Leaving Home - Arriving "Home"

We left all this...

Christmas shirts this year

A Heart Attacked home from several home teaching families - they surprised us while we celebrated Julia's 2nd (Mal's and Melissa's daughter) birthday,

For the privilege of spending a week at the MTC with about 60 these good couples, including the members of our district; Elder and Sister Morgan who are going to Denmark to do Archival Retrieval and Elder and Sister Kearns who returned home to Layton to work with less active members as full time missionaries for two years.  We are standing with one of our three outstanding teachers.  Well trained, kind and willing to push us beyond our comfort zones in discovering how to approach people, discern their needs, and then role play doing exactly that....

  To come to this....Not a bad view from our large bedroom window.  The pool is actually big and warm enough for Bruce to swim laps each morning.  Right next door is a little stream that widens to a pond lined with bullrushes and full of ducks.  We even have wonderful neighbors downstairs - Elder and Sister Barlow from Lewiston, Utah, a cousin to Bruce's mother Wilma (He is the son of Granville, her mother Matilda's youngest brother) and Elder and Sister Lawson from Kaysville.  They kindly had us to dinner with Elder and Sister Monk on Friday evening. The Monks were in the MTC with us and are teaching at the institute connected with Grossmont Community College just a few miles east of here.  There is another couple living close by, the Storrs.  They are living in their motor home in our park here.  Yes, I didn't include a picture of it, but this little apartment complex is in the middle of a very nice RV park of about 200 spaces,  here in LaMesa.  Our accommodations are quite nice.  A very sunny apartment with plenty of space for computer, printer etc. (which by the way we are figuring out how to use all on our own!).  There is only one drawback to this very conveniently located apartment with nice amenities.  It is right next to Interstate 8 - I mean right next to it.  The frontage road runs right along the wall of the freeway.  So...the noise level is a little higher than we are used to.  But it gives one lots of privacy.  You can talk, turn up the stereo and no one will notice!

      As for missionary work, we haven't begun.  We met President Schmitt's wife at church today and she indicated that he has been buried in meetings but said she would tell him she had met us.  I suspect we will hear from him tomorrow when all the meetings have ended.  In the meantime we've been able to settle in, do some shopping, visit downtown San Diego yesterday and get caught in traffic surrounding Petco park which was hosting motocross racing.  We also visited Lake Murray Park this afternoon, just 1 mile from where we live, sitting in the middle of suburbia but far enough from the freeway to be quiet and a little shang-ri-la.

So here we are.  Stay tuned.  By next week we should be fully engaged in the work. We'll let you know what it is really like.  And since I said that I won't be afraid to admit that I've been a little lonely, missing family and familiarity.  But meeting with saints today in the La Mesa 1st Ward was an antidote - another reminder that when you lose yourself in the service of others you are blessed.  We know it is true and now we get to prove it all over again.