Rick and Sherrie Mission Blog

 We left on Wednesday morning 13th of December.  We said good bye to the grandkids and headed out.  Our car was completely packed.    It was going to be a busy drive to get to Merrillville, Indiana.  It was just south of Chicago.  We passed through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and into Indiana.  We were able to have good driving conditions and they have great roadside stops. By going this far we were able to stay the night and get up the next day and drive to the mission home in Potomac, Maryland.  We were briefly greeted by the Mission President and his wife, the Clarke's.   We had a tour of the mission home and met the 3 couples, London's, Workman's and the Jenkin's.  We received keys to our apartment and proceeded to move in.   Mission Office Arriving at the Mission Office We live on the 3rd floor of the Camden apartments.  We are right across from the big Ikea.  It's easy to find off of Baltimore. Our garage drives up to the 3rd floor which makes for easy acce

 We headed out about 10 a.m. on Friday, December 8th.  We were trying to get to Gillette, Wyoming.  It was a scary couple of hours as the snow was falling heading out of Provo.  We were truly blessed because we are not use to traveling in the snow.  Our travels took us through Utah, Evanston, Wyoming and then to Gillette, Wyoming.  We got to our location and they didn't have our reservation.  They cancelled while we were traveling and we didn't have cell phone service.  We actually got sent to another location that turned out to be a very nice hotel.  We were grateful to lay our heads down.   Headed out the next day and we passed through South Dakota and then on to Minnesota.  The reason we took a northern route was to participate in the blessing of Kevin and Taylor's son Ayden Kenneth.  We got in about 9 p.m. in Rogers, Minnesota.  The roads were clear all day until we entered close to Minneapolis.  It was a slow go but we arrived for the baby blessing on Sunday.  We spent

The second week was a little more relaxed.  We got to see the Orem Temple Open House one night with our son Bryan and family.  Senior  missionaries have more leeway than young missionaries.  The format for the second week in the MTC is Member Leader Support (MLS) which is what we are assigned once we get out to Washington, D.C.  It is a lot of interaction with other senior couples and role playing conversations you might have with others.  There were Webb's, Meiners, Salmons, Sister Gunderson, Wood's, Christensen's, Bagley's, and us.  We saw the beautiful lights around the MTC and ran into some friends who are serving missions.  We crossed paths with the Germaine's, Udall's, and the Brown's.  We had lunch with Melanie Cox our niece who works at the MTC.   Brown's  (above) Udall's (left) Orem Temple Open House Germaine's                                                                                                                                

We entered the MTC on Monday, November 27, 2023 and were given our nametags and Preach My Gospel books (PMG).  They took us on a tour of the MTC and the buildings and facilities.  I was amazed at all the missionaries that were housed in the MTC.    We studied Tuesday through Friday on Preach My Gospel (PMG) and it was an extremely busy week.  We came home late at night exhausted.  We would study in classes on PMG and then had a meeting Monday with Branch President and were introduced to other couples who were serving all over the world.  On Tuesday evening we had Elder Budge of the Presiding Bishopric talk in the huge auditorium.  All the young missionaries as well as senior couples attended.  We had one of the largest groups of senior missionaries.  We totaled couples and senior sisters 70.  They reserved a spot on the side down front for us (older) people.  Wednesday night we had another fireside called the "Character of Christ".  It was based on the talk from Elder Bednar.

Rick and I submitted our papers at the end of May.  We got our mission call on July 4, 2023.  We invited family over and opened our call.  We were called to serve in the Washington, D.C. North mission.  We will report to the MTC in Provo on November 27, 2023.  We are going to be at the MTC for two weeks.  We have the Washington D.C. Temple in our mission as well as the area in Maryland. We thought it was awesome to be called to this historical place and receive our calling on the 4th of July.   Mission Map of the Washington, DC North Mission Boundaries