Friday we went to Nashville for a Senior Couples outing.  Most of the Senior couples, Pres. & Sister McKee, some of their children, and the AP's all went on a river cruise on the paddle wheel ship the General Jackson.  The cruise took about three hours leaving from the Opry Land area, cruising down the Cumberland River to the center of Nashville and back.

The Cumberland River is quite large and this river cruise is one of the Nashville attractions that goes nearly every day.  We had a very nice meal during the journey and also enjoyed two musical shows featuring country western music.

It was a real paddle wheel boat that gave you a feel for the river travel of pioneer days.  The boat didn't move fast and it was a leisurely three hours of enjoyment.

Riverfront area of downtown Nashville, during the summer barges with performers tie up at this dock and put on shows for tourists.  During our tour the weather had turned quite cold and temperatures stayed below 50 degrees.  Just a few days before temperatures were in the high 80's.  We all had to dress warmly for the outing and mostly stayed inside for the shows.

The three AP's (assistants to the President) that accompanied us on the trip.  Left to right, Elder Monson and Elder Horner from Utah, and Elder Andrew from California.  Elder Andrew served in our zone last year and was a great Spanish speaking Elder.  We had a real nice group picture taken but I didn't have a way to scan it into my computer.  I did not think to have someone take a group picture with my camera.  All in all it was a great event and we got to renew acquaintances with some of the senior couples we served with last year.

Elder & Sister Peterson - Just cruisin' down the lazy river

Our new home away from home.  We are in the right half of this duplex.  It is fairly new, clean and quite nice.  We even have a garage for the car.  There is only one drawback, the road just to the right is the main street to a nearby hospital and ambulances go by at all times of the day or night with sirens blaring.

The back side view of our apartment.  The kitchen and living room are across the back and the two bedrooms towards the front.  There is Dish Network service to the duplexes but it is not hooked up to ours.

Our living room is small but comfortable with a nice ceiling fan.  There is built in air conditioning throughout the apartment.

Our kitchen is small but quite adequate with all the amenities.

Our master bedroom has a nice queen bed that is quite comfortable.

I use our second bedroom as my office and use the closet in this bedroom for my clothes.  Mother uses the closet in the master bedroom for her clothes as both closets are fairly small.

Our garage is a bit narrow and I only have about 6 inches on each side of the mirrors.  All in all, it is a nice apartment and we are settled and quite comfortable in it.

Our district missionaries after district meeting in Morgantown recently.  Notice the beautiful blossoms on the crab apple trees in the background.  From the left, Sister Toone is from Colorado, Sister Harmer is from Idaho Falls (actually Ammon), Elder Olsen is from Arizona, and Elder Bastian is from Meridian, Idaho.

Elder and Sister Peterson - Feeling quite old around these great young missionaries

We entered the MTC on March 25th and stayed for five days until March 29th.  It was a great experience and we enjoyed it much more this time, knowing ahead of time what was expected in role-playing and teaching.  All of the classes were held in a ward building north of the MTC because of so many young missionaries.  730 new missionaries came in on Wednesday and nearly half were sisters.  We had a hard time getting in the cafeteria because of all the new young missionaries on Wednesday.

Our traditional picture in front of the world map in the main MTC building, point to our area of service.

Our district in the MTC with our morning instructor.  Brother and Sister Bell on the left are from Brigham City, Utah and were going to the Chech Republic as Humanitarian missionaries.  Brother and Sister Dunn on the right are from a small town near Vancouver, Washington and they were going to Winter Quarters Nebraska as service missionaries.  We were the only couple in our district going as MLS or proselyting missionaries.

Brother and Sister Johnson from Sandy, Utah were going to the Tennessee Nashville mission serving as Employment missionaries.  We got to know them and enjoyed them.  Sister Peterson and Sister Johnson really hit it off and became almost instant buddies.  I am posting this late because we have been very busy after getting to our mission and also did not have a way to transfer pictures to my computer until a few days ago.  I will try to do better in the future.