Final preparations

We only have 10 days left in Midland before we leave for Utah. Time is flying by. It is a bitter -sweet time. Betty Anne was released from her final calling today in church.  She has been the ward organist and choir accompanist for 27 years. As one person noted, it's the end of an era.

We will be speaking in Sacrament meeting on the 17th which will be our last Sunday here. But we will be able to see our granddaughter, Gabby, be baptized on the 16th so that will be a wonderful going away gift.

We are doing last minute preparations to try to anticipate all the things that we will need to take with us in as little space as possible. It's rather a monumental task to whittle things down to bare minimums and still have what's necessary without really knowing what is actually necessary. 'Tis a conundrum.

Major Preparations

The time to leave for our assignment to the El Salvador San Salvador West/Belize Mission is fast approaching. This is such a momentous time for us.  We're leaving everything that has been familiar for 27 years, our home, friends, family, even our country and flying off to new adventures in an entirely different environment and culture where we will live for 23 months.  We are very excited to begin this new chapter of our lives. 

We have almost completely packed up our house. Most of our furniture ,etc., is in a storage facility. Edward and his family , who will be living in our house while we're gone, have brought all of their belongings here to Midland and they are trying to set up the house for themselves. It kind of feels like we're living in a hotel at times but it's fun having so much family here together. Anne-Marie's family just lives down the street and the cousins are ecstatic that they are so close. Jonathan is temporarily living here at our house as well.

We are flying out of Midland to Utah on November 21st to visit Laurianne and Nathaniel's families before we enter the MTC. We're looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with them.  We will enter the MTC on December 2, and fly out to El Salvador on December 9.  The adventure begins.