weekly letter

Dear Family,
How y’all doin’? We are getting settled in and trying to talk the talk. We arrived in Carrollton late Thursday afternoon and got things unloaded. We went by the Employment Center Wednesday and met Sister Julie Poole. She is abt 65, short, high energy lady. She really has things going here. We stayed there for abt 3 hours, getting to know each other and touring the center and learning a little about it. The Employment Center closed at 3:00 on Wednesday for Thanksgiving and will reopen Monday. So we’ve had a few days to settle and get unpacked.
We met the Phelps, the other missionary couple at the Center, and they invited us to Thanksgiving dinner with them. It was a nice time to meet them and get to know them a little bit. They are both school teachers from Washington. While they were in the mission home their granddaughter got the swine flu. She had some difficulties from birth and for some reason the flu went to her brain and now she has reverted back and is like a 3 month old. They don’t know if she will recover or not, only time will tell. Their hearts are pretty tender about it all right now.
We have enjoyed getting to know our area a little bit, we’ve found a grocery store, a little post office inside a Chevron station, now that’s convenience!, and a nice park to walk and bike around. I think we’re pretty well settled in our apartment and ready to go to work Monday.
Today, Sunday, Sis. Poole is giving presentations in a couple of the Wards so we are going with her and watching her in action. She has been doing this for 25 years and is a down to earth, high energy lady! She will be great to work with.
We have a lot to learn!! But I think we will just be given portions to work on at a time then more as we are ready.
The weather has been nice, a sweater or jacket feels good, needed in the evenings. It’s raining today, so a little cooler.
Tomorrow the real training will begin and we’ll really start learning what it’s all about.
There is a lot of city around here – it all flows into one, we use the GPS every time we go out. Wednesday we should have our phone/internet hook-up, the holidays have gotten in our way of that. We have to go down to the main apt office building to get service now.
It seems like a long time ago now but we enjoyed visiting Donna & Dennis while in Provo. We also enjoyed seeing the sites and towns of New Mexico while passing thru. It was great to see the places that we heard Mom & Dad speak of so much while they were there serving. Carlsbad Caverns was a great place to visit also. I had sore muscles for a few days after however. You can take an elevator or hike down in. We hiked in but it is so steep, down, down and more down that my legs complained about it -- we took the elevator up. The caverns were incredible to see. If we had to hike out I would probably still be working on that, it’s quite a descent into the many caves and tunnels.
We just returned from another mtg where Sister Poole taught the 5th Sunday combined RS/Pr mtg. She is a great teacher!! Guess who was a member of this ward?!? Kim Marshall – Sandee Marshall’s daughter, its was sooo good to see her. She invited us over for Christmas Eve and gave us her phone number etc. It’s good to see a familiar face.
Tomorrow begins our on the job training, we are ready to go to work and see if we can figure this all out.
We appreciate and love all of you so much. I know that sounds trite, but it’s really true. We appreciate being a member of Christ’s true church and being able to serve in this way at this time. Thanks for your love and support.
It would be great to hear from you all, is the sun still coming up over Bunkerville Mt? Do people still go to church there?
Love and miss all y’all, Grandpa/ma, Mom & Dad, Jack & Gaye


Jack n Gaye