Welcome to the Washington D.C.North Mission

We arrived at the mission office Tuesday afternoon, Feb 14th. Everyone was waiting for us and welcomed us like prodigal sons.  The story of why we are here:

The Mission Office

SLC told our mission president there was no couple coming to replace the couple leaving the end of December. So President Johnson put out a plea for a local couple to volunteer. Brother and Sister Troutman of Annapolis, who had been working in the temple for six years, and had previously served a mission in SLC at the Church's mission headquarters, volunteered to do it for a year. They started in December, were trained by the couple leaving, and then found out we were coming. Words cannot adequately describe how grateful Greg and I are that they served in the interim. They cleaned up, organized, and got everything ready for us. Then they stayed and have been training us for almost two weeks now. They have on a good commute day, a two hour round trip drive from home to the office. So their sacrifice has been great.

I am a mission secretary and Sister Thompson, from Ogden, is the other mission secretary. Greg is the finance/housing elder. Elder Thompson is the vehicle coordinator.  I think we are here because there was a great need for Greg and his knowledge of all things pertaining to what he can offer the mission office.  There is a couple, Elder and Sister Miles,  serving a Member Leadership Support mission are also housing coordinators out in the field, emptying and finding apartments. The mission is trying to get all missionaries into one bedroom apartments. The Miles are invaluable to the mission, and Greg is so grateful for their help.

The office is the basement of a chapel, and it is very nice. Our apartment is about twenty minutes from the office, and we don't have to get on the freeway. It is a nice quiet area. We are about twenty miles from the Quince Orchard Ward, Maryland Seneca Stake, that we have been assigned to.

Groceries were a sticker shock, but gas about the same price as northern Idaho. John Hopkins and other universities have research facilities here. We are surrounded by very  big research facilities and very large apartment buildings. Many people work either in research or for the government. There are people from all over the world here. So many high rise buildings here, so many roads.

People drive about 20 miles over the speed limit here, do not use their blinkers, and honk at you at will.  Kinda scary.