June 12, 2016
Hectares y'all.  It feels great to be back in the south :) (See Katy's email from October 26th 2015 as well as her mission one for full context.)

Drew and I had an awesome trip around the country.  Starting on Friday afternoon, we started our trip through Wyoming.  I think Wyoming is an ugly state, but it does have some good history with the pioneers.

Thank goodness we had killing Reagan to listen to.  Great book.

In Cheyenne, Drew and I thought we were going to get stabbed in Cheyenne, but we made it through!  The next day we were going through Nebraska and Missouri and hit a ton of church history sites!

This water tower welcomed us into the state of Nebraska... We knew that we just had to make it to teh water tower and all would be well :)

This is the Kanesville Tabernacle in Council Bluffs Iowa.  Here, Brigham Young reorganized the first presidency 3 years after Joseph Smith died with Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards as Counselors.  It was done by the men on Dec 5 1847 (Shout out to Katy and Joshy) and then they were going to do it with the church the following day.  Unfortunately, it was so cold and there was no place large enough for everyone to meet, so they postponed the manifestation for 3 weeks for a tabernacle to be built.  On Dec 27, everyone could fit inside this tabernacle and the sustaining took place.

This also was the place where Oliver Cowdery came back, begging for forgiveness after ten years away from the church.  He planned on going west with the saints but died soon after.

 We veered toward Winter Quarters Nebraska next, trying to look for a relative that was supposedly buried in the cemetery... we didn't find him.

It was great to learn about the pioneers in Nebraska.  It's crazy how industrious they were!  They built 500 cabins in one year!  Our sister missionary here looked a little hipster with her ripped, long flannel shirt, but at least she wasn't wearing a pant suit like in Mom and Dad's mission :)

This is what Nebraska looked like the entire time we drove... or at least the entire time I was awake.

Winter Quarters Nebraska temple: very similar to Spokane, but a little bigger.

Upon pulling into Kansas City, we stopped and took a few snapshots of the Kansas City temple -- A very beautiful temple.

                           We then hopped one state over to Missouri and visited Liberty Jail.  The sister missionary here was not as hipster as the one at Winter quarters; however, she did talk in a very quiet voice.

Our last stop was Independence Missouri, or, as Drew likes to call it, the ice cream shop

Independence was my favorite stop all day.  The sister missionary here was top notch.  She was very happy, and when she questioned us, she was very straight forward.  She expected us to answer as well.  She committed us to make certain missionary goals.  She even asked for our emails to follow up!  She committed Drew to tell one of his employees to get his act together and go to church :)  It was awesome!

After staying in a nice room and receiving free buffet breakfast (normally $18 per person), we headed off to Arkansas on Sunday morning

We also found a sign that represents two members of our family -- Jane and Katy

It's greener than I would have expected, and very clean.  The unemployment is very low, and infrastructure is tidy and new.

I am living about 30 miles from work, but it is right across from the University of Arkansas baseball stadium.

                                                    We'll see how my first week plays out.