We go into the Mission Training Center (MTC) on March 9th. We’ve been instructed to arrive between 10:40 am and 11:00 am that morning. That’s twelve days from now.

On the other hand, we will put our motor home and Nina’s Toyota Avalon into storage on Thursday morning, March 5th (my Toyota Rav4 is already in storage). We’ve been able to secure inside storage at the old naval gun plant in Pocatello. We’re very pleased with that. Not only does this provide inside, out of the weather storage, it is also incredibly inexpensive. A car costs $30 a month and the motor home $40 a month. So, on March 5th we become completely homeless! That’s eight days from now.

So, how do we count? The most critical date is March 5th because everything has to be completed by then. After putting the motor home and car into storage, we’ll drive away from Pocatello down to North Salt Lake where we’ll spend the weekend with our grandchildren. They brought grandson Michael’s car up and left it with us as transportation down to North Salt Lake (Michael is visiting his mother and our daughter Heather in India at present and doesn’t need the car). So, the eight days remaining are pretty important and somewhat crowded. We’ll need to go over to Soda Springs to see my mother a couple of times as well as make a trip up to Boise. We originally thought we could go up to Boise on one day, spend the night and do a session at the Boise Temple, and return the next day. There just isn’t time for that, so we’ll be going up and back the same day.

We went to the Idaho Falls Temple twice in the past week. The Temple closes in mid-March for about eighteen months for significant upgrades inside the Temple. The remodeling will be completed about six months before we return from Hawaii. It’s a beautiful temple and I’m really looking forward to seeing the results of the remodel. Meanwhile, today the Church announced the ground breaking for the Afton, Wyoming on Saturday, April 25th. It’s possible that temple will be close to completion when we return. That’ll be fun to meet my favorite brother to do a session in that new temple!

We’ve received our travel arrangements to fly to Hawaii. We finish our training at the MTC about noon on Wednesday, March 18th (Nina’s birthday). We’ll fly out of the Salt Lake airport on Thursday, March 19th (my birthday) at noon on Delta flight 1105 arriving in Honolulu at 2:52 pm the same day after a 6:52 hour flight. This afternoon I talked with the missionary we’ll be replacing. They’ve been there for a year and are “counting the days” for our arrival and their departure. I’m pretty sure that they’ll be leaving the day or so before we get there. Meanwhile, we’ll be sending some things over to be there when we arrive. Important stuff, like craft supplies, ham radios, and some computer stuff!

Eight going on twelve days! Life is great!