November 3rd.

 My parents have made their way across Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa. They are now near their mission office. Here are some pictures they took along the way and an email about today’s adventures. 

    

  

   

   

   

    

     

   

     

    

   

   Today was a beautiful day! We met 3 different people in our hotel who recognized us as missionaries. One was a lady from Rexburg , Idaho, another was a man from Herriman Utah. The lady at the front desk addressed us as Brother and Sister Curtis. She asked if we had gone to Mt. Pisgah  or  Nauvoo. We told her that we were just heading straight to our mission. 

     We left Des Moines,Iowa and headed toward Chicago. We drove through beautiful farm country where there are lots of wind mills and grain silos.  The fall leaves are still on many of the trees and they are spectacular.   We stopped before we crossed the  Mississippi River and watched a large barge pass through the locks. I love to watch the workings of the locks, so this was fun. 

    After lunch we drove to North Utica, where we will be living. It seems like a quiet community of homes on rural winding lanes. There was not too much sign of farming, except for the large cornfield across from our duplex. 

We then drove to Ottawa to find the church. The GPS failed us by giving the wrong address on the wrong street. We tried again and found the chapel, but no help from Google maps. 

     After Ottawa we headed toward Chicago and Downers Grove, where the mission office is. The traffic was bad and it was pretty slow going. As we were looking for the office, again the GPS failed us by telling us to go on a freeway ramp and then by saying we had reached our destination. We finally just happened to turn into a parking lot where the next building over was a collection of offices, one of which was the mission office. We got out and walked over to the front of the office and figured out where we had to turn in to park for the office. We will meet with our mission President tomorrow and we now know how to find the office. 

   We then went and checked into our hotel and ate dinner. Today was an awesome day and I know Heavenly Father protected and guided us. We have a purpose here even if we don’t know what it is yet.