Continuation of our first weeks

On Tuesday, we met at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, along with 14 other couples, all of us beginning our training in the Salt Lake Temple to be Temple missionaries. Some going to the new temple in Concepcion, Chile, others to Fiji, Palmyra, London, Johannesburg, and Kona. A wonderful, spirit-filled three days.

Another Thursday, another last supper, this time with our Utah kiddos. We love our family so much. Come see us!!!

                                                         Off to NYC!

Friday, Oct. 12 we flew to Newark, NJ, where we were picked up by President Kem Nixon, first counselor in the Manhattan Temple Presidency. During the two hour drive, we were given a great overview of the city, the Temple, the apartment (which they were actually putting in furniture as we were driving from the airport). Can't wait to go to work.

Here's our apartment building. We're on the 9th floor, and will be there at least 3 months. Loooong story, but we might have to move to another location because somehow the church isn't able to finalize our lease. Our apartment is pretty bare, but beautifully refurbished, with quartz counters, newly painted, new wood floor. We have a nice king-size bed and dresser, a small couch, no table. And our TV stand is a TV tray (Isn't that what they're for?? 😉😉

By the way, if you think
this is a picture of a picture, you win the lottery. It's in our service elevator.

Impressions of our first few weeks

Three weeks ago, just after we turned our in our apartment keys, we had some excitement as we heard from people in New York that our mission was delayed. Wrong. It definitely put a downer on the evening as we headed to our "last supper" with our Oregon kiddos. Red Robin, we love you. But we pushed through, saying goodbye to loved ones and realizing how long it was going to be before we'd see them in person. This is harder than we thought!

Jacque loves her daddy

Graham loves his mac and cheese

We left for Salt Lake City, spending the night with dear friends in Middleton, ID, the Gudmundsons.

Spent the weekend with Kelly & Megan, enjoying conference, and loving spending time with their families. We were also able to attend General Conference for our church, love that Tabernacle Choir (and our wonderful prophet, Pres. Nelson). We were also able to sit in the choir seats on Monday, as we listened to our good friend, recently retired organist Clay Christiansen, play his noon-time concert. I guess having us sit in those seats caused great consternation to the peons sitting on those hard benches in the audience.

😊