MnR Ogden Mission: Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial: New Missionaries!

Lots of Snow

February 16-22

SUNDAY -- Regular Church schedule. Met the other new FM couple (Mooneys) at Church. They just arrived in the late hours of Saturday. They seem like a nice couple as do the Harmons!

Icicles at Church

Spent the afternoon at home just trying to get caught up on some of the odds and ends I haven’t seemed to finish before now. We were asked to take Sister Raymond to Tim Luce’s baptism at the Church. We almost got stuck in her roadway as the wind had blown and snow had drifted in and it was pretty deep. We were spinning several times to get up her hill. The Baptism was a nice service with treats afterward. President Stoker came to the baptism because he was here staying at the Memorial in preparation for Zone Conference tomorrow.

MONDAY - Today was Zone Conference at the Church. We attended until the noon break. We hurried and grabbed some food and then off to the Memorial to relieve Osborn’s who were on the Conference program in the afternoon. It turned out to be a really good day. We had quite a good number of visitors come. It was nice to be busy again! We also had a good crowd at FHE.

TUESDAY - We had the weekly missionary meeting at the Memorial before we started our regular shift. Rhonda gave the lesson and did a great job. It started snowing in the early afternoon and didn’t seem to be letting up so we decided to cancel Institute for the night. I didn’t have the students’ phone numbers so I emailed them and ask them to reply. Only one student replied so when we got home I got out the phone numbers and started calling. I believe I finally made contact with all of them before they would have left for the class. We just stayed at the apartment for the rest of the night. I got out my varnish and gave the walking sticks a going over on the top half. I also finished my reading The Work and the Glory (volumes 1-9) for the second time.

WEDNESDAY - We had our normal All-day shift so Osborn’s could get a day off. We had several visitors and at the end of the day we waited at the Memorial so Rhonda could go to song practice with the YW since they were having combined Mutual they were going to practice early. It snowed off and on for the afternoon and when we stopped at the Church for practice, no YW showed up and only 1 YM so things were pretty much cancelled. We were scheduled to have the combined activity showing movies at the Memorial but it all fell through since there was no participation. We finally got home a little after 7:00pm. I was certainly ready for some food.

Entering the "Longest" covered bridge crossing the Connecticut River from New Hampshire to Vermont

View from road-side about a mile away

THURSDAY - Today is our day-off. We had a calm morning—but it really turned out to be a nice day. So nice in fact that I had to get the bucket and wash the car. We made our shopping run in the afternoon (after a stop to Wendy’s).

While we were in that end of town we headed down the road toward Windsor, VT. It is there that they have the longest covered bridge around. It goes across the Connecticut River, probably over 100 yards. All the signs were pretty much covered up with snow to read the particulars. We took the slow road back to W. Lebanon to finish our shopping and get gas. We finally made it home and the car was dirty again so I got the bucket and washed it again. It would be clean for at least a few hours (overnight). I watched Olympics and basketball on TV. The BYU game vs. Gonzaga came on TV at 11:00pm EST but was such a good game I had to watch it until nearly 1:30am.
FRIDAY - Up in pretty good time for getting in so late. We went for a walk to town and thought the air felt pretty moist. Sure enough, it started raining when were just about to turn around so we cut through the Sharon School grounds and headed for home. We had a few visitors at the Memorial. I ended up watching part of the movie, Testament with a couple of members from NH. It is really a touching movie. With the rain and a warm day, there is lots of standing water on the walks and path to the Monument. I tried pushing it off but it just kept running back to the low spots. SATURDAY - We had the morning shift and the first thing was cut Elder Osborn’s hair. It was a little nerve racking as he likes it quite long and I am not used to cutting that way. I think it ended up looking OK however. No one came to the Memorial until we were ready to leave and by then Osborn’s said they would take them through. We went to the cabin/house (the one we once thought about buying, close to the Memorial) where Mooney’s are now moved to--since they didn’t like their other place. Rhonda was helping to clean some areas with the steamer. We somehow forgot the floor brush attachment, so I made a quick trip to the apartment to retrieve it. Went home and relaxed for a while then I went for a walk. Rhonda decided she had done her work for the day so I went alone but had a good walk up a side road in the mountains. I watched more Olympics and BYU basketball on TV. It was just a relaxing night.