Moscow, Russia and that Marianne would assist in the same office with the registration of the young Elders and Sisters upon their arrival. They would be registered with the U. S. Embassy so that they could be reached with important information for their safety. After meeting with Elder Wickman, we also met with Elder Boyd Black and William Atkin who are counselors to Elder Wickman. By this time it was evening and we met Dalian and Nicole and family to go out to dinner. Needless to say, we were excited and full of anticipation as to the filling out of Mission applications, getting Dental work done and meeting with our Doctors. We left for home the next day and went to work getting things in order the best we could.
As soon as we got home, we started to work on the internet to fill out the Missionary Applications and get our Doctor appointments. We also told the rest of our family what we were up to and that we needed their support. Unfortunately, it was the end of May before we could get appointments to have our physical examinations. Marianne’s most important appointment however, was with her Cancer Doctor, Dr. Furientino. This doctor had been very attentive and caring. He approved her going on a mission if she would send quarterly reports of her blood condition to him. What a relief we all felt and moved forward with faith.
Most of the month of May was spent with our families in the eastern part of the U.S. We flew to New York City with the help of Steve & Kirsten who got tickets for us and picked us up at the airport. What a great time we had in NYC! Actually it prepared us for the experience we would have in Moscow, Russia. The cities are quite a bit alike. Steve was pretty busy with work and went with us when he could, but Kirsten was able to go with us or see that we got to a lot of special sites in the city. We especially enjoyed the Rockefeller Center, winning the Lottery tickets to “Wicked”, Wall Street, Time Square, Central Park, Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and our walk to the Hudson River, just to name a few. Steve & Kirsten are wonderful at taking care of their guests and so we really enjoyed being with them and Ben & Brooklyn.
The next important step during the month of May was a trip to Derrel’s graduation from Medical School in Morgantown, West Virginia. Steve & Kirsten rented a big enough car for all of us to travel together. We always enjoy traveling with them. It was exciting to arrive in West Virginia and see Derrel, Kim, Lydia, Kate, Grant and Austin. We had not had the chance to meet Austin, since he was born in December. We arrived late Thursday evening and spent a wonderful weekend helping get their house ready for them to sell and things ready for the final move to Boise, Idaho. Derrel’s graduation was Saturday morning. We felt that it was a very outstanding graduation and we were able to get seats quite close to the front of the auditorium which made it even more enjoyable. What a great goal he and Kim have accomplished.
Sunday morning Derrel & Kim loaded up and left for Idaho and the rest of us started out to look for a Sacrament meeting to go to in Pittsburg where Steve and Kirsten lived for a few months in early 2011. It was quite interesting to see the town, but there was a Marathon going on some of the streets in the city and every street we tried to turn on to get to the Chapel was closed. So—pretty soon the time was passed to attend Sacrament meeting and we were never able to get close enough
