We have been here a whole week!

OK, I missed posting about the MTC.  Sorry. It was wonderful and if I get a chance I will give details but for now here are some pictures.

Here's the official name tag picture.

Pointing at the mission!

Elder Goeringer and me hanging out with Dad in the halls of the MTC!

We are now in San Diego and have been here 8 whole days!  It has been interesting and good.  We arrived on Tuesday the 13th.  Roger picked me up at the airport and had already been to the mission office and got the keys.  We headed off to our apartment and got settled a bit, ran to the store so we would have something to eat the next day and went to bed tired.

We had an appointment the next day with the President Clayton.  We were anxious to hear what assignment he had for us here.  With member and leadership support missionaries we are told that our calling is to do whatever the mission president wants us to do.  So we were there to receive our assignment.  He basically just told us the name of the stake president that he wanted us to work with and that we would be in the 10th ward and maybe another one later.  He then said that it would be up to us to decide what else we want our mission to be!  He said that we should check around and see what we might want to do.  He suggested the temple and all of the things there, there is a temporary visitor's center there and we could help with that, the Mormon Battalion and community service of all kinds.  He told us to talk to others and let him know what we will be doing.  He said that the number of young missionaries will have almost doubled in our mission in a six month period of time and that there is a lot going on with that.  Lots to do.  We left a bit confused and wondering how we were going to figure that all out.  We went to temple after.  What a beautiful unique temple.

There are seven other senior couples in our apartment complex so it was easy to talk to them.  Many of them said that it will be really slow at first and we won't be doing much for a couple of months.  But that we should be patient and it will all work out.  A couple of months!  We were determined that it won't take that long.  

Thursday was again a day of getting settled and wondering what we should do to keep from going nuts.  We went to Costco, the 99 cent store and then wondered what to do again.  We ran in to a couple that serves at the Mormon Battalion and they were saying that they are short there so we offered to help.  I guess it isn't that easy.  We would have to be called to do that.  We were sitting home that night and one of the couples here in the complex came by and asked us to go to dinner with them with a bunch of the other couples.  They are all military relations missionaries and were all meeting for dinner after serving there all day together.  It was so nice to be able to ask lots of questions and meet such nice people.  We felt good.

Our big event during the day was getting the Internet and finally getting hooked up.  We went to BBQ for our ward Friday night, which was a nice way to meet lots of people in the ward.  It was a bit overwhelming to meet people that we should remember their names.  Roger does a great job at remember them all but I am horrible at it.  But we felt like we were finally getting into the swing of things.

Saturday was slow again so we decided to go do a session at the temple again.  It was a huge wedding day and fun to see the temple grounds so alive.  That night we went to dinner with the Rockwell's.  They are the missionary couple that work at the Mormon Battalion.  The director and his wife, Elder and Sister Seegmiller asked to come along too.  They were saying that we are an answer to their prayers.  They need more people. Two couples just left and another is leaving in 7 weeks.  They told us wonderful stories of what goes on there.  They are doing great things with city of Old Town and relationships with the city leaders.  They have a great reputation of helping when there is a city event.  Of course, they can call in the elders and have a huge work force at most any time.  They got us really excited about the possibility of being there.  They want us there and we want to be there but the mission president makes the final decision.

August 4, 2013

Well, it is almost here! We have had a wonderful month full of farewell parties. It has been so nice to have those around us care enough to send us off with love. It is kinda like having your funeral while you are still alive! We will miss you all and hoping that a trip to San Diego might be in your future. Thanks for your love and support.

We had our farewell last Sunday and we had all but 9 of our kids and grandkids there. There 69 of us when we are at 100% attendance so we had 60 there! Thanks for coming guys! Seeing you all stand in the meeting brought such a sweet spirit. It was such a great sight from where I was standing and I am sure that I will remember seeing you all there and feeling your support for a long time!

We get set apart tonight at 7:15 and then report to the MTC tomorrow morning. We will be there each day until 4:30 and then we get to come home and sleep in our own bed and report back at 8:00 am. I am hearing that there are some evening devotionals during the week too. We will be getting some Preach My Gospel training and other than that we are pretty clueless of what will go on. Sitting in classes each day for that long may be a bit challenging for my body but I am praying for help there. -We are excited to finally get going. Maybe that is why they gave us a call with such a long waiting time before we leave!

Roger will take off on Sunday the 11th for California in the car and I will fly in on Tuesday the 13th to San Diego. He will get me from the airport and we will drive to the mission home. The man in charge of housing will meet us there and take us to our apartment. We are told that they have a one bedroom apartment in the Chula Vista Imperial Beach area that we will be in for a couple of weeks. In that time the mission president will interview us and see if they want to leave us in that assignment or move us to another one. We will either stay there the rest of the mission or move to another area and stay there for the rest of the mission.

I have a thousand questions of how things are going to be, what we will be doing, etc. But most of those things are not decided yet and it feels a little strange to not have a better idea of what we will be doing for the next year. We are feeling peace about it though and are just excited to "go where He wants us to go and do what He wants us to do." I think that is called FAITH.

I know that there will be hard times. Please pray for us. We have been promised that we will feel your prayers and that we will be strengthened by that. I know that we are doing a good thing. I have wanted to go on a mission since I was a young girl. When I was 18 I actually asked my grandfather, he was the prophet at the time, if he would pull a few strings and let me go when I was 19 instead of 21. He said he didn't think that he would do that. :)

REMEMBER TO PRAY, OBEY AND SERVE! WE WILL TOO.