1 Week Down, 2 years 51 Weeks to Go

We may not be completely unpacked, but we have our magnets on the fridge and the hearts on the wall.  So we're home.

It has been a busy week (go figure).  Two dinner appointments (yummy, again Nice People Rule) and then Tuesday began 5 straight days of Meet the President/Zone Conferences.

The poor kids had to be dragged to the conferences.  Normally they would stay home and out of the spotlight, but for the "meet the President" that includes family and we were instructed at the MTC to take the kids to that.  I took them home after lunch so they wouldn't have to stay all six hours.

The stake RS's provided lunch which was so very kind.  It was so intresting to see how each different group approached it.  My favorite was the group that bought a ton of fried chickent from Albertsons--genius, I tell you.  Though the Spanish stake had a family do it and they were cooking up a storm--mmmm, Mexican food.

The mission home is kind of tucked away on a hillside so getting places generally involves a little backtracking as the crow flies.  Most of the time it involves multiple freeways but since we brought the van, the GPS just reroutes when I miss my interchange/exit/road.  We couldn't find anything without Della (our car is named Perry, for Perry Mason and the GPS is his secretary Della Street, or if we're going to the Spanish zones de la Street.  I crack myself up)

At the conferences, Presidente Ken introduced us, told a bit about how we were called, etc.  I introduced the family with some pictures and the kids waved.  After the intros it was down to business on missionary work.  I missed some of the morning training because I needed to see that lunch was actually going to happen.  I am such an introvert that I just tried to channel my inner Lisa B. and ask what needed to be done and introduce myself. Lisa is my hero.  Some groups were glad of the help and some shooed me out of the kitchen which enabled me to hear what the missionaries were learning.  All in all everyone was very (all together now) NICE.

The kids and I went home after lunch cleanup and tried to unpack.  We have progressed from everything in boxes to everything on the floor.  Sigh.  It is really odd moving into a house that already has stuff in it.  Especially in the kitchen--it took forever to find the measuring cups.  But that may have been because we have all cracked up.

Ken stayed to teach/train and then went out proselyting with the zone leaders up through their planning time.  So we haven't seen much of him since some of these zones are a ways away.  He's such a good egg but he must be exhausted.

Here are the intro pictures I used for the missionaries, they were taken in Arizona by the talented
Michelle Gifford. 

The black and white couple are my great-grandparents, Vivian and Oscar Mcconkie. Oscar was called to preside over the California Mission in 1946 (which included much of Arizona, too).  They are in front of the Los Angeles mission home.  Their mission included San Fernando.  The other picture is two sister missionaries and a convert in San Fernando 1964.  The tall red-headed missionary is Ken's mother! It is fun to come back to where our family served.