And so the adventure begins...

After 8 months of thinking, worrying, anticipating and receiving training and more training, our mission adventure finally began on June 30, 2017.  We left our home and arrived in Sacramento California around 10:00 a.m.  We had the most interesting feelings and though the plane ride was a short one, to us if felt very long.  I couldn't believe we were really on our way, I was filled with mixed emotions, sadness at leaving, excitement, nervousness, and all you can imagine.  

                                                         On our way......

We were met at the airport by President and Sister Jardine. We have talked with them on multiple occasions, but as we came down the escalator and saw them standing there and waving at us, Scott and I grabbed hands and said "here we go, we can do this"  It was very touching to me that as we stepped off the escalator, President and Sister Jardine reached up and took off their missionary name tags.  It was a sign that the keys had been passed and Scott was now the mission president.  How grateful we are for their kindness and graciousness towards us.  They went above and beyond to help make this a smooth and easy transition, they provided us with in depth information, and could not have been more lovely and helpful.  They left us a beautiful painting of the Savior going after the lost sheep for our new home, and stocked the refrigerator and pantry with food for us.  But even more than that, we have noticed that they left us with an amazing mission culture of obedience, purpose and love.  You can't help but be a little nervous to meet those who have loved their former mission president and wife deeply, but every missionary we have met has seemed so excited to meet us, and there is a great culture of love. The missionaries say I love you every time you see them or get off the phone with them, and that came because the Jardines prepared them to love and accept us and to follow the keys.  We are so grateful for all they have done and pray that when we leave, we will leave the mission in as good of condition as they did for us.  

They brought us to our home, which is in a lovely neighborhood in El Dorado Hills, and we came inside, looked around and then met with them for about an hour and a half.  We then had lunch here and headed for the mission office to meet our office missionaries and our assistants.  As we were walking out the door to our cars, a car drove past the house and screeched to a stop and two darling sister missionaries came flying out of the car.  They are the sisters who are assigned to our ward and they had seen us leaving. They wanted to say goodbye to the Jardines and meet the new president and wife.  They wanted a picture because they said how often do you get to be in a picture with both of your mission presidents.  

With the Jardines and Sister Baird and Wong.  (Scott and I really aren't that tall, our driveway is on a hill).  

We loved Sister Baird and Sister Wong immediately.  They asked if I needed any help and so I had them come and help me unpack some of our moving boxes on Saturday morning for their service hours.  I got to know them well and love them so much.  Sister Baird is from Illinois, and Sister Wong is from Hong Kong and is the only member of the church in her family.  I have been continually humbled by the sacrifices these young missionaries make to be on their missions serving the Lord.  

We went to the mission office, where we met 3 of our office couples, our mission secretary and the office elders who are in charge of the technology in the mission. Elders Mayne and Duncan have already saved us.  We think we have the greatest office couples in the church.  The Rasmussens, Gunns and Westrings, and our secretary Sister Stohl could not have been more welcoming, and lovely and I know we are going to become great friends.  I wish I would have snapped a picture with them, but I didn't.  Our assistants are two of the finest young men I have ever met.  Elders Watts and Pennington are stalwart, obedient and focused missionaries and their hearts are full of love for the other missionaries, for us and for our Savior. We are going to learn much from them and they have already been invaluable in our transition.  And look at those smiles, how could you not love these two? 

                                       Our assistants, Elder Watts and Elder Pennington

                          Elder Mayne and Elder Duncan, they are just the absolute best!

The first night in the mission, we wanted to go out teaching, we wanted to hit the ground running and so Scott went out with the assistants, and I had the great blessing of going out with two of our amazing STL's Sister Turner and Sister Morris.  Talk about a powerhouse companionship.  I didn't get a picture, which I wish I would have, but they are amazing.  Our first stop was to drop off a large print Book of Mormon to a man they had met through a referral.  He lost his wife of 55 years last month and his niece, who is a member, thought he might be open to the gospel message at this time.  He was so grateful for the visit, for the book, and wanted to take us through his house showing us pictures of his beautiful wife.  It was my first visit as a missionary and I found, with the calling of a missionary, it is natural to testify of the Savior and his redeeming power and the power in the Book of Mormon.  We then met with a priest from Nigeria they had been meeting with and he was such a nice man. After that we had a few minutes before we were meeting back up with Scott and the elders and I witnessed my first mission miracle.  The sisters decided to stop in at the home of a man they had received a referral for and had tried to contact several times.  As we were standing on his porch, realizing no one was home, a beautiful African woman was walking down the street with a little two year old boy.  It was a quiet street and so she noticed us and we noticed her.  In unison the sisters said "we need to approach her".  We walked to the sidewalk and introduced ourselves and missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and asked her if she had heard of the church.  She was from Nigeria as well and had come to live here to help her sister with her family, the little boy was her nephew.  she hadn't heard of the church and so the sisters started explaining the Book of Mormon, she wondered if we didn't use the bible and they masterfully explained how the Book of Mormon and the Bible are companions.  They asked her if she would like a copy of it and she immediately said yes.  I asked her if she would like to meet with us to learn more about the book and about our church and she said yes, she would like that.  She gave us her name and phone number and then said "I think God wanted me to meet you tonight.  I go on a walk every night and I have never walked down this street but tonight I had a feeling that I needed to walk down this street and I think it was because God wanted me to meet you."  What???  We were so excited, and as we got in the car I asked the sisters if it was always that easy.  They assured me that it is not, but I think I was just blessed with a miracle my first night out.  
As we were driving home that night I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the blessing of being in this place, at this time, with these missionaries.  We are in the right place and I am so grateful that our Heavenly Father has entrusted this sacred work to us at this time and in this place.  It has my heart already.  
We were able to attend a baptism on Saturday, which was a treat, we also got all of our stuff delivered and the sisters and the zone leaders came hand helped us unpack for a bit.  We had a few meetings and we were invited to a lovely dinner at the home of some members that live near us.  It was a full day and we were just thinking we could unwind a bit and got a call that an elder had dislocated his shoulder and was in the emergency room, so off we went at 10:00 that night.  Scott's phone has been ringing off the hook and we are only on day 2.  It's going to be a fun ride.  
Ethan and Preston and I were able to go to our new ward this morning. Scott came for the Sacrament but had meetings with 6 Stake Presidents all day long so he had to slip out. We have the nicest people in the ward.  Everyone was kind and welcoming and we know we will make good friends here.  We even got invited to lunch at the mission leader's home, along with the sisters, the bishop's family, a recent convert family and some of their non member neighbors.  It was such a fun and different experience  that we haven't had in Utah.  Unfortunately Scott couldn't make it, but we really enjoyed the afternoon, and the Pallea that Brother Bastian made for us. 

I know we are only 3 days in, but so far this has just been the greatest experience, we love it here, we love our missionaries and all of the members we have met,  and we love what we are doing.  Mostly we love our Savior and are so grateful to be part of this great work.