The Crate has Arrived!

We have heard that "Home is where the heart is" is something that missionaries really have to live by becuase they move so often. We do believe that statment holds a lot of truth, but I think our team mate, Nate, put it in a clever way today when he said "Home is where the stuff is!"

Our apartment finally has all of our own things in it! Our team kept saying how today felt more like Christmas than December 25th did for us! It has been eight months since we packed up our home in Rochester and put whatever possesions that we had into storage (winter clothes, dishes, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, books.) We packed the rest of our stuff, like clothes and other items that we had accumulated over the summer in October. Today, we were able to get our stuff again!

We left for New Zealand on November 3rd with two suitcases each, one with clothes, and one with sheets/toiletries/gifts. After living on one suitcase for over two months, we can't believe how much we have now that the crate has arrived! It has been interesting moving our stuff from a house with a garage and a lot of storage along with things from Joe's office, to a small apartment, with no garage, and a tiny yard. Our spare room is used for our computers, our bikes, our tools, our towels, games and books, which can be transformed into a guest suite if you decide to visit! It is quite interesting really.


We had some friends help us unload the crate and we were done quite early. We were able to spend the majority of the day unpacking and turning our apartment into 'home'. We finsished most of the unpacking today. We had a great day but we are exhausted. It was so fun to open a box and find things in it that we thought we had sold or even forgotten that we had.


(Our apartment around noon)



(Our Apartment at 7:30 this evening)

After eight months of living out of a suitcase, we are excited to be here and stay put for a while. With all of that said, tomorrow begins our survey work. This means we will be searching for the community with the most need for a new church. Over the next few months we hope to decipher where it is that our team is needed most....and move there!