It's All About the Zone

We have an awesome zone!  There are 32 missionaries in the Valparaiso (pronounced Val-praise-oh) Zone.  We have spent a lot of time with them over the past week or so.

Had a GREAT Zone Conference yesterday.  Everyone is so strong.  Sat behind two beautiful and sweet girls assigned to work in Gary, Indiana.  They are awesome, especially because everyone equates Gary to Santa Ana.  Scary.  But they love it.  Lots of good work getting down by these great kids.

Last week, we met everyone at the temple in Chicago.

Note:  I'm not in the group picture because I'm behind the camera.

After the temple, we met at the Mission President's house for lunch.  They fed us chicken, watermelon, pineapple, potatoes and gravy, salad, rolls.  And for 36 people (and a lot of growing boys) that is a lot of food.  They do this about once every three months.  After the lunch, we had a meeting with the President and his wife.  We were done about 3:30 in the afternoon, just in time for Chicago traffic.  The two hour drive took us 4 1/2 hours!!

On the way TO Chicago, we stopped at Costco and spent more money there than we had spent in the previous month.  Sheesh, we decided we should just not leave home that often.  Anyway, we were driving by this house that had a garden for a yard.

We stopped, and the man came out and invited us around the back.  The yards were gorgeous.

Big koi pond.  Hundreds of tulips.

This is his backyard.  If you look WAAAAY down there you will see a patch of brown ground ready for the vegetable garden.  Their property continues 300 yards into the wooded area at the back.  ALMOST makes me want to live here.  Really beautiful.

He invited us back in the summer to see the summer flowers.  YES, we will go.

Our neighbors had "pizza night" and invited us and the Sister Missionaries.

First, you roll out your dough.

 Add sauce.  As you can see, I had 1/2 alfredo, and 1/2 tomato.

Choose your toppings:  sausage, chicken, two types of cheese, mushrooms, olives, peppers, onions, pineapple, ham.

More sauce, more cheese.  Then bake on a pizza stone.

 Craig, teasing the dog.  BTW, he ate half of that pizza.

The sisters were stuffed!

Zone Meeting yesterday.  I learned that there are only three missions in the World where they have issued ipads to all the missionaries as a way to use technology in teaching and reporting.  Our mission is one of them.  Craig and I, however, do NOT get one.  But they are so cool.  They keep videos on them, teaching lessons, appointment schedules, phone lists, etc.  All their scriptures, hymn books, pictures, and stuff is on there.  They can use FACEBOOK, but only for missionary purposes and only for about 1/2 hour a week.  The kids are really good at using the technology.

Because two state roads cross here in Rensselaer, there are lots and lots of road signs.

In case you are confused, they are meant to help.

Two of the closest cities.  We have family night every other Monday in DeMotte, and the nearest chapel is in Hebron.

I kept looking on the map for Indot.  I couldn't find it anywhere.  Who knew?  INDOT = Indiana Department of Transportation.  Duh

Marysville was another town I couldn't find.  Everyone talked about it like it was a big city.  Then one day coming home from the temple I saw a sign for Merrillville.  Yep, that's it.  Now, I don't know about you, but when I say Merrillville, it doesn't sound anything like Marysville.  Can you see why I was confused?

We had our first gift from Sam.

Craig says, "How are we going to get it out?"  I replied, "We???"  Sorry, not in my job description.

And one last note:

If there is no house, there is no sidewalk.  The sidewalks are put in WHEN the house is built.  There you go.  It makes going for a walk much more exciting.

Meeting with Joe tomorrow (an old farmer if there ever was one) and Pastor Ben on Friday.  The work moves on.