Oct 22

October 22, 2006

We left Cibicue Wednesday, October 18 about 5:00 PM to go to the ARP (Addiction Recovery Program) Conference held by the church in Layton. We drove to Flagstaff and spent the night there. After finding a room we went to a nearby Sizzler for dinner. We were wearing casual clothing for travel but still had or name tags on, so when we went to pay for our dinner the cashier said they give missionaries a 50% discount. Basically we got one dinner free. Later we joked that because we weren’t dressed as they’re used to seeing missionaries maybe they thought we beat up some poor old couple and stole their name tags so we could get a free dinner.

Thursday was a long travel day. We were told that it took 9 hours to go from Snowflake to Salt Lake, but it took us 3 hours to Flagstaff and then another 10 hours to Ogden. Either we’re awfully slow or the Mormons in Snowflake don’t tell the truth. We traveled through some beautiful country but it was a long drive on 2-lane roads. Tomorrow we’re going to go back on the freeway. It’s longer but maybe easier driving.

We stayed with Sharon and Ray Thursday and Friday nights. On Friday our meeting didn’t start until 6:00, so we got to spend all day with them. Ray and Robert went to Bountiful to golf. Sharon and I did some shopping and had lunch with Diane Russell and Dixie Wightman. Diane and Dixie were our friends when we were kids living on Porter Avenue. After the conference session we came back and just talked until 11:30. It was great. They’re so hospitable and fun to be with. We had a great time. After the Saturday session we came to Logan, and will stay here with Cade and Andi until we head home tomorrow morning. We love being here with them and have had a great visit here too.

The conference was excellent. Friday night they had a fireside type presentation from a lady named Nannette Wiggins. She has taken the 12 steps and chosen music to go along with each step. It was beautiful. Saturday we talked about ARP and heard from people who have been through the program. We finally feel like we know the purpose of our call and have an idea of the vision and history of ARP. It’s going to be a great experience to do these groups because the core of every meeting is the atonement. What a great way to spend our mission—teaching about the atonement of Christ.