GETTING READY
Early in 2016 Lane and I became serious about our mission. In January we received a call from President Dennis James of the North Carolina, Raleigh Mission asking us if we would be willing to serve in his area. Lane's sister-in-law and brother-in-law were there as MLS missionaries and had told him we were thinking of serving. We were excited and started the application process. Our call was issued onTuesday, 8 March and we received our envelope on Saturday, 12 March 2016. We were very excited. We had our farewell talks in the Aspen 2nd Ward Sacrament meeting on 24 April and entered the MTC on Monday, 25 April 2016.
We were proud to wear the missionary badges issued to us - Elder and Sister Martin!
Called to serve in the North Carolina, Raleigh Mission in the Leland Ward.
Our week in the MTC was wonderful. We met many other senior couples all going out to serve. Some were MLS (Member Leader Support), some going on legal missions, humanitarian missions etc. One couple were assigned to the Ukraine, another to Hong Kong, Eastern European, and two couples to South Africa! Amazingly I met an old friend from South Africa, Jenny Snyman (Tonkin). We have many parallels in our lives. We were both single for many years and now married wonderful men and both going on missions. She and Ace Robison are flying to South Africa on their mission! It was great to make contact with her again. Above is an old friend of Lane's brother Craig, Elder and Sister Kelly. Lane and Phil "found" each other and would stop and chat at every opportunity that presented itself.
At the MTC everyone was put into "Districts of about 8 people" for training purposes. Left to right above is our morning teacher, Sister Fisher. She is a returned missionary and such an excellent teacher. Next are the Sutherlands, Cullums, Martins, and the Brittons.
Our afternoon teachers were a returned missionary sister and Elder Yazzi who served in Texas. Lane and I are not in the photo. It was Friday and our last day at the MTC. We were excused early as we were going to my granddaughter Maddy's graduation from UVU.
The gardens at the MTC were beautiful! After the graduation we returned to the MTC to check out!
LEAVING
We spent the weekend packing and getting ready to leave on our 4 day cross country trip to North Carolina. We managed to get away by noon on Monday 2 May 2016. Our car was loaded to the roof. I was amazed that we got everything in!
We could not see out the back window!
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Packed to the hilt! Not even space for a mouse. |
CROSS COUNTRY TRIP
We traveled via Price, Grand Junction, Denver, Kansas City, St Louis, Louisville, Knocksville Tennessee, Charlotte NC and on to Raleigh and finally Leland.
Crossing the magnificent Colorado Mountains
Glenwood Springs, Colorado rest stop. |
Glenwood Springs was a beautiful rest stop in the Colorado Mountains. The ski lifts and resorts in the Arapaho National Forest were breathtaking!  The freeway in Covington, Illinois |
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Pisgah National Forest, White Oaks, NC. The freeway had hundreds of trucks traveling both ways. The scenery was gorgeous with green trees lining both sides of the road. Later in the evening it started pouring with rain as we crossed the Appalachian Mountains. It kept raining for about two and a half hours! At times we could hardly see where we were going. We finally got to the home of Sister and Elder Scott, the missionaries serving in the mission office. We collected our keys and headed, in the rain to our destination - Leland North Carolina. We arrived at our condo at 12 midnight. We unpacked, made the bed and, after a 14 hour drive that day, we fell gratefully into bed.
BRUNSWICK POINT COMMUNITY, OUR NEW HOME FOR THE NEXT YEAR
Our apartment is the bottom left on the ground floor. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It is in a huge community with about 300+ apartments, a swimming pool and a weight room. It is well kept and we love it. We have a Super Walmart, McDonalds, Arbys, Dollar Store, Applebees and more within 3 minutes drive. In fact our community is almost in the Walmart parking lot but it cannot be seen because of the many trees growing all around. It feels as if we are in the country. There is a pond nearby which is home to a 10 - 11ft alligator! There is a sign up at the pond that alligators are protected and you are not allowed to feed them! Lane and I took a walk there this afternoon to see if we could see "Jaws". That is what we have named the gator.
Peggy and Vaughn have kept us busy visiting other senior couples and we went to Smithfields of lunch. This is a well known restaurant that serves BBQ pork sandwiches, banana pudding and Hush Puppies which are like little fingers which taste like corn bread. It was all delicious.
BBQ Sandwhich and fries at Smithfields.
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