Cheboygan Welcome

After meeting everyone at the Mission Office and being given the keys to our home in Cheboygan, we began the 220 mile trip to the north.  It was another beautiful day and a beautiful drive.  Just can't wait for everything to be green.

We arrived at our house about 3:30 PM on Monday, February 26th!

We had been here for about ten minutes and heard someone coming up the driveway.  Elder Gibbons, being the man he is, he walked out and I heard him say, "Hey, you can't park here!"  He only said that because he saw that two angels were headed up to the door with welcome posters and food in hand.  The Relief Society President of the Cheboygan Branch, Cindy Pugh, and her 1st Counselor, Ann Harris, came to welcome us.  I absolutely love the people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints take care of each other.  Of course, we don't corner the market because their are lots of kind, good people in all faiths or even in no faith.  Their kindness made such a difference for us that first 24 hours because we had a lot of preparation and cleaning to do before we wanted to unpack and put things in cupboards.  They will be our forever friends.  We have already been with them so many times and have watched how they serve over and over.

Total miles from our door in Mesa, Arizona to our door here in Cheboygan = 2,750 miles.  

Our email sent February 27th ...

I just counted.  It's been 10 days since we sent our one and only email from the MTC.  In the last 10 days we have driven 1800+ miles, stayed in 4 hotels--one night each--unloaded and loaded our car everyday, and have finally landed in our "new" home in Cheboygan Michigan.  We are alive and well.  We are also happily exhausted.  We were able to meet our wonderful Mission President and his wife, President and Sister Peckham, at the mission home on Monday and she served us yummy crepes.  After meeting all the couples serving at the Mission Office, we headed north for 220 miles and easily found our home.  Can we just say that the Lord truly blessed our travels?  With the exception of 45 minutes between Rawlins and Laramie, Wyoming, the weather and road conditions were perfect.  Even in to Michigan yesterday we were greeted by sun and temperatures in the 50s.  

We had only been to the house for about ten minutes and a car pulled into our driveway.  Elder Gibbons, being the man he is, walked out and said "Hey you can't park here!"  He only said it because he could see that there were two angels walking up to our door with a "Welcome to Cheboygan" sign and food!  Yep, it was the RS President, Sister Pugh, and her First counselor, Sister Harris.  We love them already.  They let us know they have a Game Night every first Friday of the month at the Church and this week is in honor of us.  We are the first Senior Couple assigned to the Cheboygan Branch I believe.  We are blessed by the goodness of the people we serve with, for sure.

We've been here just over 24 hours and in that time we have participated in a Mission Zoom Devotional, visited one member (Brother Olson and his wife who are the owners of the home we are living in) and we have cleaned, organized and stocked the house.  Cheboygan has a Walmart and we are extremely grateful. Tomorrow morning we will go to the Cheboygan Branch Church building for our first District meeting.  We drove to the building today.  Elder Gibbons is already in possession of a church key.  .  I will attach a couple pictures.  We invite you to consider the strength of your Church community.

There is SO much we want to share and pictures (lots of them) we want to post on the blog, but honestly we need to be wise and get some sleep instead tonight.  We just wanted you to know that we are safe, happy and blessed.  I will update the blog sometime this week.  Just to be sure I get it right this time, here is the link: