Getting in the groove

We had a good trip to Minneapolis. We had some good training. We aren't overwhelmed, but we do have a lot to learn and do. We will just take it one bite and a time. Our coordinator, Bro. Fisher and Liz, his wife treated us royally. They even took us sightseeing. We went to the Grand Mall by ourselves the afternoon that we arrived. It is huge. We only bought a magnet and went to dinner. The Fishers showed us the city. It is beautiful and clean. I had forgotten Brandon served his mission there. They encourage us to go sightseeing as we travel. So, on the way back home, we stopped in Mitchell, SD. We spent about 3 hours there and saw the Corn Palace. It is a building made of corn - husks, cobs, etc. It was cool looking. Then, we went to an Indian ruin that they are still excavating that is over a 1000 years old. Anyway, we got back Thursday evening. We went to another baptism on Saturday. Russell Longwolf, he is 10 years old. I couldn't help but think about Adam's baptism. The children are members of the church, but the mother isn't yet. She needs to work out some things first. We sure love these baptims, and working with the Elders and the Sisters. On Sundays, the Stake President asked us to go to the Singles Ward, and we are enjoying that. They had a youth fireside that night, and we spoke on the importance of Seminary. It was fun, and we had a good turnout. Afterwards, we handed out the materials to the Volunteer Seminary Teachers. Not all of them were there, so we will have to go to those places this week and give them their materials. Pine Ridge is the farthest, about 80 miles. We will go to Institute Class tomorrow night and see what they want to study after school starts. Then we will take over teaching the class. We will be a lot busier after school starts, after Labor Day. We love you all. Thanks for the comments. Here is you scripture until the next time.Galatians 22,23,25,26. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. Meekness, Temperance, against such there is no law. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another envying one another,

South Dakota here we come

We have not had the internet since we arrived in South Dakota. I will try to bring everyone up to date. On the way to Casper, Wyoming, we stopped at Martin's Cove. We didn't realize it, but it is in our mission. They have a nice museum there. We didn't have time or energy to go on any treks. We stayed overnight in Casper, and arrived in Rapid City about 4:00 the next day. The office couple were there to meet us and took us to our apartment. It is on the 3rd floor. Luckily it has an elevator. The sister missionaries lived there before. It has two bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and of course a living room, kitchen and a small patio on the back. It is quite nice, we are enjoying it. We are making the spare bedroom into a CES office. The full time coordinator for CES was transferred to Montana, so I guess we are it. We met the mission president, Pres. Cannon, and the Stake Pres. and his counselors. Everyone here is sooooo nice and seemed happy to have us here. We will teach an Institute Class on Tuesday evenings and we will be going to the Singles Ward on Sunday's. We have met with the volunteer Seminary teachers, and we will be doing some inservice for the new ones. Also we will hold an inservice meetings once a month for all the seminary teachers. We went to our first baptism on Saturday. Princess, a 15 year old Native American was baptized. It is a lot of fun working with the elders and sisters. I made cookies and we took a plate to everyone on the third floor in our apartment building along with a pass along card. We were able to meet almost everyone. A lot of our building is made up of Widows. They are pretty nice. We are speaking in a Youth Fireside on the 24th, then again in Sacrament Mtg. in the 2nd ward on the 31. Currently, we are in Sioux Falls staying overnight. We are on our way to Minneapolis where our CES coordinator lives for two more days of training. We will be going back to Rapid City on Thursday. We are seeing a lot of pretty country. There are fields of Corn, Soybeans, Sunflowers, and we saw deer, a lot of black angus cows, and of course a lot of grassland, and rolling hills. We love our mission! The gospel is true! We love you all! Here is your scripture until the next time. Therefore, ye must always pray unto the Father in my name; and whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you. Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name that your wives and children may be blessed. (3rd Nephi 18:19-21)

Wrapping up the MTC

We are in our final week (3 days) at the MTC. We were able to spend the weekend in Salt Lake with family. On Saturday morning we met Betsy & Mike and Kristi and Matt at the Salt Lake
Temple and attended a session. Having been married there it was a neat experience for us to be there. Later in the evening we all met at Betsy's for a family dinner. Along with the others, Shelly and Stephanie, her boy friend, Regina & Joe and Hannah, Jeremy & Amber and the kids, and Angela and Michelle and Grandpa were all there. We had good food (Mom's fried chicken and potatoe salad and lots of other goodies) and good company. It was really fun getting together one last time. Sunday we spent with Dad, going to church, dinner and using Grandpa as a guinea pig for missionary discussion for family home evening - then back to the MTC to find that we were locked out of our building. It was like being late for dorm hours in the olden days. This week we are having CES training then Wed. evening we will stay with Dad and then head for Rapid City.