The Way West

Like so many missionaries around the world, we have been on quite an adventure the last few weeks! When we found out that we needed to return home and continue serving there, we started packing and getting ready for the trip. The hardest part was not getting to say a proper goodbye to all those that we wanted to! We attended our last mission staff meeting on Tuesday morning, March 24 and were able to bid farewell to the mission president and the office staff. We cleaned out our cupboards and refrigerator and delivered some food to some local missionaries and a neighbor. We had some great help loading our car (while trying hard to stay 6 feet apart!) from Elder Melzer, a senior missionary and our good friend and neighbor Laannia Hudson.

On Wednesday morning, we stopped by the mission office to return the bicycles we had borrowed and stopped to take a quick selfie with the assistants, Elder Ewell and Elder Ayers. We had to say goodbye to our beloved Greens Bayou ward via WhatsApp!

John did an excellent job of packing and as you can see we used every square inch of our car as well as a luggage rack that plugged into the trailer hitch! We had accumulated more that we brought here, so we ended up shipping some boxes home too.

We hit the road at about 4:00 pm to get a start on our 1400 mile journey. Thanks to the lack of traffic from the disruption due to the virus, we made good time. Otherwise it would have been rush hour!

We found this photo on the internet to give you an idea what we saw on our drive - the wildflowers were in full bloom and it was splendid! 

There is a giant statue of Sam Houston along the freeway (for a minute I thought it was Brigham Young until I remembered where we were!)

Oh Texas, we will miss you and your crazy barbecue trailers!!

This was on the door inside the men's rooms at one of our stops. Most of the gas stations did a great job of making us feel safe - they were scrubbing door handles and mopping floors. At times though, the rest rooms were closed, mostly in New Mexico and Arizona. That made it much more difficult and uncomfortable while traveling! (Especially for those of us who drink a lot of Diet Coke to help avoid drowsy driving!)

The first night we stayed in Fort Worth where the hotel was eerily empty. There weren't many crazy travelers like us on the road!

The next day we were surprised to hit 100 degrees in Northwest Texas. It had been about 90 when we left Houston but we didn't think it would get hotter heading North!

Then into New Mexico where we stopped for the night in Santa Rosa.

The next dat the scenery started looking much more familiar as we passed by Lee's Ferry and on into Marble Canyon, on the way up to the Kaibab Plateau.

                                             

As we gained altitude we were at 28 degrees - That is quite a drop in temperature! And we ran into a small snowstorm near Jacob Lake.

We pushed all the way through to St. George because the hotels around Tuba City were closed! Later we found out about the virus hitting the Navajo reservation hard and that explained it. Boy it was great to see our family - but it was so hard to maintain the required distance and not to be able to hug them! We at least drove by and waved at all the kids.

Poor 5 year old Liam was the most confused about why he wasn't getting hugs!

Jessica picked up some dinner for us on her way home from work! Both of our homes were still rented out, so we spent the first several days in St. George living in a hotel. 

We got to be there for Williams 12th birthday - he has a sweaty head and a happy smile after getting home from a dirt bike ride with his dad!

We did our best to practice social distancing! The next day was Shauna's birthday, and she works at the hospital close to our hotel so she met us there for lunch on the patio!

Over the weekend this cute little filly was born on the Zitting ranch, so we met over there for some outdoor family time. 

This was a perfect place to spend time with family without getting too close!

This was our way of showing how much 12 year old Braden has grown! When we were able to really measure after our two week quarantine we say that he had passed me up! (I know it's not that hard to do!!)

Our Pine Valley home became available first, so we are making that home now.

This valley is so beautiful! We got a dusting of snow soon after getting there and loved seeing the trees all flocked.

We miss the lush green forests of Kingwood, but we traded it for these beautiful mountains!

This is our mountain home - it is soooo quiet here. We were used to hearing sirens late at night, now it is just the occasional coyote.

The view from our front deck.

We got our Easter decoration up - I hope the UPS man appreciated it since he has been our only visitor!

After our two week official quarantine after returning home, we went to visit the kids again. Goldie was happy to see grandma!

We decided to risk it and give the kids a quick hug - Liam was happy!

Asher was doing school in his favorite pajamas.

We got to see Luna walking all over - she wasn't too sure about us at first, but soon warmed up to us.

I made a mask to use at the grocery store.

John got creative with where he might put his missionary badge! We still dress up for meetings or if we are going out, but this is the staying at home in Pine Valley look.

We love going for walk through Dixie National Forest - the Riverwalk Trail is so beautiful!

We saw some big trout in this little stream.

It is sure a lot colder that Houston! We have to bundle up for our walks - especially this week. I know it will be too warm soon enough, so I'm trying to enjoy it!

John snapped a photo of me working in my buffalo plaid fleece shirt.

We have visited Ian's grave here in Pine Valley and we plan to plant some wild flowers near it. 

             
                                                                                 

It is hard to believe that Ian has been gone for 11 months. We feel like he has been near us on our mission. We have shared his story several times and, of course, we think of him often. It is a blessing to see how much Ian's son, Lincoln reminds us of him; and Braden often brings up memories of his dad, which helps to keep him in mind and to feel close by.

Conference weekend was incredible - so many messages of hope and encouragement. Then being able to fast and pray, joining with others all over the world on Good Friday was an amazing experience! We are so grateful to have a prophet on earth, President Russell M. Nelson who is able to guide us and tell us what the Lord would have us hear. We love serving as missionaries, trying to help the missionaries stay well and healthy - we pray for them as they face this challenge of working from inside, via technology. We hope that they know how much the Lord loves them and that when they turn to Him they can find peace even in times of trouble. We love you and hope you are all managing to stay healthy and well!