Happily Serving and Getting Settled!

As promised, I am finally getting to the blog. ( I will add photos at the end of this entry) .We have had such an amazing experience since our last post. We left our home on 26 Oct and visited kids and grandkids in Texas and Arizona as well as the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park enroute to Provo, UT. Before entering the Missionary Training Center, we were able to visit with Carlee, Taylor and Rachel as well as the Richards and Autumn (Dawid) and Scotty Crepeau. Brother Richards had served as a missionary in Parsons, TN soon after Gil and his family joined the LDS Church. We loved visiting with Ruth and Lanny Porter in Orem. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at the Porter's home on the night we arrived and they graciously hosted an open house so we could spend time with some of the young missionaries I served with in Puerto Rico as well as Elder Lee and the Burton family. I had a wonderful time introducing them to Gil and he immediately loved them as I do.

Following a week of training in Provo, we drove to Salt Lake City where we stayed at the Hyatt House for Medical Training. The training included presentations from many clinicians as well as Missionary Medical staff. Even though I had completed the training previously, the content was much improved and beneficial. While in SLC, we enjoyed visiting with our niece, Heidi Frank, and enjoyed dinner with the Richards at The Roof Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Building. We, also, were blessed to enjoy dessert with Elder and Sister Zwick at their home and visited briefly with Elder Cornish at Church on Sunday. Elders Zwick and Cornish had both served as interim mission presidents in the Puerto Rico San Juan Mission and it was wonderful to see them again.
With training completed, we left SLC November 17th, spent the night near Boise, ID and arrived in Vancouver, WA on the 18th having logged 3500+ miles since we left Parsons. Upon our arrival, we enjoyed dinner at the Mission Home with President/Sister McAteer and the Bundersons who we will be replacing in the Mission Office. Sister Bunderson has been the nurse and Elder Bunderson has been the Recorder along with other duties as assigned. I learned that, in addition to Medical, I will be responsible for minutes of meetings and the Mission History. We received the keys to our apartment and headed "home". We will be moving to the "nurse" apartment by 12/10.

Since arriving, we have been out and about and getting the lay of the land. We are amazed at the green grass at this time of the year. We have had some rainy, drizzly days, but the sun usually breaks through sometime during the day. We enjoyed Thanksgiving at the Bunderson's so were able to see our "new" apartment - it is beautiful and we are anxious to get permanently settled.

We love our mission and everyone we have met. The Mission Presidency is awesome and a lot of fun along with their wives. Our President and his wife are from Canada and he loves to sing accompanied by his guitar. The Senior and Young missionaries are amazing as well with their commitment to serve Our Savior in any way required. Some of the Senior couples live in this area and serve in various missionary assignments.