The week before leaving.

We have had a very busy week this week. This last week before we leave we are selling cars, stopping our EZ Tag account, Stopping our car insurance, and working on replacing my broken C-Pap machine before we leave.  Wouldn't you know it, the thing broke down just two weeks before we are scheduled to leave. I had to have a sleep study get all my old medical records visit with the Doctor and it has been a real hassle.  Everyone we have dealt with has been super helpful and we are grateful for their patience and help. 

We had no idea how expensive it would be to get ready to go on a mission.  Especially leaving the country.  Just dealing with things like, mail, doctors, cell phone accounts, and making sure our house will be taken care of.  So, anyone who may be preparing to do what we are doing, be prepared for some added expenses and one word of advice, do not renew a cell phone contract so that you have one when you leave.  We can't afford to use a typical service internationally and it is not cheap to get out of a contract.  They do not mind at all charging you the whole amount.  We heard that we could put our account on vacation for the time we would be gone, but found out that was only an option for 6 month max.  Then monthly charges would resume.  It  will be cheaper to buy out the contract but still not cheap.

We were able to visit shortly today with our good friends Butch and Judy Byron.  It was fun to catch up and talk about our up coming adventure.  As we were ordering our meal at What-a-burger, we ran into our old friend Dave McCoy who we haven't seen for several years.  I am glad we were able to reconnect before leaving.  What a blessing.  I truly believe our most valuable treasures are family and friends.

We are asked what we will be doing on our mission. It is hard to shed much light on that and what our duties will be until we get there.  But I am sure it will be a great experience to work with the Chilean people and serve them.  I hope we are able to help someone's life be a little bit better.

We keep packing and repacking to make sure we have not forgotten anything that we really need to take with us.  I am sure we will forget something, but hope to keep those issues to a minimum. 

We have both been in Spanish classes for the last month and have really benefited from the instruction.  Out teachers have been great, young but great.  We are looking forward to meeting them in person when we get to the MTC for more training.

On the 14th of September we spoke church and had an opportunity to speak to our ward members and family that was able to attend.  Our dear neighbor Billy came to listen to us and we felt good that he enjoyed our talks.  One of the highlights of the meeting was the song performed by two of our beautiful granddaughters, Jessica Marcano and Rian Geserick.  They really added to the emotion and spirit of the meeting.  My Daughter Chalice recorded on the sly and is sending me the video.  I hope to post it on this blog when I get it. 
 
We had our daughter and grandson visiting this weekend from Omaha.  Tanya is doing really well and Nathan is growing like a weed.  It's hard to believe he will be three plus when we return, and much more grown. I thought I would add a couple of photos of Tanya's visit with little Nathan.

Chris and Nathan resting during our hike

Tanya decided to join them on the bench.

Well that is all I have to report for now but hope to add more later on. 

 

Called To Serve

This is the photo we sent in with our mission papers

Today I am starting our mission blog.  I am new at this, so please pardon any mistakes that I make.

We woke this morning with news of Chris's stepfather's passing. He was a good man and a good grandfather to our children. We will miss him dearly and hope we can figure out a way to attend the funeral. That means getting to SLC three days earlier then planned.  We already have tickets provided by the mission department for Monday the 29th, but it appears that the funeral is going to be next Saturday. I am sure we shall find a way to be there to honor Grandpa John and be a support to Betty. We are glad are not gone yet, so there is a better chance that we can be there. However, it does mean starting this new, and already stressful, chapter in our lives with a bit of added stress.

We were supposed to fly into SLC on the 29th, as I already stated, then visit family for a couple of days.  We had registered for Spanish emersion class at the MTC on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of October.  Then the plan was to have a relaxing weekend with Chris's mom for conference.  Our official report date is on Monday October 6th. We are to check into the MTC at 10:00 AM. (exciting)

As far as the blog goes, we would like to invite you to join us on this Santiago, Chile adventure. We are so excited to serve, to see another part of the world and to fall in love with the people. I cannot promise how often I will write, or how interesting it will be. I can promise that I will try. I am not a very good journalist and what you read may only be good for putting you to sleep at night.  You may also find big blank days depending on how busy we are or how much fun we are having.  But my goal is to post at least once per week.  We shall see how it goes. Wish me luck!

That is enough for a start up page and I will include more details of this week later.  But this is a pretty good sample of what it will be like. If you are disappointed, you can leave and I won't be offended. However, if you stay and follow I my get better at conveying our experience with practice.