things to get done and talks to prepare.  We got permission from our Stake President to get set apart on Tuesday the 22nd.  We will then we will take off early on Wed. the 23rd.  We will go to St. George.  Then Thursday we will stop and see my brother Bill in Vegas and drive on down to Southern California.  We will visit my Aunt Kathryn on Friday.  Then head back to St. George on Saturday, and Sunday drive on up to Provo into the Missionary Training Center.  The reason for the early departure is that our Mission President wants us to get back to DC as soon as we can.

Kitchen has been a mess to go through.  We still are not done.  I have some drawers and cupboards to pack and then to clean them all.  I also had a friend come over yesterday and help me clean out the storage room in the garage.  That was so good to get that done! SO much stuff to DI.  It is amazing what we had that we can live without!  Amazing!  We are mostly eating our fast food as we have packed all the dishes.

I have some comments we have received from the couple whose apartment we are going to move into:
     " Forgot to tell you that I am leaving a printer behind.  It's a Kodak inkjet type with wifi connectivity.  It prints real good but the ink cartridges don't seem to last very long.  It was advertised as the lowest cost ink user but it doesn't seem that way to me.  If you don't print a lot it would probably be good for you.

The kitchen has a microwave and toaster plus a toaster oven.  Gas range, dish washer and disposal.  There is a dumpster outside plus recycle bins.

There is an auto shop next door "Logans Repair" and I have had him do oil changes etc.  He's reasonably priced and is a real personable guy.  There is another repair garage across from the Safeway.

There is a farmers market every Saturday morning.  Winter has less available but summers have a lot of good produce.  There are quite a few other produce stands here in summer."

 "There is also a computer desk of sorts plus the second bedroom has a desk that I had my laptop on plus another desk and some work space.  There are also a couple of DC Metro pass cards for seniors 65+ which were here when we came.  There is over $20 on each one of them so you won't have to add any for a while.  Round trips to downtown from Forest Glen Metro are about $5 for seniors and parking there is about $5 per car.  Weekend parking is free.  Metro fare is reduced for seniors after 9:30 am until ???pm.  There are others here who can help you learn the Metro if you even use it.  If you have a smart phone there is an app titled "Embark DC" which is useful.  There is a credenza with a drawer full of maps and other stuff about places to go when you have time.  There are some small tools and misc. other repair stuff, extension cords, laundry soap, laundry basket.

The temp control is quite good except when there is a power failure.  We had about 3 days without power the end of June because of a bad thunder storm.  We went to another senior missionary apartment building that had power to stay cool.  It was 100F+ those days.  The apartment has a window fan and a pedestal fan plus a couple of auxiliary electric heaters if the building heating quits.  We only had to use one for a couple of days once.  There are also some miscellaneous Christmas decorations in the apartment.

The apartment is fairly quiet because it's outer boundary structures are concrete.  The elevators work most of the time, fortunately the 4th floor doesn't require many stair flights.  The mail pickup is on the ground floor and usually gets here by 5pm.  There is a post office close by plus a Safeway and other stuff.  Kensington is a rather quaint old town, 1894."

"The Archives missionaries drive from the Kensington House where the apartment is to the Archives II facility in College Park where there is a free shuttle bus down to the Archives Bldg in downtown DC.  It takes 1 hour for the bus to go about 10 miles through the streets here.  I hope you have a GPS for your car or you will wish you had.  Avoid the beltway except between 10am and 3pm on the week days.

The patio faces west so you'll have afternoon sun.  The blinds work great and the AC is good in the warm part of the year.  There are some planter pots on the balcony already if you want to plant flowers or some tomatoes etc.  There is plant food here.

I hope you don't have an antique addiction because you'll be in trouble here.  Kensington seems to survive on the antique trade.  Everything is old here but Kensington is well kept and quaintly charming. "

Sounds like we will have everything need.  A real nice place.  Oh...and I do absolutely love antiques!  ooops......  :)

The emotional energy that this all is taking is massive...So very much to think about...memories of the house, things to tell chad...memories of friends, and grandchildren, the quiet "organized" live from last year...just so hard to shut down your brain at night and get any sleep. Not to mention the sore muscles from lifting and moving stuff and boxes...but the Lord has blessed EVERY step.  We got a bill the other day from the attorney doing Jaden's guardianship papers and it was almost another $500.  Well today we got a rebate check from buying our car that we were not expecting for almost that exact amount!  The young missionary sisters have wanted to come and help me with some service.  They were going to come today...but I woke up not feeling the best today...they called this morning and said they had something else come up...the Lord knows what I need and when.  He is taking such good care of us it is amazing.

Preparing....

Well the New Year is here! Time is getting close for us to leave.  We had two phone calls from our Mission President yesterday.  He says they are real excited to get us back there.  He has decided to put us in a Spanish Ward for our Sunday assignment.  We will live only about a mile from the Temple in a nice 2 bedroom apartment.  So we won't be in Lanham, we will be in Kenningston, MD.  We are just VERY excited.  We started the Book of Mormon in Spanish this morning.

We are going to ask our Stake President if we can get set apart early and go down to see my brother in Vegas and my Aunt in So. California before we go into the MTC.  Then we will head directly east from the MTC.  It will save 4-5 days travel.  So we will see if that can happen.  That means we would leave on the 23rd of this month.

I couldn't help myself today...I called to see how our dogs were doing.  They are doing just great!  They took them out to the Craters of the Moon and let them run around and they were so happy.  Tori is trying to teach Scooter how to use the doggy door...she will go in and out, in and out to try and get Scooter to do it...but he won't go through it by himself.  He has to have the flap lifted for him!  Sounds like him!  He doesn't like the cold weather anyway.  But I am so glad they are so happy and made the adjustment so well.  It will be like that for Jaden and everyone here at home also.  The Lord's hand is in this.  Sometimes Creig and I get really nervous...but we know this is the right thing to do.  It will be a wonderful thing in our life.