Adventures in Georgia

 Our first holiday season in the mission field is in the rear view mirror already! Every time I take a moment to reflect, I can't believe how quickly everything moves. Since I last wrote, we had really great zone conferences the week before and week of Christmas. We ended our final of 4 on December 23rd, so that was fun, but honestly so hectic to do so close to Christmas - living and learning here. We focused on a gift to the Savior and I read the children's book, "Christmas Day in the Morning" by Pear Buck. We had a great discussion about a gift of love and then took time to write gifts to the Savior and put them in a little manger looking box. We will send them in the mail a year from now and check in with ourselves to see how we did. We trained some more on planning and finding, and also heard from our stake presidents. They were great meetings and the Spirit as we closed them by having the outgoing missionaries bear their testimonies, watched "The Christ Chil...

Well, it's been a while! How can I ever sum up what we've learned, experienced and done in the last 3 months?? I'm not sure where to begin, so I'll just jump in - Mark finally called counselors, so that's been amazing to have some very capable and amazing people helping us. President Gibbs and his wife, Kim, and President Hilton and his wife, Shay, are fantastic and we've enjoyed getting to know them and their awesome kids. They have tons of experience, creativity and energy, and we're a lot better for knowing them. We also have had the opportunity to take two groups through the temple for the first time! Many of the missionaries' parents have been able to make it out for this, so that's been great to meet them and share this experience with the missionaries. Last time I was there, there was sunlight pouring into the building on this beautiful day, and I just had the strongest feeling of hope. I love that the temple gives us hope, and I always leave ...

This month we are still learning so much, but every little tiny step that we feel we have done before or are staring to understand better or have some familiarity feels like a victory, and that's great - we'll take it! We started this past transfer with a mission tour with Elder Martino and Elder Matt Holland who oversee our area. We had enough cases of Covid in the mission that it was all virtual. All of our meetings were over zoom, but they're so good at getting participation from everyone in the meetings and making everything so interesting. They teach really, really well. Mark and I learned so much just by participating in these meetings with them. They had a couple of meetings just with us and a couple with the missionaries. By the end, I felt very aware of our inexperience and inadequacies and felt kind of stupid and a little overwhelmed, but then in our last meeting with Elder Martino and Elder Holland, they just expressed confidence in us and love for us. It was inc...

 I can't believe a month has passed so quickly since I last wrote an update. Wow, time is flying because every day is so packed! I know I will miss so many great stories and little things, but I'll try to write what I can. We have gradually been getting more settled in the house. I think we have unpacked all our boxes, hung pictures, and assembled all kinds of furniture. The girls and I are pretty good with screws and booklets of crazy assembly instructions now - bring it on! We've built desks, shelves, and bookcases, and are just waiting on a couple of bed frames, night stand and last desk and bookshelf before everyone is off the floor and feeling all settled. Every step forward feels like a big victory, though.   While we still had Zelle here, Adam, who she's been dating since late March/early April, came out to visit for her last week here and it was really fun to have him. They took the girls to the big aquarium here, and the nice thing about Atlanta being a bit of ...

We made it to Georgia! It was a whirlwind packing up, saying goodbye to friends and family, and preparing/training for our mission. So many thoughtful, supportive people wished us well, wrote us cards, gathered to say goodbye, and have offered prayers on our behalf, and we feel so grateful! The night before we left, a steady stream of well wishers poured in and it was hard to say goodbye for 3 years...it was really sad. The support and prayers are definitely carrying us through. Monday morning at 5:45am, we left our house for the last time. We have loved our time there so much...sigh. We were a scene at the airport with all 7 of us (3 in missionary tags),10 bags and 2 cellos! What a circus :) We would have had Ollie with us, but Delta isn’t flying pets, so he’s waiting out the pet embargo at Grandma and Grandpa Harris’s. We spent the flight with our masks on the whole time - something we're all trying to get used to, but I don't know if it will ever feel comfortable or norma...