MTC Training & Travel Plans

  Today we discovered that seniors serving foreign missions need additional insurance.  So rather than being reassigned state side, we signed up for coverage with Deseret Mutual.  Tom registered with Veterans Advantage so we will be evacuated, via military transport, in the event of unrest or heaven forbid, a revolution.

We are almost packed.  I had a meltdown over the weekend while trying to figure out how to get our technology closed down here and up and running in P.E.  I bought Microsoft Word and a HP Mobile printer to take along but could not get the softwear properly installed or the printer to interface.  Credit Drew Barber for bailing us out.  I  transfered our home phone number to Vonage so we can Skype and talk to our kids.  Hope we don't have solicitors calling in the middle of the night.  Tomorrow is my last Zumba class with Shelly Schoell and the ladies of our stake.  Friday is my the last dance exercise class with Amy Rosevear.  I've had Dean film some of these classes so I can keep up.

We check into the MTC on Monday, February 20th.  We will be there through Wednesday, February 29th.  We return to Salt Lake for PEF Training at the Joseph Smith Building on March 1st and then another training at the Church Office Building on Friday, March 2nd.

It's a 19 hour trip from Salt Lake to Johannesburg.  We fly out on Monday, March 5th, at 9:45.  We will likely be in Jberg for a couple of days before flying on to Cape Town where we will meet with the mission president and collect a car.  Elbeth Melville, the owner of our unit in Port Elizabeth, writes that we will likely be driving to P.E.  "If you do, you will enjoy the trip.  Cape Town is beautiful and driving along the Garden Route is very pleasant and a good introduction to our Country." 

Last night Dave and Kristine Tanner hosted a farewell party for us and several of Tom's boyhood friends.  The Glenn Robinsons invited us to a luncheon at their home on Friday to meet some  returning S.A. missionary couples.  John Farley, my cousin, reports that his son, Elder Kevin Farley, was just transferred from Port Elizabeth to George.  Kevin keeps telling his dad that he loves South Africa and does not want to return.  Our former non-member neighbor Jim Smith, his wife Caren and  daughter Ani will be visiting there when we arrive. Caren notes, "Cape Town is magnificent and so is Port Elizabeth.  My entire family is in PE and we have family spread all along the coast."   It seems that everyone we run into lately knows someone there.