Okay it looks like something happened so I (Michael) will proceed as if I know what I am doing.

Since we are about 3 weeks into our 23 month mission I will do a recap of what has occurred since we left home on November 11, 2015 up to our check in to the MTC (Missionary Training Center in Provo UT) on November 30, 2015.

We had hoped that our mission call would give us enough time to travel to visit friends and relatives on an elongated trip to Salt Lake City and, indeed it did, with us ultimately getting as far Courtenay British Columbia to see my Dad.

Our first night's stop was in Indianapolis, a drive I was very familiar with after having made it about a dozen times while I was driving an 18 wheeler for Fastenal.

From Indianapolis we drove the next day to Nauvoo IL. to visit with Lise and Michael for a day and a half. Nauvoo was a place I thought might be fun to retire to but seeing it in its winter hibernation was not an encouragement to continue those thoughts. It is a very small town and very quiet in the off-season.

We hurried out of Nauvoo on Saturday as we wanted to get to Lincoln in time to visit that evening and then to attend the Ward we had been part of up until two years ago. Dianne had arranged to stay with the Dragoo's for the night and they had arranged for a dinner at Valentino's where about 20 friends showed up. It was an ideal venue as it is a buffet pizza place that allowed us to change tables at will and we thus were able to visit with just about everyone who had attended.

The ward visit was almost as if we had never left although there had been some changes because of students coming and going. Really fun to be there but we beat it out of Lincoln as soon as the meetings where over to get ahead of threatening weather. In fact Jim Randall and his wife Susan insisted we stay with them for a few days to avoid getting stranded somewhere in a snowstorm. We were under some time pressures to get all of our desired travelling in before the 30th so we risked it and pressed on.

Fortunately we were able to stay just ahead of a storm coming in from the east. Every weather report told us of snow and tough travelling in the places we had just left. We got through to Salt Lake City by Tuesday with the worst driving conditions we encountered coming on I 80 as we completed the last few miles into the Salt Lake valley.

Dianne had set it up with our new landlords to let us stay the night and leave a good part of our car-full of personal items in the apartment even though our lease did not start until the first of December.

We were on the road again the next day towards Seattle and the Sherwood's home. Strong winds had been battling us all the way from Indianapoli, part of the ensuing storm I guess, and they had not let up as we headed out of SLC. The worst of it seemed to be felt by semi-trucks as we saw several over-turned in ditches. Glad that at least for the time being I am out of that business.

By Wednesday noon we were at the Nicolle and Greg's house in Maple Valley WA. Great time with them and the three girls before we left the next morning for Vancouver.

My brother Eric and his wife live near my Dad but they had previous arrangements to visit their son in San Diego so we were rushing to see them before they left BC . They had kindly offered their Courtenay home for us to stay in while we were there to see Dad.

Courtenay is on Vancouver Island and is thus a two hour ferry ride away from Vancouver which we took later Thursday after we had visited with Karen and Eric for a few hours.

I know this is getting rather dragged out and is probably of not much interest but I wanted to get it recorded non-the-less for future reference.