Our humble MTC abode

I forgot to post a pic of our room in the MTC.  As you can tell the room is tiny, which has been no problem since we spend very little time in it..The most important part..... the bed is smaller than what we are use to but very comfortable.

First Week Accomplished

We completed our first week at the MTC.  We spent everyday in classes and learned and learned and learned, with LOTS and LOTS of role playing. Not our kind of thing but we did it. There was 84 senior missionaries is our group this past week, or 42 couples. And 1600 young Elders and Sisters.  We had a really fun group of Senior Missionaries in our district, so we had lot of fun too.  There was Clair and Janet Jaussi from Provo UT going to Novosibirsk Russia, Larry and Nona Thompson from Blackfoot Idaho area going to Slovenia, Douglas and Judy Erickson from Beaver UT serving in the St George mission, but living in their own home and serving in their home stake in Beaver, then of course Marshall and I going to Scotland Ireland. We had a very diverse but fun group.The Thompson's and us are left because we are both CES couples and have to attend this weeks training. 
  This week we are in CES training for two and a half days. We will be done Wed afternoon and then have the afternoon to repack our stuff and get ready to fly out on Thur morning.
We have been able to spend some time visiting with Grandma, Grandpa, Geralyn, Keith, Terry, Dean and last but not least Ryan.  It has been fun to spent time with them.  They fed us well which was a bonus. There is volumes and volumes of food here at the MTC, but it is less than tasty.
Got to face time with Hallie, Jaxson, Kamryn, Addie and Kimber last night and then with Kendilyn, Savanna, Mason, Rylee, Brooklyn and Ethan this afternoon. Missed seeing Gavin he was napping. Was so fun to talk to them and see all their smiling faces and hear their voices. I loved them calling out Nana and Papa. Sure do miss them.
When I write again next week we will be in Scotland.

  

Oh my... oh my.... oh my....... so much to get done.  Grateful that we are getting to leave earlier but one thing after another just keeps popping up.  This visa thing is a nightmare, and the UK is easy to get a visa for, or so they tell us at the travel service.  I hope we get them in time.  I am wondering how I am going to pack for 18 months in two 50 lb bags. It has become a challenge. May have to do with less than I want.  As Marshall says, "all you need is three or four dresses/skirts",,,,,,,, ya I don't think so.  I'd like to at least wear a different outfit each day of the week, then start over the following week.  That too much to ask? Friday the 14th is coming really fast.  This is going to be one long Valentines date for us.....an 18 month date.  Couldn't ask for a better date. 
Saying goodby to our grandchildren is proving to be way too hard.  We've said our goodbye's to the Mesa/Phoenix bunch. Tears and more tears.  The kids don't get it that we are going away for a long time. They are so use to us coming and going. I think it may be hardest on the Gallup grands. They are accustomed to us being around all the time. Well..... guess that's all of my thoughts for now.....

Surprise e-mail

Feb 1,2014
Marshall and I decided that it was time for us to serve the mission that we have been planning on for our entire marriage. We submitted our paper work Oct 10,2013. We stated that we would be available Dec 1. It took a whole month for us to receive our call. We had not stipulated the type of mission or where we would like to go. We decided that we would serve wherever and whatever we were called to do.  The month was a very long wait. I had anxiety just not knowing what was coming. I just wanted to know so I could quit worrying about where and what we would be doing. Even tho we did not request a place I was hoping that we would be able to go to Scotland, where Marshall had served as a young man, because I knew that he would love to to back and I would enjoy seeing some the places that he wrote to me about all those many years ago.  On Nov 10 we returned home from Mesa and our call was in our mail box. FINALLY, WE WOULD KNOW.   You can imagine our excitement when we read that we were called to serve in the Scotland Ireland mission. We were, or should i say, Marshall was yelling (well maybe not yelling,but very loudly) saying,  YEAH, THIS IS GREAT!!!  Then we read on and saw that we were not to enter the MTC till April 14,2014.  FIVE months away. Are you kidding? Five months more to wait.  Talk about being disappointed.  When we sent back our acceptance letter, Marshall suggested that we were prepared to go earlier if it was possible. We received an email in reply that we were not needed till the stated date of April 14.  Our only option was to go back to normal living.
THEN:
Marshall checked his email on myldsmail on tuesday of this week on a fluke. We have been receiving all of our information from our Mission office in Scotland via my personal email, so we have not been checking the myldsmail site.  To our surprise our Mission President  had sent us a email in the middle of January asking us if we would be willing to begin our mission much sooner than our April 14th date. The couple we were replacing was going home on March 3 and he needed us then. He stated that he did not know why we were not coming sooner. We wrote back that we would be glad to begin our mission sooner. In just a couple hours we received a email from the Missionary committee advising us that our new date to report to the MTC would be Feb 17th.  Just two and a half weeks away.  Needless to say we have had to shift into high gear.  We are glad that we are getting to go sooner. The wait has been long enough. I am a very patient person but I have to admit that this waiting has seemed to go on forever.  The hardest part is leaving our Grandchildren.  We are very attached to them. Of course we have the greatest grand kids ever.  There will never be a good time to leave them so we decided that we just needed to go and serve while we had good health.
We have been called to work with the young single adults.  We will be in the MTC for one week then the following week we will be in CES training for three days before we board the plane to our mission.
 Stay tuned for the next 18 months and share in our journey.