Another week has simply flown by.  It was a beautiful one!  The temperatures are slowly creeping up and we are trying to manage our utilities for the fifth wheel.  We have been  leaving the AC off when we go to the office in the morning, so it's pretty toasty inside when we return home.  I'm sure the day will come when we won't be able to do that, but for now it's working.  When we come home we turn on both AC's and in about 30 minutes it's cooled down enough to be comfortable.  I'm not doing much inside cooking.  We use the BBQ and the microwave or have something cold like a salad.  With the electricity being almost five times more expensive than at home, we try to be very careful.  On that comparative note, our gasoline here is about 60 cents less than at home in Washington.  We do like that.

We spent the last three days on the road.  On Thursday Sister Mihlberger and I went to Georgetown and Walterboro to set up utilities for our senior apartments there.  Unfortunately with the smaller towns they often require you to come into city hall to show your ID, pay the deposit and present the lease to prove that you really are the renter.  It is a huge inconvenience.  The larger utilities in the state simply allow us to call and make the arrangements.  Because it is important to have the utilities on when we actually move in, I have to make a trip to the small towns for the utilities and then return with the furniture to move in.

 

We had lunch on the boardwalk in historic downtown Georgetown.  It is charming and certainly a place I would love to return to and see the historic sites.

On Friday, Doyle and I went back to these two places and moved in to the apartments with the help of many missionaries.  Our local missionaries helped us load the truck and the trailer at 7am.

These two missionaries show their strength by handling the heavy broom and mop.

Ready to help and waiting for instruction...after they get their picture taken of course!

Our great group of helpers!!  We appreciate them so much.  They are always so willing to help us load the furniture!  We couldn't do it without them!!

Once we got to our destination we had the elders there come to help unload.  They liked the soft queen bed and wanted to negotiate exchanging it for their twin size. 

It was a long day.  Opening two apartments that are not in the same city can take a long time.  We got back into town late and then got up to do it all over again on Saturday.  This trip was about two and a half hours travel time one way.  It was a very cute little duplex.  We had help from the elders there as well.  One of them, Elder Ward was in our branch when we got here.  He is a very solid, obedient young man who became a trainer pretty quickly.  We enjoyed working with him in the branch. He currently has a brand new missionary companion that got here on the last transfer from Utah.

Elder Ward with Doyle and I.

 

Transfers are next coming up next Wednesday and we still have several apartments to get ready.  It's going to be another fast-paced week.  We are having so much fun working with the missionaries.  We get to spend time with so many of them in and out of the office.  They are a joy to be around and we see how the teachings of the gospel direct them spiritually and temporally.  They are a blessing to all those they come into contact with and we appreciate their goodness and their sacrifices.

We love our mission!!