We finally made it!

Thank you for all your prayers over the last couple of weeks as we made the physical journey to Utah! We arrived Fri. the 9th at about 5:00 PM, and many members of our church arrived within the hour to help unload, provide dinner, and fellowship. It was a little chaotic, but it was such a warm reception after a long, tiring 2 days of travel. The kids are doing well settling into their new house, and Emily is especially excited about the dance class she gets to start in June. Emily has already made several friends at church, and Adrian just tags along with whatever his big sister is doing. JR began his job on Mon., and he already got a 50 cent raise today. His manager at Fastenal is definitely LDS (he was discussing buying a wheat grinder for their long term supply of food that the LDS are supposed to keep), but his district manager is very turned off by the LDS church. He was very interested to hear what JR was doing. Kyle is the manager, Matt is the district manager, and Sean is the sales rep. that JR works with. I'm still settling in and unpacking boxes, and I've been battling allergies/sinus infection since Sun. Church was refreshing on Sun., but the kids will take some time to get used to it. There is no nursery/kids' classes until it is time for the sermon, so both of our kids will have to learn to sit in the service some. Emily kept asking to go to her class, and she didn't understand that she couldn't go until later in the service. There were at least 30 adults at church on Sunday and at least 20 kids. Yesterday was my first trip to the grocery store in Utah, and it felt a little eerie even though I was in a normal Walmart. It's strange to be in place and realize that you are so drastically different from the people surrounding you. Somehow you don't feel that way in the Bible Belt even though many of the people around are not Christians either. I realized that we probably stuck out like a sore thumb as non-LDS because Emily was riding in the cart carrying her little bottle of Diet Coke, and we bought coffee. We have found some incredible restaurants in Payson (great Mexican and Chinese). Tomorrow I can begin cooking at home more because they are delivering our new stove! I've made dinner in the crock pot the last 2 days, and I must admit that we didn't eat today's experiment. I decided to buy tuna instead of chicken for my concoction because it was cheaper, and we opted for Chinese because none of us wanted to eat tuna and noodles in the crock pot. I guess in the end the chicken was cheaper after all. Tomorrow I can be back to cooking the way that I know how to cook! Thank you for all your prayers!

In Christ,
Becky Hopson

Praises:
*Safe trip to Utah
*Great services at Crossings last Sunday
*New stove coming tomorrow!
*JR got a raise

Prayers:
*Becky to get well
*Emily and Adrian to continue to adjust (and JR and Becky as well)
*Matt (JR's district manager)
*Kyle (JR's manager)
*Sean (sales rep. JR works with)
*Ways for us to meet people outside of the church (esp. Becky)