Church on our way to Our Mission!

The photo of the Young people are return missionaries who were our teachers at the MTC, there were some others not pictured.

Larry and Cindy at the MTC. October 26, 2009 through October 30, 2009

Saturday 1 November 2009
We traveled until we reached a motel, we stayed the night at Super 8 in York, NE and went to church at on 2 November 2009 in a pretty small town called Lincoln, Nebraska Mahoney Ward at 8:30 a.m., They had their fast and testimony service. It was a little warmer weather there. The people were very friendly. We attended the entire block. After church we went to the Mormon Trail Center Historic Winter Quarters we watched a movie and went on the tour, then we took photos of the Temple and Mormon Pioneer Cemetery. The Winter Quarters Temple is located in Florence, Nebraska, a suburb five miles north of downtown Omaha. Our car was packed to the brim, as you can see in the photos. Cindy packed it over, but couldn’t get the door shut on one side. Larry later laughed about it and called that experience a “I Love Lucy” moment. Then we traveled on the next day Monday 3 Nov 2009 as far as Moline, IL and stayed the night in a Days Inn Motel. We were not too far from the Mission Office on Tuesday 4 Nov 2009. We arrived at the Mission Office about 8:30 a.m., we met the office missionaries Elder and Sister Holmgren and Elder and Sister Cordner who are our trainers. We took a tour of the Mission Office and met the Office Elders too. One of them was Elder Gifford from our Stake the Glendale North Stake. He was excited to see us, he knew we were coming, his brother and wife are in our ward back home. We also met an Elder Clinger who was related to Tiffany Clinger, She was our ward RS President for a couple of years, but she and her husband and family moved last year to Boise, ID. It certainly is a small world. We began right away to learning and working in the office. Later that afternoon President Albright told us that we were going to be working in the mission office half of the day and the other half of the day we were assigned to do visits to In actives and Investigators in Centreville 1st and 2nd Wards.

We have a zone district meeting tomorrow and invited to dinner with the CES Missionaries in Centreville 1st Ward. Plus working in the office.

9 Nov 2009

We attended the District meeting, it was fun, I am the only sister. Went back to Mission Office and got some more training. Later we went to dinner at Elder and Sister Sowby (CES Missionaries) townhome, they have 5 children and 17 grandchildren. They are from Utah. He is a retired Civil Engineer and she is a Journalist. They teach the institute classes. They are in the Centreville 2nd Ward. The CES office is part of the Centreville Chapel. It was added on to the bldg about 2 years ago. The chapel is a large building. The Sowby’s offered to show us around town on a Saturday one day. We will move into the apartment on Wednesday. Thursday is Transfers and we are invited to the meeting and that evening we are invited to the fireside. It will be fun. The Elders in this Mission have 22 Baptisms scheduled as of Friday. About 9 happened over the week-end. We visited our first inactive member on Sunday evening. He said we could come back to visit on Monday through Thursday in the evening. He has 3 big dogs, the dogs are scary. The home teacher is the YM’s President. He hasn’t been able to make contact with this family and we did, so that is a step forward.

Love, Sister Maldonado

Training in the MTC

Elder Maldonado and Sister Maldonado are in the bottom first row 5th and 6th person from the left. We really enjoyed meeting and working with these fine couples. They were all going to different missions. Some were going to Jamaica, some to Hawaii, Palmyra Visitor Center, Nauvoo Visitor Center, New York, and many other places. It is amazing to see all of these Elders and Sisters serving the Lord.

Arrived in DC!

We arrived at the Mission Office yesterday morning and started right to work. We are staying in the Stake High Councilman’s (home he is in charge of Missionary work); Mac Haddow and his wife Alice, we will be here until about the 17th . He and his wife are empty nester’s with a 3 story large home. We are staying in the basement, which is another home in itself, master bedroom with bath, walk-in closet, kitchen, family room, game room, theatre room, laundry room, etc. It is a beautiful home. We are spoiled for a little while. We are going to look for a place to lease for 6 months.

We will be working in the Mission Office, until they get another senior missionary couple. We work from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. We are learning the ropes today. It is fun, but a lot of work and hard for Larry to learn. Elder Maldonado is learning the finances and I am doing the referral program and the mail for the secretary and stocking the supply room. There are lots of different languages here. We get to go the rest of the day doing activation visits and proselyting. We went out looking for apartments this afternoon today, and they are small and expensive. We found one we are getting that is the least expensive. It costs about $1100. But that is with a discount. It is only 1 bed room, 1 bath, kitchen, great-room, the laundry is in a little closet in the bedroom, it has a covered patio with a storage room too. It has appliances and washer and dryer. It looks like opportunity awaits us in this complex, more so than the other ones we looked at. By the 17th we will have furniture and stuff from the other senior missionary couple that are going home. I hope they have a micro wave, because this apartment doesn’t have one. It does have a exercise room and exercise trail to walk. Some other good things too, but it is pretty small. The weather is cold in the evening starting about 4 p.m. It is dark between 5 and 6 pm. It is beautiful here. There are groves of trees like the sacred grove. The fall is colorful. They said that Sept and Oct is the best time for the weather here. Well, Larry is asleep, I should be, but want to send this e-mail. We will be working with the Centreville 1st and 2nd wards in Centreville Stake. Larry doesn’t like imposing on the Haddow’s, so we may get the apartment sooner, without furniture. Love you all, Sister Maldonado

Saturday October31st

We just crossed into Nebraska from Wyoming. We will be going through Iowa too. This will be our longest stretch, about 1029.6 miles. After leaving the motel this morning we thought we were going to be delayed about 6 hours. We traveled 150 miles to where the road had been closed, and just as we arrived there it opened up. What a blessing. The sun is shining and the roads are clear so far. We are traveling with lots of trucks, they all had been delayed for a few days, with the road being closed. We saw herds of antelope feeding in the valleys this morning, when passing through Wyoming. Nebraska is pretty plain and rolling barren hills. Glad to hear that Jim is doing well. We are keeping him in our prayers and we will fast for his recovery. Love, Elder and Sister Maldonado