Rollin', rollin', rollin'

Rollin', rollin', rollin'.........

Ach, du meine Gute! What a process packing turned out to be; selecting what goes and what stays, weighing... and weighing... and then taking things out to meet the 50 pound limit per suitcase, and weighing again. We were weighing the up to the morning we left. I thought Michael was going to develop a hernia from all the lifting and putting down of these gigantic suitcases on and off the scale. 
 

Then there were the pills. It was quite eye opening to see all the pills we had to bring along.These are just some of Michael's. I kept trying to convince myself that it really wasn't  that bad because we did, after all, need to bring enough to last for the entire 18 months of our mission, right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

Mission accomplished! Here Michael is with all of our luggage just before we loaded it into the car. It's like traveling with six children; 260 pounds worth! At least they're all on wheels and we can roll them along instead of carry them:-) Michael attached some handy little straps to the large suitcases that allowed us to attach the carry-ons onto the backs of two of them, so then we looked like a family of turtles rolling through the airport. We got a quite a few amused stares and comments.

We flew out of Fresno the day before Thanksgiving and were able to spend it with our daughter Heather and family and daughter Elizabeth and her family. It was so wonderful to be able to spend a few days with them. Today we went to church with the Millers and were able to hear Heather give a beautiful talk in their Sacrament Meeting. After dinner we drove to the MTC in Provo, Utah and moved into the student family apartment where we will stay for a week and a half until we leave for Germany. It's a little weird here right now. We are not actually staying on the MTC campus but a few miles west of it in some married student family apartments, and we are the only people here. Our car is the only one in the parking lot. I hope some more folks will arrive here tomorrow after the regular check in time of 10:00 am.

Auf Wiedersehen. Love you all, Elder and Sister Hart

Lastminute-itis

Well, we're getting down to the wire, close to D-Day, in the final throes, in the bottom of the ninth and almost to the end of our ropes, mine at least. Six days and counting, but who's counting? We've got piles and stacks of clothing, under and outer wear, medications, vitamins, personal hygiene products, prescriptions, German language study aids, mission related papers, coats, hats, gloves and shoes in all our bedrooms. Now, the final and biggest task ahead of us is getting it all organized and packed into the correct pieces of luggage. We have our carry-ons to pack with the stuff we will need to tide us over for the four days we will be spending at our daughter Heather's house until we enter the MTC on December 1, with the rest of our stuff going into the two 50 pound suitcases we will each be toting to get us through our 9 day stay there and in Germany for the next 18 months. It is very difficult to decide what will be very needful and what will not. Germany has all four seasons with four different climate changes. We in Fresno have basically two; really, really hot and cool. We are not equipped for the additional really, really cold climate. What will it take to keep us warm? I have no clue. Having not been really, really cold since my undergraduate years at BYU in Provo, Utah many years ago makes it difficult to even imagine being in such a state.
Some of our friends that are planning on serving senior missions in the near future have asked us what they need to do to prepare. Start the application process way early. I would start a good nine months before you want to go It takes a LONG time, at least it did for us. The application can remain active for as long as you need it too. Seriously, our biggest challenges have been in the health care arena. Start seeing your docs regularly and establishing a good relationship with them. Get all your health issues discovered now. Don't wait until you have to fill out the endless pages of your health history and medications and ailments to start considering these things. Be up to date on your shots and recommended "procedures" that may need to be done. If you would like to go abroad the hepatitis shot series you may need takes 6 months to complete!
This whole process has been such a learning and growing experience for us, to say the least. To say there have been obstacles put in our path would be an understatement. My husband, who is one of the healthiest and strongest people I have ever known, suddenly developed the strangest ailments that have proved difficult to diagnose and treat, but through the prayers and fasting and priesthood blessings of many friends and family he is pretty much back to normal. I had a fall that resulted in some knee surgery that put me back just a bit but am doing fine now. I think we have just about seen it all. It was funny, a couple of days ago Michael came in to show me something that had fallen out of his mouth. It was a crown. We just stated laughing. Really, you think a TOOTH can set us back? Luckily, our good dentist got him right in and glued in back on. He just advised him to not chew anything really sticky on that side until we can get back home and get it taken care of properly.
We are so excited to get everything packed and just be off already. Thank you for all your care and concern. We feel so grateful to have so many wonderful supportive friends and family. We will miss you all but luckily it is very easy these days to keep in touch. 

I have decided to create a blog while we're on our mission so that we can share our experiences with our family and friends in "one fell swoop". So off we go!
About 3 years ago Michael and I decided to send in our mission papers. We had been looking forward for years to be able to serve a mission for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Michael was already retired and so I retired from my job. Soon after starting the long and arduous process of filling out our applications, SURPRISE!, Michael received a three year calling to serve as an assistant recorder in the Fresno Temple......followed by a call to serve as the Young Men's President in our ward! Of course he accepted and to fast forward three years, we resumed preparing our mission applications in June and submitted them on July 4th of this year. On August 16 we received our call to the Frankfurt, Germany Mission, to serve in the Stake Young Single Adult Program. Our original start date was October 27, 2014. Due to a little surgery on my knee and some health issues for Michael, or start date was postponed to December 1.And so, here we are, babes in the woods, preparing to leave our home to live and serve in Germany for 18 months. Decisions about what to take, what to leave, what to do with our home in our absence, how to pay our bills from abroad, arranging our financial affairs, procuring our prescriptions and the list goes on. As many of my nearest and dearest family members know, I am a ditherer. Give me one assignment or project and I can accomplish it with the greatest of ease, but faced with a myriad of them I seem to run around like a chicken with my head cut off. We are gradually getting everything on our to do lists checked off- this blog being one of them. We fly to Salt Lake City on Wednesday, November 26 so that we can spend Thanksgiving with at least two of our children's families. We actually enter the Provo MTC on Monday, December 1. We have a week of training there with Preach My Gospel and then a couple of days of Institute Training the following week. We will fly to Frankfurt, Germany on Wednesday, December 10. YIKES! I can't believe it is finally in our sights. We are so grateful for the prayers, fasting and blessings of so many that have enabled us to reach this point. It was looking rather doubtful there for a while. We know our Father has a plan for us and has cleared our path.
The rest of today's agenda includes finishing my mormon.org profile, purchasing all our vitamins we need to take with us, buying baptism cards and gifts for six grandchildren that will be baptized next year, a few more birthday gifts for family with birthdays in December and studying German.