WE HAVE ARRIVED!!

After a l-o-n-g drive across our beautiful country--we took 10 days to drive 3,500 miles and saw more rest stops than anyone should in that time--we finally arrived in Nova Scotia.

Here are some highlights along our way:

**Listening to Anne of Green Gables in anticipation of a visit (or two) to Prince Edward Island in the next year, as well as other audiobooks we'd borrowed from the library--it's nice that we don't have to worry about returning them since the library automatically yoinks ebooks back!


**An unplanned side trip to see The Wizard of Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas

We didn't realize the Tinman was so big!

**Miles and miles of wind turbines, also in Kansas. 

And then hundreds more turbines after that. Kansas has a LOT of turbines. And apparently a lot of wind.

**The new Susquehanna Visitor's Center in Pennsylvania, the Priesthood Restoration site. It was just dedicated last month. Very interesting, and the two hours we'd scheduled weren't nearly long enough.

New Indianapolis Temple at sunset

**Attending temples in Denver, St. Louis, Indianapolis (only open a few weeks), and Boston.

**Our niece Valerie lives in Boston. She took a day off and spent it in the temple with us and then playing tour guide. Delightful day!

**Fall in New England. Someone said we missed the peak by about a week. What we saw was SO amazing and beautiful we decided she was wrong!

When we first arrived in Dartmouth (the city across the bay from Halifax--the mission office, mission home, temple, and our apartment are all in Dartmouth) we hurried to get signed up for internet. It took three days before we got it. That was hard for us, but now we're up and running! One minor glitch: several days after we got here, we found out Sister Holbrook's phone is one of a rare few that will not work in Canada, no way, no how, no matter how many extra fees we pay. Not even the Wizard of Oz could get it working.

We have settled into our home for the next year. We have a 2-bedroom apartment across the street from a nice mall, 10 minutes from the office and 12 minutes from the Temple (opposite directions). Between our home and the mission office are a Super Walmart, a Costco and a branch of our local bank.

We have a lot to learn about how we can best support the mission president, our missionaries and the local wards. The wards and stake seem strong. We've been assigned to the Sackville Ward, a different ward than the one where we live. Last weekend was stake conference, so this Sunday will be our first week in the new ward. We're looking forward to getting to know those ward members.

We've now had a week to become more acquainted with our office responsibilities. The biggest thing we've learned is that the MTC training, which seemed so wonderful at the time, has very little application to our actual responsibilities.

Just a side note: It's been a few years since we did the blog. Either the format has changed or we've forgotten how to do it. You can guess which! Watch for our skills to develop (we hope!)

On Our Way - Canada or Bust.

I think this picture is corny but Arline said it is a tradition so here is our mission location on the official map.

Not as far as Siberia but still 3 hours east in the Atlantic time zone. 

We only had 3 couples in our office training so it went fast. We got finished by noon on Thursday, checked out and headed home to pack.

Packing took forever but we finally finished Friday night with a trunk as full as it could get (it included things such as a Kitchenaid mixer, crepe pan and all the flippers and spinners, Belgian Waffle maker, Blentec blender, a year's supply of vitamins and prescriptions, books, and lots of clothes. We missed most of those items in Siberia but we're WAY over the maximum of 200 pounds we could fit 4 suitcases. We are glad for our large trunk.

Before bedtime we had one more surprise visit from our next door neighbors. 

It is tough to leave the grandkids. 

Had a short night after cleaning up to leave the house for a year and left early Saturday for Denver where we visited the Temple and that night watched the UTES game. We are now making our way to Canada as we drive I-70 through the heart of the United States.

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MTC

     We have finished our first week at the MTC. We met some wonderful senior couples and also watched the eating, studying, service, and dedication of approximately 1800 young missionaries. Our check in was crowded because they wanted everyone to arrive before Elder Scott's funeral at 11:00. This lead to a traffic jam at the front driveway.

     We ate too much, slept too little, and had many role plays as we learned more about Preach my Gospel in our first wonderful week. We are home for the weekend to watch conference but must return before 5PM on Sunday for another wonderful devotional. Next week we are trained in office procedures and will be home Friday Oct 9 to pack for our 10-day drive to Halifax.

     They showed a clip of Elder Holland speaking to the missionaries and he mentioned that water does nothing at 210 degrees but sit. If you add 2 more degrees to 212 degrees, you can move locomotives and cook many food items. He also quoted a poem I listed below:

"Come to the edge", he said.

"We can't, we're afraid", they responded.

"Come to the edge," he said.

"We can't, we will fall!" they responded.

"Come to the edge," he said.

And so they came.

And he pushed them.

And they flew.

-Guillaume Apollinaire

     We're perched on the edge and hope to fly and soar as we arrive in Halifax in ~3 weeks to start our service to the Canada Halifax Mission.

     Our blog posts will be sporadic in the next few weeks, but once we get settled in, you can look for our blog posts every week. Depending on our schedule, we think they'll be posted by Wednesday mornings.

Love, Elder and Sister Holbrook



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