Sioux City, Iowa

A long time ago I remember getting home from a softball trip to Colorado. It was Spring Break so the rest of my roommates were gone home. I walked into a quiet apartment thinking I would be lonely without anyone around. Not so....I walked into a bunch of signs calling me "Sister" Sproul and leading me to my bedroom upstairs. Upon my bed I found an envelope....'THE' envelope from the Prophet himself calling me on a mission. I was so excited I was shaking. I called my mom and opened it over the phone. I read, "Dear Sister Denise Sproul, you are hereby called to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Canada Halifax Mission." At the time I had absolutely NO CLUE where that was. As I spoke with my dad we looked it up on the map. I knew WHERE it was but had no idea that people really lived there and what they were like, etc.

It is funny, before going someplace you really know nothing about it....except for maybe what you see on a map or read in a book (or the internet) or on TV, etc. But nothing is really real until you GO there for real and see it all for yourself. It seems that way with ALL of life.

After getting to my mission and spending 18 months serving the people in the Maritime Provinces of Canada I definitely KNOW that they exist, know a bit about them, and have come to love them. Similarly, I now KNOW that people really do live in Sioux City, Iowa and that they are pretty cool.

A year and a half ago our friends, the Carrs, moved from Effingham to Sioux City, Iowa. Jordan and their son, Jonathan, have been best friends since the moment they met. We sent him up there for a week at Christmas time and now decided we would take the family to see them (minus Scott who had stuff to do here). It was a LONG ride but worth the time to spend just hanging out with friends!

Here are some highlights:

• 20 hours in a car (10 hours there, 10 hours back)....rain the entire way there, overcast but beautiful leaf colors on the way back
• 1 potty break on the way
• 1 overnighter on the way
• 4 stops on the way back
• lots of snacks to keep the ONLY driver awake
• many movies (yeah for individual DVD players)
• 7 semi's honking with Jordan's incessant tries to GET them to honk
• Lots of funny city names...only one that stood out and we got a picture of...KNOB NOSTER
• lots of "he's in my space," "she's touching me," "so and so is looking at me," etc....but all in all it was a great trip
• a GREAT surprise for Malena as we brought Caitlin with us
• too many MarioKart races to count
• pillow fights
• jumping down the stairs onto mounds of pillows
• a tour of Jolly Time Popcorn (Cody DEFINITELY didn't like the hairnets)
• staying up late
• popcorn and string cheese, hot chocolate and cookies
• tons of playing outside
• and our FIRST sighting of SNOW

All in all it was a great trip and so much fun to visit old friends. Make new friends, but keep the old (my friend says) BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL GOLD! Yes...friends are great. It is nice to have friends that you don't see for awhile and pick up as if you lived next door. Even Kelsey made a new friend. (She was in 7th heaven with all those older cool girls to hang out with and pay close attention to her). THANK YOU Carr Family for being that type of friend and for a great weekend!!!!