New Beginning

We got to our new home in The Dalles at 9:30 pm. the missionaries and the owners of the home were here to welcome us, the missionaries carried in all our stuff and we were up till 1:00 am unpacking.
Our house is so cute it reminds me of the cottage in the movie "the Holiday"

Sunday October 21st was our first day to church. There are two wards here in this community of about 1400 people.  Church started at 9 am and we were there till after 4 pm  We attended both wards because we belong to both of them. We were overwhelmed trying to remember names and meet as many people as possible. The members here are wonderful. They have welcomed, they welcomed us with open arms and lot of hugs Many of them said they were waiting for us to come In between the meeting Bishop Mullen's the bishop of The Dalles 2nd ward met with us and went over the ward directory and gave us names of members to visit. Some were less active, some new converts and some just members who either need some service done or fellow-shipping. The meeting schedule was really hard on us especially since we were up so late the  night before. I was so grateful that the talks were so engaging that I managed to stay awake.  We left church exhausted but so happy to be here.

 Monday was our first p-day and it was spent shopping for those things you know you just can't live without. For us that was a rug  that we needed  as you walk in the door. A laundry basket for our dirty clothes. An over the door towel rack for our towels and a couple of waste baskets. We had to shop for food too. I did bring a lot of staples with us so our bill was only about $200. That kind of freaked Don out. He couldn't believe the prices but then he hasn't shopped much,  I felt they weren't to bad.  We were invited out to dinner for the evening and that was such a sweet gesture since we didn't really know anyone.

Tuesday a Brother Lee a member in the 1st ward came by and drove us around town and showed us some of the historic spots and places we would need to know the locations,  like the library and the post office. In the evening we had another invitation to dinner. We also had an appointment with Bishop Johnson the Bishop of the !st ward. He too went over the ward directory with us and gave names to visit.

This picture is taken from the Washington side of the Columbia River

This is the bridge that goes over the river to Washington.

See the foothills in the background. they are not green

 but I'm told in a few weeks they will be green.

The Dalles Dam     

Wednesday we finally got out and started doing missionary work. We began knocking on doors and to our surprise everyone let us in and we enjoyed all the visits we had.  The rest of the week was pretty much the same.  My day starts at 6 am. I say my prayers and read my scriptures and then a General Conference article and a chapter in Preach My Gospel. By then Don is usually up and we go for a walk together. The Dalles is built on hills so our walk is strenuous at times. After our walk we have breakfast and then we study together for an hour and we plan our days activities. We usually get our about 1 pm. The time seems to fly by. We are a bit overwhelmed as there are about 300 less actives for us to visit and maybe teach.

As we visit everyone asks if we are going to do cottage meetings. It seems the last missionary couple, the Garrett's, held one every week. They would tell stories and liken then to a gospel principle. It sounds like they were very good at this. We will have to learn more about this and decide if this is something we should do.

   Our first week ended up with us going to the Portland temple as it was a stake day for our stake and after our trek to the temple the Dalles 2nd ward had a ward activity called The Apple Squeeze. It was held at one of the families orchards. Members brought there own containers and then  some of the men did the work to press the apples into cider. In the meantime there was a friendly soccer game going on and plenty of good food to eat. I was amazed at how many people in the ward were there because it was raining. The activity was from 2-6 and everyone had a great time regardless of the weather. It was a great gathering and Don and I got to meet a lot of people from that ward.  All in all our first week was great!

MTC EXPERIENCE

We entered the MTC Monday, October 15^th at 9:30 am. There was about 80 other couples joining us going on missions to all parts of the world and on different types of missions.  We registered and received our Missionary name tags then the rest of the morning was spent with small group meeting in which we did something different at each station. We had a medical review of our records, an orientation of procedures and we met our emergency helpers that would be there for us 24/7 in case we had questions or needed help of any kind. Then it was lunch. The cafeteria was a busy place feeding over 2,000 young missionaries plus us seniors. They had a great variety of food to choose from and all was very delicious. After lunch we met Brother Peterson who taught us the purpose of our missions and how to fulfill that purpose. Then we were divided into districts and givien our assignments for the evening. We went and checked in the Marriott Inn as that is where we were to stay since there was just not room for everyone on the mission campus. Don went jogging as he had such a hard time sitting all day even though we had time to walk in between lunch and class for about a half hour. I began to read the assignments. After dinner I tried to finish my assignments. I was so exhausted during this time I could barely stay away to finish the assignments so I prayed that Heavenly Father would help me stay alert and understand what I was studying. I managed to finish the whole assignment and did my scripture study and journal entry. It was quiet an overwhelming day but everyone was so helpful and friendly we did fine. I was really impressed by the spiritual strength that was there at the MTC.

Tuesday we were up at 6am and by 7:20 we were at the cafeteria eating breakfast. Classes started at 8 am and went till 4:30 pm every day. Each day was started with a large group devotional with pray and a hymn. Then we were assigned individual class teachers according to our districts. Our morning teacher was Elder Keddington. There were four couples in our district. Elder and Sister Nield who were going to the temple, Elder and Sister Loveless who were going to the Palmyra Temple and Elder and Sister Trimming who were going to Tennessee to do a missionary support mission like us. We discussed “how to begin teaching” and how to start a relationship with a stranger. We started out by role playing situations in where we were suppose to “break the ice’. We were to establish a relationship of trust, establish expectations, learn their spiritual state, bring the spirit. In the afternoons our teacher was Sister Thomas and she taught us ways to invite and commit people to the gospel. We role played by teaching the restoration lesson. This was hard work and your really had to work hard to remember points of the lesson and include questions and invitations and commitments. In the evening there was a devotional by Shane Bowers (a seventy) and his wife.  Anytime we had a break in class I read my next day’s assignment because I knew it would late when we got back to our room. So I only had scripture study to do and then I crashed for the night

Wednesday after our devotional we headed to our morning classroom where we waited to have our first investigator lesson while we waited for our turn our class was shown a video about staying healthy during our missions. The time came and we met with James an investigator. Don and I did fairly well in the 45 minutes they gave us but we were both taken back by how hard it was to teach even though we have had all these years of church experience. We had a large group meeting to start the afternoon off with Brother Peterson teaching us to “teach people not lessons”. He is a very dynamic teacher someone to emulate. Our afternoon with Sister Thomas was mostly role playing and practicing for our next lesson where we would be teaching a less active person. The evening was spent studying and practicing for our teaching appointment. The lesson we were assigned to teach was the Plan of salvation.

Thursday after our devotional we headed to our small classrooms and our group was up first to teach our less active sister. We had a sister Mendenhall. This lesson went much better than the day before. Don and I worked well together. After our appointment we also saw a talk given by David Bednar on the 20 marks as an example of how we don’t always know we have the spirit when we teach and that the results of our following the spirit aren’t always seen. It was such a great story. Then we had another large group meeting where we saw some powerful clip of Elder Holland teaching us how powerful using the Book of Mormon can be and what a great tool it is. In the afternoon Sister Thomas taught us about how people have excuses for not being active but that there is always an underlying reason such as a weak testimony. We did some more role playing as we prepared to teach a couple who was less active.

Friday we headed straight to our small classrooms and commenced in teaching our less active couple. It was very difficult but we did get the opportunity to teach some principles that they committed to trying. It was a good experience. Then we had a large group meeting where we were taught how to work with the Bishops and ward mission leaders in the wards we would be assigned to be in. In the afternoon we had a senior couple visit our class and tell us of some of their experiences in the mission field.  We were done at 3:30 pm and after pictures and packing up we were on the road to our mission by 4 pm The Dalles here we come.

 Travels Continued

Thursday morning we left Boulder, Colorado and headed to Sandy Utah with hopes to get there by about 5 pm. The day was overcast and a bit cooler only in the 60’s and the scenery through Colorado and Wyoming was dreary like the weather.  

We stopped a few times for rest stops and to stretch our legs. 

We were so excited when we got to Utah and the scenery was much prettier. After the abandoned lands of Wyoming

We arrived at my sister Jane’s and her husband Dave's at about 5:30 pm and Julaine arrived about 6pm. 

with Addison and Felix in tow. She flew into Utah for a marathon in St. George on Saturday October 6^th.  We all sat down for a delicious spaghetti dinner and family conversation. My brother Randy joined in the gathering which was really nice.

Friday Kimberly arrived in about 1 pm. with Olivia. She came in to see Julaine run in the marathon and to see Don and I before we went into the MTC. 

As Kimberly arrived Julaine and her friends left for St George.

 Kimberly, Don and Dave left about 4 pm. to head to St George since the race stated a 7am on Saturday.  Jane and I stayed with the kids and watched them. We ordered out for pizza and got the kids bathed and in bed by 7:30 pm. and then we had time alone to catch up a bit.

As usual the kids were up early so Jane made pancakes because Addison demanded them. Jane has this paly house outside in her back yard and I took Addison out there to play. The house is quite a nice size and it has a loft in it too. There is a whole kitchen set up and baby dolls, beds and a whole lot more. Addison loved it and played for about two hours. It was General Conference week-end and Felix was the perfect guest because he slept through both sessions so we could watch it on TV 

Around noon Kimberly called to say that Julaine finished the race. I was so happy she made it. When they got home they were all tired.

 The guys went to Priesthood and Julaine and Kimberly went to bed.

Sunday Jane and Dave, Don and I went to Conference to the Conference building in Salt Lake. We had great seats. We got to see the spoken word live and then General Conference. I was impressed that there were only a few seats not taken in the 20,000. Seats. It was a wonderful experience for us.  And after watching conference on TV in the afternoon I was really grateful that we had had that chance to go to conference.

While we were in Utah Don and I had the opportunity to go to Alpine and visit with our friends Steve and Colleen Olsen. Adam and Brent and their wives were there as well. We had a sweet time reminiscing about some of our favorite memories together.  We had a wonderful evening together.  The ride between Sandy and Alpine was so beautiful and scenic.



As a family we spent a lot of time together for the next few days. Don went to the temple with the girls a couple of times while I watched the grandkids.

Julaine left early in the morning on Thursday and Kimberly left by noon,. 

 Don and I headed to the temple together. We went to the Jordan River temple.  

 Friday we headed to the Mount Timpanogos temple and after the temple visit we headed up Mount Timpanogos. We wished that we had more time to spend there because it was so beautiful and there was a cave we wanted to explore but we had to be back to my sisters by a certain time so we didn't have the time to do the cave but we did travel up the mountain and saw the beautiful fall colors and had a nice hike. 

 

In the evening we all went to a movie and we just enjoyed being together. Saturday my sister Jane and I went to the Draper temple to do initiatory work and then we did some shopping together. Sunday was church and family dinner and quiet time together. Monday came around fast. We said our good-byes and header for the MTC at 8:30 am.  We were both excited and anxious about this new adventure in our life.

Travels on our way to the MTC

On our way to enter the MTC Don and I stopped to see family. Our first stop was Boulder, Colorado to see Don’s sister Donna and her husband Tom. They were such gracious hosts and we had a wonderful time with them. We arrived Monday afternoon. Donna and I went for a wonderful walk and the area was absolutely beautiful with splashes of fall colors everywhere. Don and Tom went to hit golf balls and we got back together for dinner.

Tuesday Kimberly called me with a silver deal so Tom drove us over to the client and I inspected each piece with Don. We left with two sets of sterling silver. On our return home we dropped the guys off at the golf course and Donna and I went for another walk through a different park around a recreation center. Different scenery but just as beautiful and our hike was a bit longer.  We also ran a few errands so I could get some Airborne because Tom had a bad cold and I really didn’t want to get one before entering in the MTC. We stopped at radio shack and picked up a new GPS cord because the one we had had a short in it. The day was so beautiful, the sun was shining and the temperature was in the mid 70’s. We stopped for an ice cream and enjoyed it outdoors as we watched a large raven several feet from us. We all enjoyed dinner together and then we looked at old college yearbooks from Stevens Point since we all went there.

 Wednesday Tom and Donna took us on a day trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw two herds of Elk and the bulls had such huge antler’s it was hard for me to believe they lose them each year. In one of the herds the bull had 50 doe in his harem. At one point several of the doe started moving quite far from the herd so the bull rounded them up. It was interesting to hear his cry as they called to the doe to return to the herd.

We also went up on the trail ridge and the scenes were breath taking. We spent the whole day in the park.

It was such a beautiful day we hated to leave.

On our way home we we saw these elk just strolling through a subdivision. Don was within a few feet of them as he took these pictures.

The evening was spent watching the first Presidential debates, which took place in Denver.

We had a great visit with Tom and Donna.  Don promised that it wouldn’t take him another 35 years before he came for a second visit.