Provo, we are here (with photos)

Yesterday was a very busy day, between Dee finishing her packing, and both of us scurrying around the house cleaning and throwing stuff away. Our suitcases each came in at just over 49 pounds, which is good because of the 50 pound airline limit, though hitting that weight involved a few iterations of removing things. To weigh the suitcases, I stepped on our bathroom sale to get a baseline, then I stepped back on holding the suitcase up so Dee could read the weight and we could subtract to get the difference. Good thing I have been doing weight training! Next time we'll buy a luggage scale, which is inexpensive and much easier.

We each have two 29" suitcases (one two-wheeler, one four-wheeler), plus a small carry-on suitcase and a bag holding our laptop and other stuff. It's odd for us to have so much luggage: usually we do three-week trips to Italy with just a carry-on sized suitcase and a backpack. Senior missionaries serving in the US are expected to bring their own car, which they typically fill to the brim. Several of them today expressed amazement that we could fit our stuff into only 2+ suitcases. The carry-on is where we keep our meds so that they can't be lost by the airline. By piggybacking the carry-on suitcases using the built-in strap of the two wheelers, we were able to move everything on our own at both airports, but just barely! See the photos below:

Traffic was fairly light and we made it to San Diego airport early -- thanks to VinceH for dropping us off. Our flight to SLC and SuperShuttle to Provo all went very smoothly. The flight wasn't very full, so we got exit row seats with lots of leg room for me. We arrived at the MTC about 10pm MDT and took a while to unpack and get settled. Then breakfast and church were pretty early -- 7am and 8:30am, respectively -- so suffice it to say we needed a nap this afternoon! Nothing much else is scheduled for us until tomorrow morning, which is nice.We have our missionary nametags and have worn missionary garb all day long, so it feels pretty official.

Our room is small but clean and well designed, rather like a hotel room, with enough storage space for us. We are in the Jacob Hamblin building, named after my great-great-grandfather on my mom's side. The grounds are beautiful, with lots of pretty flowers all over. There are tons of young missionaries around, dwarfing the number of seniors like us. Our church congregation today was the "international branch", consisting of the seniors and the foreign missionaries here to serve in the US or Canada. The English we heard from them was pretty good, and they were from all over; the two who spoke were from Mexico and Norway.

Photos of our accommodations are below, including the view of the Provo Temple from our window: