After one and a half weeks in the Missionary Training Center and a frigid drive 1800 miles across the country we arrived in Susquehanna, PA on Tuesday afternoon the 20th of December, 2016. We were warmly greeted at the Priesthood Restoration Visitors Center by our director and his wife. They are delightful people from Pinedale, Wyoming. He was a rancher and the superintendent of schools and she was a 4th grade school teacher. You can imagine that we already have much in common.
We were guided to the home where we will be staying and were tickled to have such great accommodations. (See the picture below with Dean waving from our porch.) It's very updated inside with lots and lots of room. There's a big kitchen, laundry room, office, bath and living room downstairs and two nice bedrooms and bathroom upstairs too. We live on a hill so there are lots of stairs to climb.
The first evening the missionaries had a welcome dinner for us and we had a chance to meet everyone we will be working with---six young sister missionaries, our director and his wife, one other senior couple, and a couple who work with facility maintenance. They were so kind and warm, we know that it will be a joy to work without them. The young sisters sang us a beautiful Christmas song, they are very talented!
Wednesday was a day to unpack, shop for groceries and generally get settled in. Today we put in our first day at the site and received a tour. What an amazing place this is! The Church has done a superb job of re-building the Isaac Hale home and Joseph and Emma Smith's cabin. They are done over the original foundations and filled with period furniture and furnishings. There is so much to see and do here...it could easily take 2-3 hours for a tour. That means we have so much to learn! It's a bit overwhelming, but we're anxious to learn all that we can.
There is a beautiful and sacred spirit here that you can't deny. One man in the area likes to just come and sit in the parking lot because he loves the way he feels here.
We hope to have you come and visit us here.
En route we made a stop at the Kirtland Temple in Ohio.
