Sari, Kyle, & Caleb: Nashville

It's been a week since Kyle and I have been in Nashville. It was such a beautiful drive into Tennessee! We drove through the state of Wyoming, Colorado - where we spent a week with my family, Kansas, Missouri, part of Illinois and Kentucky. On our way we stopped at two church sites, the Independence visiting center and Liberty Jail. I could go on about the experiences but there's just not enough time. It was such an uplifting, amazing and inspiring experience!!! Totally worth the extra day. We also went to the arch in St. Louis which was really cool. We avoided two tornados on our way to Nashville and barley made it in time to check into our apartment.

When we walked into our apartment for the next four months we got pretty excited. It's a really nice apartment, which we thankfully don't have to pay rent on! It has a huge walk-in closet, a big bedroom, long bathroom countertop and tiled bathroom, spacious living room, a dining room and a kitchen that was missing two burners ha. We got excited about our summer experience and all the adventures we would have. That excitement soon ended when we realized how alone we felt in the empty apartment with no one and nothing familiar around. We found ourselves wishing we were back in Rexburg, a place were our life was established and made sense. A place were we had friends and a familiar town. We realized that wasn't possible so we had to deal with the change. As we tried to overcome this emptiness over the next day the words of a dear sister missionary at the Independence visiting center came to my mind, "As you guys start this new chapter of your life remember that you have the gospel and you have each other. And that's all you need." Those simple words were the help that got us through this bump. Those words brought comfort, truth and happiness. Soon after we started feeling better, especially after having gone to our branch on Sunday. Yup, a branch. It's not big enough to be a ward. There are about 50 people tops and no youth. There are about nine kids that make up the primary and out of those nine, half of them come from one family haha. Everybody is super friendly and welcoming, they even fed us lunch :) That helped so much in settling in and not feeling so empty. It's so great that no matter where you go in the world, you can always count on a ward family, or branch in our case. That's the only thing that doesn't change :)

On monday we finally got situated with our furniture which meant no more sleeping and eating on the floor. The furniture we're renting came and it's really nice too. The couches are microsuede and the bed is new and sooooo comfy. It's like a giant pillow! I feel pretty spoiled compared to rexburg haha. We went to goodwill to buy a t.v. so we can play wii and watch movies. We found a 32 inch box t.v, the ones before flat screen, and paid $20 dollars for it. It works like new :) My parents gave us a clear play as an early birthday gift before we left so every night we've been watching movies on it and it's so nice to not worry about hearing the f-bomb or watching uncomfortable scenes. We love it! Thank you Mami and Papi :) On Tuesday Kyle started working after he passed the state test to sell and I started my training. It has been really great! Kyle has sold about seven this week, and thats not including todays sales :) My job is pretty awesome. I work from 4-9:30 in the office. I take calls and schedule the appointments. To fill in the gaps in between calls I do my homework, watch movies, surf the net, and play darts. So I guess I could say I'm getting paid for going to school and having fun, yes! This job is so chill, I love it. Kyle doesn't have to go to work until about three so we have a lot of time together which is really nice :D The weather has been sunny and warm, which is something we have been neglected from after living in Rexburg for so long. Lets not forget the occasional thunderstorm strong enough to produce a tornado, we've had a few of those. Overall this week has been pretty exciting :) It's had its ups and downs but that is to be expected with change. We're excited to go to country concerts and explore the city of Nashville. It's gonna be awesome! We're gonna make the most of this summer.

At the University of Kansas modeling with the mascot :) We felt
kinda silly cause everyone could see us. But we figure, "Eh, we'll never
see them again."