Week 1 - San Diego and/or BUST

We made it! The Old Ford Exploder performed wonderfully to bring us 1300 miles to SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA! (Albeit without a/c) But the Lord blessed us with good weather and a great layover in El Paso with Brian and Vianka.

Brian and Vianka - thanks again for showing us a good time, the steaks, and the hotel room!

We arrived in San Diego at 3 am Wednesday morning. A quick nap and we were up to see Mom and Lauren for some breakfast at the Encinitas House. Thank you mom and Uncle Rusty for letting us stay there!

Thursday - we flew to Sacramento to get Sami's Nursing License registered in California. We rented a car from hertz, which they only had a red mustang (DARN!). We liked the mustang : )
We were thankful to have a car, because It was insanely difficult to complete the registration. "Go to this building, no this buuidling..I'm sorry they told you wrong...We do not accept out of state checks or credit cards...etc etc." But the registration eventually went through and on the plus side we saw about 99% of Sacramento.We also enjoyed some time with Scott Branch, who drove up fro San Fran to say hello. Thanks Scotty.

Friday - Now back in San Diego we closed out the deal for Sami's NEW(used) CAR! Something seemed fishy, but we were in the car, out of the DMV and on the road. I mean hey, if the DMV allowed all the paperwork to clear there shouldn't be a problem right? WRONG. More on this later...

That afternoon we surfed. Well, I'm not sure thats what you would call it, but we did stand on a board in the ocean! Later we headed back to the house for a barbecue with Mom, TJ, Lauren, Lindsay, and David Dixon. GOOD TIMES.

Saturday - We were enjoying our fun new toyota prius and saving gobs of gas. We moved into our apartment, which is a little too nice for us. The gym is unbelieveable, like having a Lifetime fitness downstairs. Moving in was hard, Sami was getting homesick.

Sunday - Church Day! A little more moving in and then we headed to an evening curch service at Shadow Mountain Community Church. It was a cool service because they had a Messianic Jew musician come play. He was great, funny, talented, and had an awesome testimony.

Monday - The call... Criminal Investigator informed us that our car was illegally sold, the seller posed as a private seller, but was actually a dealer in MEXICO! Also, he lied about the condition and history of the car. hmmm, not so good. So now we are in the process of a possible civil lawsuit (uggh) to try and get a refund and return the car. Much crying and frustration. Our fun little San Diego bubble kind of bursts...

Tuesday - Ok, God is good, and we know things will be ok. We trust Him and lean on Him. With this faith we move forward with joy. Sami goes to work! Her first day was a simple orientation, but she did meet a friend, which is awesome. That afternoon we went to Encinitas, spent some time on the beach, and had an excellent taco dinner with Mom.

Today - Please pray for us as we continue to settle in here and meet new people (good and not so good). Pray that we have a loving and truthful spirit towards the car seller. Pray that we might get our money back and that the seller might choose to do what is right. Pray that we meet more people. Pray that we might have an impact here in a different world.

The video chats have been amazing, and extremely helpful.


God Bless, we love you all

Jon and Sami