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!)