June 2019 and July 2019

June 18, 2019 -- Started Our Long Automobile Drive From Utah To Virginia
Our first stop was in Helper, Utah, to say goodbye to my sister Judy and her husband Len. We then drove to Grand Junction and stayed the night. As we headed toward Denver we took in the majesty of the Rocky Mountains which immediately disappear East of Denver.	The Midwest plains are extremely flat and vast. We stayed in Hays, Kansas, for the night, then continued on to the rolling hills of Missouri. We stayed overnight in Columbia with our good friends, the Durkovichs, and we really enjoyed our visit with them.

June 19, 2019
As we approached Eastern Kansas, the landscape started turning very green. In West Virginia there were more trees than I have ever seen. It was beautiful. It made us realize that Utah really is a desert. We stayed the night in a quaint little town in West Virginia called Huntington.	We stopped in Midlothian, Virginia, to visit Carol's brother, George, and his wife Allie. They were great hosts, and showed us some historical sites around Richmond. Here is an example of a beautiful setting sun in Virginia.

June 23, 2019
Enroute we stopped at St John's Chapel in Richmond, VA where Patrick Henry gave his powerful and compelling: "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speech. We attended a re-enactment of his speech where the actors were in period costume. It was quite moving.	Our son, Michael, made a manual version of iPhone's "Find My Friends" so his kids could track us. They loved watching the pins move as we traveled across the country to our mission.

June 25, 2019
We arrived at the Washington DC South Mission home today where we met the senior missionaries working in the office. We were then taken to the apartment that we will call home for the next year.	Here is our apartment complex, which has indoor parking, a fully outfitted excercise room, and a variety of shops on the first floor. Our rooms are very comfortable, and we enjoy the free hot chocolate provided by the front office. Carol is petitioning for a grand piano to be added to the beautiful gathering room on the first floor.

June 26, 2019 -- Made Our First Visit To Fort Belvoir
Everything you never knew you wanted to know about Fort Belvoir! The post was founded during World War I as Camp A. A. Humphreys, named for Union Civil War general Andrew A. Humphreys, who was also Chief of Engineers. The post was renamed as Fort Belvoir in the 1930s in recognition of the Belvoir plantation that once occupied the site. The adjacent United States Army Corps of Engineers Humphreys Engineer Center retains part of the original name. Fort Belvoir was initially the home of the Army Engineer School. Beginning in 1987, the Engineer School relocated to Fort Leonard Wood, in Missouri, and was formally transferred the following year. Fort Belvoir serves as the headquarters for the Defense Logistics Agency, the Defense Acquisition University, the Defense Contract Audit Agency, the Defense Technical Information Center, the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command, the United States Army Military Intelligence Readiness Command, the Missile Defense Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Fort Belvoir is home to the Virginia National Guard's 29th Infantry Division (Light) and elements of ten Army Major Commands; nineteen different agencies and direct reporting units of the Department of Army; eight elements of the United States Army Reserve and the Army National Guard; and twenty-six Department of Defense agencies. Also located here are the 249th Engineer Battalion (Prime Power), the Military District of Washington's 12th Aviation Battalion which provides rotary-wing movement to the DoD and Congress, a Marine Corps detachment, a United States Air Force activity, United States Army Audit Agency, and an agency from the Department of the Treasury. In addition, Fort Belvoir is home to National Reconnaissance Office's (NRO) Aerospace Data Facility-East (ADF-E). (Source: Wikipedia)

July 03, 2019 -- The Fort Belvoir Missionaries
Elder Knowles and Elder Landoe are both assigned to the Fort Belvoir area. We have taken them shopping, taken them to zone and district meetings, and taught lessons with them. They are amazing young men. Elder Knowles is the district leader and is preparing to go home in a few weeks. Elder Landoe will become the new district leader.	Sister Rasband and Sister Lundquist are both assigned to the Fort Belvoir area. We have had the opportunity to go with them to teach a lesson to a friend. They are powerful young women and full of enthusiam for the work. Sister Rasband is going to be transferred soon and we will probably have a newly arrived sister in our area

July 4, 2019
	Our daughter Ashley's children Hazel, Liza, and Chaz visiting from New York on the 4th of July, and playing in our apartment courtyard

July 4, 2019
Our grandchildren on the 4th of July, at Mount Vernon standing by life-size statues of George Washington's family	Hope everyone had a wonderful and patriotic 4th of July!

July 13, 2019
Senior missionaries serving in the Washington DC South mission who got together for lunch after attending a very nice baptism. Around the table clockwise from left: Elder and Sister Downs, Sister and Elder Larsen, David, the restaurant owner who is investigating the church, Elder and Sister Zabriskie, Sister and Elder Nelson. BTW, the food was delicious!

July 26, 2019
The Gowans are serving as Military Relation missionaries at Marine Corp Base Quantico. Elder Gowan and Elder Zabriskie were coincidently in the same unit at one time. We went with them to visit the Marine Corp Museum in Quantico. It was an amazing display of Marine valor and heroism since the beginning of the Corp. We are standing in front of the actual flag that was raised atop Mount Suribachi during the battle of Iwo Jima in WWII.	For you history buffs, here is the infamous photo by Joe Rosenthal of the Mt Suribachi flag raising, February 23, 1945. Three Marines in the photograph, SGT Michael Strank, CPL Harlon Block, and PFC Franklin Sousley were killed in action over the next few days. The other three surviving flag-raisers in the photograph were CPL Rene Gagnon, CPL Ira Hayes, and CPL Harold Schultz. The 36-day Iwo Jima battle caused more than 26,000 American casualties.

July 25, 2019
We are volunteering at the USO on Fort Belvoir. The USO has been the nation's leading organization to serve the men and women in the U.S. military, and their families, throughout their time in uniform. From the moment they join, through their assignments and deployments, and as they transition back to their communities, the USO is always by their side. Here we are with two volunteers, Marie and Helen, that have become our very good friends. They are delightful ladies, and we really enjoy working with them.	We love walking the beautiful trails in and around Fort Belvoir.

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