We're up and going!

Hi everyone! I managed to download our pictures to Tiffany, and she's going to put them on the blog for me. One step at a time here. Some day I'll master all this.

We are doing fine. I'd be dishonest if I said I wasn't homesick and nervous, but in talking to other couples who have returned from missions, they also had their challenges at first.

Today is P Day. We got the washer and dryer hooked up and cleaned up, and I did the wash. (Exciting, huh?) We went to the post office and mailed Easter cards to the grandchildren. Hope they receive them before Easter.

We get the BYU channel on our T.V., so we can watch all of conference from our apartment, except the priesthood session. We can also watch it from the stake center. Conference will be interesting with our new prophet.

Tomorrow we are actually going to start knocking on doors, now that we're finally settled. The bishop gave us a ward list, an inactive list, and a breakdown of areas in our ward. He also made some notes on a map. The ward is very spread out geographically. One area is 35 miles away. Maybe that's why there's a lot of inactivity. I'm going to make up some little handouts with our name and phone number to leave with people. I also want to take their pictures so we can have our own little photo directory. We'll be traveling on a lot of dirt roads. They're okay when it's dry, but they say "just wait until it rains..." They should have told us to bring our boots, right?

There are two wards in Douglas. Our apartment is in the Douglas 1st Ward, which we went to yesterday. People are so nice and friendly here. The last couple who was here worked both wards, so we'll have to see just how we'll do it. Our bishop said the 2nd Ward has a lot more families, and also a lot more inactivity. Our bishop has lived here all his life. He's young, and he's an attorney. Very sharp. In fact, there are a lot of classy people in our ward. They're the active ones. They all just talk funny. They murder the vowels. They talk like Andy Griffith, but maybe more so.

So, there's the sharp people, then there's the ones who live outside the city limits in the filthy run-down trailer houses where the 2nd Ward mission leader owns the junk/recycling yard. The stake president said there are migrant workers who live there who are mostly Mexican. There are drug rings, and they won't let missionaries go there after dark. There are a few old timers who have lived there for years, because all they could afford was the low income housing. But apparently some great Christian man has taken it upon himself to make a difference and try to lift the people up. He has organized some community programs for the youth, etc.

Last night we traveled with the stake president to another ward in the stake about 30 miles away. The town is called Waycross. It's about twice as big as Douglas. They were having an open house for investigators like we do in Utah. Our mission president was one of the speakers. He's great. They had 6 or 7 investigators there. We met some senior couples who are return missionaries. They were sooo nice and enthusiastic. Two of them had served in the Phillipines. One of the counselors in our stake presidency was from Washington State. He and his wife had served a mission here and fell in love with Georgia, and decided to move back here after their mission. I don't think so for us!

Sorry this is so lengthy. Dad just asked me why I was typing so much. He said we haven't done anything yet!

Love you all so much!! Mom

P.S. Thursday morning we have a zone meeting, and Kerry is coming to visit us Thursday afternoon. He'll have dinner with us, and then head back. Lots of driving. That will be a true visit of love! Can't wait to see him!