It's a Small World After All!

Today we checked into the MTC. We were assigned to room 148. We asked what room Dale and Marial Mortenson (Spencer's sister and brother-in-law) were in--they are about three feet across the hallway. That was our first pleasant surprise. We met them in the hallway.
While receiving our packets, (three couples meeting with a couple who are over the seniors) I looked to the side and saw "Sister Faulkner" standing there waiting for us. She was my very mostest favorite missionary in Garden City. I jumped up to give her a hug and we both were teased about disrupting the orientation. She works in the MTC. She was married just a few weeks ago. There are three other missionaries from Colorado Springs working here. Matt Peterson was the IT person during orientation. Elder Andelin will be one of the teachers tomorrow. I'm not sure when Elder Kettington works--but it is also with the seniors.
While I was in the hallway, someone called out, "Jeanine!" I looked around and didn't recognize the Elder speaking to me. He covered his wife's nametag and said, "You don't recognize me do you?" I was stumped. He told me he grew up in Prescott and was Carl's age. Then when I imagined hair on his head and dark, not gray eyebrows, I said "Yes, I do know you. You are David Montgomery!" He came in last week with Mortenson's and had made the connection between Mortenson's and us, so he was watching for us. It was fun to visit with them. This is their 2nd mission. They are going to be CES missionaries in Samoa.
Tom and Gretna Palmer (from Flagstaff) are in our group. We have crossed paths several times over the years. Gretna was on the M-Men and Gleaner Council with Ron and I. Tom was a neighbor to the Romney's, so we'd been friends since the Flagstaff stake was organized. This is their third mission. It is fun to visit with them, also.
At dinner tonight, Marial said that Elder Andelin was their teacher last week. He was talking about the impact Senior missionaries can have and talked about the Brown's in his mission. On a hunch, she asked where he served--and yes, indeed, he was using us for the good example. That was kind of a nice thing to hear.
Then when we were eating dinner, Spencer spun around as a young sister went past and said, "That's uh-h-h, you know, the young woman from Garden City, KS." Yup, it was Dianna Sejas. She is on her way to Santiago, Chile. She served in the Branch with us for a while and was in the YSA with the Boston's.
All in all, our first five hours here seemed like a homecoming reunion.

Spencer is our District leader--there are four couples in our district. One couple is in the room next door. The other two couples live here and are staying at home. Tomorrow we will be starting to work in our districts and teaching lessons. We will busy and going crazy.
I probably won't write again until Saturday--gotta get busy being a "real" missionary.

What a relief it must have been for the pioneers to arrive in the Valley--we will be relieved to arrive in Guatemala!

Heritage Park: "This is the Place?"

This is Spencer at Heritage Park

Pre--mission in Utah

We are in Utah. Today we went to "This is the Place Heritage Park", The Joseph Smith Memorial Building (and saw the film on the big screen!), and toured the newly refurbished capital building with Aunt Sandy as the tour guide (we got into all the back halls and cool places). It has a busy and very full day.
When I learn how to do pictures, I will do so. Hopefully this work.
Love,

Jeanine/Mom

Jeanine's New Blog!

Hi Everyone! This is Jeanine's new BLOG! Jeanine, I got this put together, but you can go to the SETTINGS heading and see what you might want to add or change. To add this photo, I just clicked on the photo icon above and followed the instructions. Once you download your photos to your computer, you will be able to pull them over to the blog pretty easily. (Like the sneaky way I got our picture on your blog?!) You can of course post without pictures, or add as many as you want. Your people can add comments, and I think you can also add people on who can post like this as well. I don't know when you will have time to play with it, since I know you are as busy as a one-armed paper hanger, right?! But at least it is a start. I hope it will work for you, I hope you get everything done that needs to be done before you and Spencer leave, and I am so excited for your mission. But I also hope it goes by really fast, because John and I will miss you guys terribly! Love, Sue