Week 2 in Ogden

This week has been VERY busy week for us. This past Sunday we attended a United Methodist Church just down the road from us. It was quite an interesting experience because there were about 15 people there....5 of which were the praise band and pastor. Apparently they are not usually that small, it was only because they had a camping trip that weekend. They said they normally have around 40 in that service and they have about 120 members. That is still small!! They have been really nice though, they sent a letter this week and one of the member stopped by with some homemade bread. Tomorrow we plan on attending the Presbyterian Church, which is supposedly a little bigger. The next we plan on attending a church called the Genesis Project which is a Mars Hill type church...or a big non-denom church that is very contemporary (for those not from MI and don't know who Rob Bell is). We ask for you prayers as we attempt to find a church here in UT...where only 3% of the population are practicing Christians. I am sure wherever we end up it will be were God wants us.

Tomorrow we are having dinner with Keith and Emily, a couple from Calvin who moved here last year and are teaching in the same district. We actually had dinner with them 2 Saturdays ago, so this isn't the first time, but we are looking forward to it.

Also, this past Sunday, we had our friend Deb (a fellow RA of mine at Calvin, who now live in SLC) up for the afternoon. It was great seeing her, we went for walk by the river and had dinner. We also played our favorite board game "Ticket to Ride" which we bought at a hobby store, that carried litterally hundreds of board games. This is probably due to the fact that every Monday night in Utah is "Family Night", where all LDS (Latter-day Saints, they dont like being called Mormon) families have to spend time together. I personally think this is a great idea and think Christian families should implement something like it.

OK, now for this past week. Pretty much we spent every day this week at school from about 7 am to atleast 5 pm everyday getting our classrooms ready and attending meetings, and on thursday we were there until about 8 pm because of back to school night. Both of our back to school nights went very well. I know that I was a little shaky at first but by the end the night my confidence was up. One thing that we noticed in our schools was that we have never seen so many white people in one place at a time, both of our school are about 88% white, CRAZY! Also, I had a "only in Utah" moment. My fellow co-worker had a mother and daughter come in to her class, but they looked so similar that she could tell who was the mom and who was the daughter. The only way she figured it out was because the mom's "Garmy" was showing (A "garmy" for those who dont know is holy underwear that LDS wear).

I have been getting to know my collegues some and they are great and very helpful, I couldnt ask for a better department and school. Hannah too has told me that she has a great staff. We both do not feel prepared for Monday...but I dont think we ever will. We also ask for your prayers as we start this Monday.

Update, on the car situation. We got all our money back which is great. Apparently the light doesnt have to come on, because Hannah's car does not have ABS brakes. Which we found out through a little research from Hannah's Mom (Thanks!). So we are glad to have that taken care of. This next week we hope to get the car, registered. We also found out another crazy Utah thing. You dont get your drivers license at the DMV, you go to a whole different place for that.

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog, we again ask you for your prayers, as we look for a church and start school. And another reminder, we have the extra bedroom and we would love to have you as our guests.