Our Mission to Santa Cruz, Tenerife!

We are finally up and running here on the island of Tenerife.  We just got our internet in our apartment (piso) on Monday and we were very happy to communicate again.  It has all been a big adventure and taken some adjustment because everyone speaks little english here, so spanish is a must.  Also the traffic has been a steep learning curve.  We thought maybe it would be a sleepier island but it is very populated with some heavy traffic and small streets.  The interstate (autopista) is wonderful but has some fast drivers.
We are learning our way around little by little.  There were several things we had to do to be able to stay here on the island for our mission.  We had to get a bank account, get registered with city hall and register at the foreign office.  These were all important but hard to get to and figure out the instructions!  However, Mike has enough spanish that it helped us get out of some jams.  He has also excelled in his driving skills, maneuvering the traffic and parallel parking in tiny spaces.
The church is strong here in our branch.  The people are wonderful and the youth we work with are very fine young people. They have all helped us and welcomed us.  They have expressed their love for us from the first day!  We hope that we can make a difference by supporting the young people and visiting many that are not coming.  It is a  testimony to us of those that do come out to church because it is not physically easy to get there. Many ride the train or the bus and then walk a way to come.
The missionaries are great here!  What wonderful young men.  They have strong testimonies and are an inspiration to us.
Here are some pictures of the area where we live and some of the people we have met!

 President and Hermana Watkins with Elder Ottesen!

 The view from our balcony!

 All our elders at our weekly district meeting.

 Two of our favortie friends.  Christina, next to me, is a great cook!

One of our least favorite streets!

 At district conference.

 The church is on the main floor of this building. 

 This is the parking in front of the church.  We are lucky when we find a spot.

 A beautiful mountain and oceanview.  This is all a volcanic island.

 Wonderful architecture of a huge church in Madrid.

 Maria is going to be baptised in a few Saturday's!

 An old cobblestone street we saw today in Orotava, Tenerife

The city hall of Orotava we got to see today.
Love to our family and friends back home.  We miss them a lot.

OUR VISAS ARE HERE!

Good news....we are flying out Monday morning going to Atlanta.  We then fly to Madrid (leaving about 7pm) and arrive on Tuesday morning ( about 940am). We will stay in Madrid for training and documentation until Saturday morning when we travel to our final destination, Tenerife on the Canary Islands.  We are excited and happy to be moving on.  It is going to be fun getting to know all the young people we will be helping.  Love to all. 

Our MTC Home!

We have lived here at the MTC for almost a month now!  Of course we had hoped to be gone several weeks ago but as each day goes by we find wonderful experiences to enjoy.  We have been touched many times by the spirit and we have grown in so many ways. 
We are daily impressed by these wonderful young people, seniors and leaders.
Tonight we had a special devotional commemorating September 11th.  It was very emotional and reinforced that we should never forget that day and how we can overcome something so terrible. 
We miss our family and friends back home but we are in a good place.  We are looking forward to our visas to Spain to come in this week....we think.  We know progress has been made on them so we are hopeful.
We send all our love and good thoughts your way.  Mike and Jeanne/ Dad and Mom

Visa Waiters!

We are still in the MTC but we are enjoying ourselves.  Being around all these great missionaries is a blessing to us.  We had the great opportunity to hear Elder Jeffery R. Holland speak at our devotional last night.  It was inspiring and if we had already gone to Spain we wouldn't have gotten to hear him.  The music is beautiful too.  We are hoping our visas will come in next week.  They may find us a temporary assignment until they do.  It will be in this area though. 
The picture is one that is a tradition for all the missionaries to stand in front of and get their picture taken pointing to where they will serve.  I don't know where Mike is serving....but I am pointing to The Canary Islands and that is where I am going!  He is such a comedian!

Love to all.  Elder and Hermana Knight!

One week of missionary training

The view from our room.  The mountains make you want to move here!

It doesn't seem possible that we have been here a week already. We wish we could express well what we have seen and felt on a daily basis but words would not suffice. Jeanne and I are becoming familiar with the missionary handbook " Preach My Gospel " and we have had several occasions to teach "non members " and have even been "non members" in rollplays with other senior couples. It's not as easy as the young missionaries make it seem.Speaking of the young Elders and Sisters...they are awesome! Where else could you find 2500 young people who are leaving the world behind and paying their own expenses for two years in order to share a special message. The spirit they bring to the work is incredible.We have worked along side twenty others senior couples who are assigned all over the world and varias places in the U.S. The Wilkes are going to Rowanda for the second time. The Burtons (he was a  Judge in Salt Lake County) are returning to The Congo. Several couples with no previous language training are going to Hungary ,Korea, and Hong Kong. Two in our group are on their third mission and looking forward to a forth. Wonderful people all.

Missionary Training Center (MTC)

We arrived here in the MTC today.  It is going to be a wonderful experience.  The schedule will be busy!  There is so much to learn.  We are meeting many people already just like us going to far away places but many are staying right here in the states to serve.  It doesn't matter because the message is all the same great one!  We have met several that are going to the Birmingham Alabama Mission and we have told them what a wonderful place Alabama is. 
We send our love to all. 

The beautiful city of Salt Lake

  Visiting with family this weekend and going to the MTC on Monday.  We are excited to begin our mission!