Going East Day #4: Nauvoo, IL to Bloomington, Il 144 miles

 After spending a delightful morning attending the temple and exploring Nauvoo, we headed to Bloomington IL to spend the night. We had planned to take an extra two days and go to Kirtland, but after so much driving, we decided to just head the next day straight to Columbus.

2000 miles is a lot of driving!

Going East Day #3: Salina, KS to Nauvoo, IL 448 miles

Today was an exciting day, all new territory.  We loved Kansas, the rolling hills and the beautiful fields of grain.  We then entered Missouri and made a quick stop in Hannibal where we snapped a few photos of Mark Twain memorabilia. We then entered Illinois and spent the evening exploring Nauvoo- we have not been here for years!  Nothing was open except a gas station for dinner so we ate pizza on a picnic table in the parking lot - fun adventure!  But our favorite was watching the fireflies as we walked through the historic buildings at dusk!  We met a very sweet lady from Ecuador who had taught church history in her ward for 40 years and was in tears that she finally was in Nauvoo, she said it felt like a dream!  Sweet experience! 

We are looking forward to attending the temple tomorrow!

Going East Day #2 Denver, CO to Salina, KS 434 Miles

Well we are in Salina KS tonight! Day 2 of our cross country adventure! We stopped this morning in Limon Colorado to go to church and fell in love with the little branch of 28 people! A darling 11 year old girl led the singing and gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting! They even invited us to give the prayers. 

We are so excited to be missionaries!

 

Saying Goodbye and Stop #1- Denver 521 Miles

Well we are off!  We left the MTC and stopped at Bel Aire to say goodbye to my mom.  That was pretty tender! Then we met to of our kids and their families for dinner and that was so fun, but after had to say goodbye to Heather, Scott, Kage and Drayden, more tears!  Then Saturday morning we finished our final packing and said goodbye to Laurel, Bret, Melia and Cohen, and yes more tears!  Aggie even tried to get into the car to come with us, and we had to say goodbye to her!  

We drove to Price where we had a delightful picnic with Gregg, Kimma, Callie and Sam who could not join us last night and were on their way to Colorado as well, and then after a tender goodbye with them, we dried our tears and headed east. 

We met a very cute lady in Grand Junction whose parents were called to the Columbus Ohio Mission and then assigned to Kirtland, so we will look them up when we pass through there. We hit snow at the Vail Summit near Copper Mountain and were shocked by the 31 degree temperature!  
We had a fun dinner at Pappadeaux and then got into our hotel exhausted!   

We are so excited to see the country on our way to Ohio! 

We feel so blessed to have this opportunity to serve a mission!! 

The MTC is AMAZING!

We Are Now Official Missionaries!!

Well today was absolutely amazing!  

We gave our Sacrament Meeting talks and were touched with the family and friends that came to support us.  Thank you everyone! 

 What a blessing to be able to have three of our four children with us today.  

Thanks to Heather, Scott, Kage Dray, Gregg, Kimma, Callie, Sam, Laurel, Bret, Melia and Cohen for arranging their schedules to be here.  

We sure missed Ryan, Katie and Elisabeth!

Then we were set apart as missionaries by President Monson, who gave the sweetest blessings!  And we got to share our thoughts and bear our testimonies to our family.  It was a very sweet meeting! 

We are now official missionaries! 

Can't wait for the MTC tomorrow morning!

Three More Days! It's getting REAL!! 5-18-2017

We have been watching the Missionary Portal and about flipped when today it said 3 more days!  We can't believe after waiting for so many years that it is finally really happening!  

We are pinching ourselves with gratitude and excitement!  

Our Mission Call Arrives! March 9, 2017