Sat., Aug. 31, 2013. Finishing at the MTC, then travel to San Jose, California

^{Thursday, last day of classes.}

We had Brother Foutin speak to us in the morning about vehicles. 

At lunch time, we started loading up the car.

Afternoon classes, we had a testimony meeting, and then we had like a practice or sort of like a test, on the things we learned. Several different tasks to complete.  We completed ours about 3:50, and then said good bye to all and went to our room, changed clothes, took the rest of the stuff to the car, stopped in the front of the MTC to turn in keys to the room and de-activate our cards, and then hit the road.  We drove as far as Elko, Nevada, stopping for the night about 8 or so local time (they are on Pacific time zone).    Then bed.

Fri., Aug. 30^th….got up at 6 a.m.  Got ready, picked up a breakfast burrito at McDonalds to eat as we drove, and were on the road by 7:30 a.m.  Lots of construction!  Arrived in San Jose at the mission office just before 5 p.m.  Met a few in the office, and got a quick tour.  Taken to the place we are staying for 2 weeks till we can get into the apartment on Sept. 13^th.  It is a members home that they rent out to the missionaries.  It is actually the home the Cattron’s will be staying in.  They arrive next week, Wed. I think.  When they get here, we share it with them till the 13^th, so 1 ½ weeks.  This house has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 1 small bedroom that they have set up as an office.  It has orange trees and grapefruit trees in the backyard!  We went to the first store we found when we went out for the evening to pick up a few grocery items for breakfast…..a Safeway store, and prices were crazy high!  So we just got a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, a quart of milk, a couple of bananas, and a box of cereal.  We thought of getting some bacon, but it was about $9 for a pkg!  So we skipped it.  We will find Walmart tomorrow and get more groceries at hopefully a better price!  We were hungry, so found a KFC and got dinner, which was also expensive….nearly $20 for the 2 of us!  Guess we won’t be eating out much!!  Then bed.

Sat., Aug 31^st…..Got up at 7, went for a walk for a half hour, cleaned up, ate breakfast, dressed and went to find some things.  Located the branch we are assigned to….the Vietnamese Branch (now, this will be interesting!); located our apartment we will be moving into; located Walmart (the bacon was $3 + cheaper than Safeway!) and got a few items we will need the next couple of weeks.  We will be packing a lunch everyday, so got things for that.  Gary spoke to the mission president’s wife.  We had hoped to meet them today, but they are very busy, and had a lot of baptisms to attend.  So, we will have dinner with them next week when the Cattron’s arrive.  We will most likely meet them while we work in the office next week.  Work begins on Monday.  Driving has been interesting around here….we can’t believe the traffic!  And, the GPS isn’t always accurate, we have learned.  In fact, when we arrived, it got us mixed up as soon as we got off the freeway, and when we were on the corner, and could see the church to our right, it wanted us to turn left down a road.  So, we learned it can get us near, but not always to, our destination.