The Beauty of "White"

March 16-22 

SUNDAY    We woke up to another 3” of new snow this morning.  It was a surprise as none had been predicted.  We ended up going nearly to Hartford to pick up an investigator for the sisters.  She only stayed for Sacrament meeting and then we had to take her back home so missed Sunday School.  We would have liked to stay as Joseph Cobb and his wife and kids were attending Church.  This is the first time we have met his wife (or at times, ex-wife).  Joseph hasn’t been meeting with the sister missionaries for nearly a month so it was nice to see him again.  From Church, we went straight to the Memorial to get back in the groove.  I shoveled the paths but it was cold and windy so we didn’t have a lot of visitors for the day, but we weren’t skunked either.  When we pulled in to our apt. from the memorial I knocked on Harman’s door and they invited us to stay for dinner.  Roast beef, baked potatoes, etc. was very good.  We visited with them for a while and then home.

MONDAY    Happy St. Patrick’s Day   --   Today was reported as the coldest St. Patrick Day in Vermont history!!   I had a hard time trying to find a tie with any green in it to wear.  We had the afternoon shift as usual but there wasn’t much going on during our time.  Come time for FHE and attendance was even down.  Everyone had prepared special dishes and BIG portions to boot so we even had a few left overs.
TUESDAY    Visitors arrived at the Memorial about the same time as we did.  I gave them the tour so I missed most of the weekly training meeting.
They ended up being the only visitors we had the entire day so it was good to see them.  At the end of our training meeting, we had cake and ice cream for the young Sisters' birthday celebration.  
       
As evening came, we headed to Institute.  We picked up Olivia Wilson and Kelsey Preston on the way.  We had seven in attendance, which included the Sister Missionaries from Northfield, as well as Kelsey’s boyfriend (Stuart Brown).  I thought the class went quite well.  We didn’t get home until after 10:30pm.  I started to watch the Utah BB game when Rhonda decided to check an ad she had just put on KSL for the rent of our Deseret Hills house and found a call-back number.  She called back and the man (Tony Tanner) almost said he would rent the house without even seeing it.  Rhonda called Randy to let him know and he also had received several calls but didn’t know what was going on for sure.  We will see how it works out.

WEDNESDAY    When the alarm clock went off to get ready for the all day shift at the Memorial, I wasn’t ready to get going but didn’t have much choice.  When we arrived, there was a note from Osborn’s saying they had taken the Sisters to Montpelier and be back in the afternoon.  My morning prayer was answered as several groups of visitors came to the Memorial.   It was good and we felt more like we were doing what we had been called to do.  Spent a while trying to look up old rental contracts.  Finally got a new one from the internet and RSO moved it to a word program so she could fill in the blanks.  It looks like Tony Tanner is for real and serious.  I tried to fill in a NCAA Bracket but couldn’t make it work.  I ended up calling Ryan for some help.  I was using the wrong Browser, go figure!  Bottom line, I made it just before the deadline.    
THURSDAY    Today is our day off.  I got up and looked out the window and there was another 5” of snow.  Seems like this winter is starting to drag on and the snow just continues to pile up.  I ended up doing mainly nothing the entire day except watch March Madness basketball.  The only time I left the house was to shovel snow and clean off the car.  I stayed up watching games until 1:40am.   
FRIDAY    In spite of being up late, I still awakened early and it turned out to be an easy morning.  Not much going on.  We did the afternoon shift today.  While at work, Osborn’s asked us to go out to dinner tonight.  They said they needed to get away from the place for a while so we were glad to comply.  We met at our apartment and we drove to Applebee’s in W. Lebanon.  It was nice to get away again ourselves.  After dinner we hit the grocery store before coming on home.
SATURDAY    Osborn’s had to go to a meeting in Boston today so we are back to the Memorial for the day.  I started the day off cutting Elder Mooney’s hair.  He doesn’t have a lot to work with so it went quick.  So glad we had several visitors to take up a good share of the time.  One sad note, a couple in law school from the Boston area came and just as they arrived their car started giving them trouble.  Roni Johnson called a couple of his friends but they couldn’t fix it until Monday so the people called someone in Boston to come pick them up.  As it was an hour before quitting time, Rhonda decided to drive them for an hour to meet their pick-up people and then stop a few stores on the way home.  I stayed at the Memorial past closing time and then went back to the apartment with Elder Harman who is turning some wood over at the FM shop. 

A Spring-time Drive to work in Vermont

Pictures taken from our car while driving to the Memorial

Oh, Yeah: A "White" St. Patricks Day!

March 9-15

SUNDAY    Daylight saving time robbed me of a little sleep before Church.  We even had to go a little early as they had ask Rhonda to play prelude and the opening song just in case the regular lady didn’t make it with the time change.  There was a young Marine from NH to Church with his Korean girlfriend (non-member) and they came to the memorial for our only guests.

Family Home Evening Group 3-9-2014

MONDAY  -  We spent some time practicing over several  music pieces  to play for FHE tonight.  Rhonda on the accordion and me on the melodica. We also tried to do a little practicing while we were on shift but we were interrupted several times with visitors which was OK with us.  Rhonda was the basic program for FHE.  She played several songs on the accordion and did a great job.  I tried to accompany her for a couple songs on the melodica and made several mistakes along the way but I think they got the jest of what it was supposed to sound like. I spent the rest of the evening just doing some odds and ends until the BYU game came on TV at 11:30pm.  I was only going to watch a few minutes but it ended up being a close game and so I had to stay to the end (which was 1:29am).  BYU ended up winning by 2 points in overtime so I guess it was worth it.



TUESDAY -  Beside our weekly training meeting with all JSBM Missionaries, we had visitors come to the Memorial. As usual, they seemed to all come at the same time.  We were even late getting home but no problem as we cancelled institute due to spring break at the university along with Relief Society parties, etc.   After we had something to eat, I went for a walk but had to come home after dark and the puddles on the sidewalk were getting iced over so was glad to get back in one piece.  Watched BYU in the WCCD championship game but I think they were out of gas from the OT win the night before so they lost.  I at least went to bed on my schedule for a change.

WEDNESDAY     We were scheduled to do the all day shift today.  Well, it was snowing in the morning when we got up and snowed all day.  Shortly after 1:00pm the Osborn’s sent us home as there was nothing going on but snow.  The FM supervisors sent the other missionaries home saying that Vermont was going to start closing highways due to the extreme storm.  We met three snowplows on the way back to the apartment.  The roads were very slick and it snowed all the rest of the day. 

 

 

 

 

THURSDAY   We learned this morning that this is the 12^th largest snow storm since they started keeping records.  It took me 45 minutes to get the car cleaned enough to get to work at the Memorial.  Elder Osborn said he measured 16 inches of new snow and the wind probably blew additional away.  We had the afternoon shift as we had earlier chosen to work today and take our day off on Friday this week.  We were anticipating Randy's family coming for a few days during Halen's Spring Break.  However, the storm closed the Burlington airport and caused all kinds of havic so they didn't make it.  It was cold and blowing snow all day long and of course, no visitors came to the Memorial.  
FRIDAY   We went shopping to W. Lebanon in the morning and then in the afternoon we joined with the Harman’s and Mooney’s for a trip to the Boston Temple.  They were staying overnight and so  Ryan was sweet and generous to give us some of his Marriott points so we could join them.    We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in Waltham, MA--quite close to the Temple. 

After checking in we drove downtown Waltham and finally ended up eating at a Mexican place called Marquarita’s.  Same chain as we went to in NH with Osborn’s.  We then stopped at Costco where I renewed my membership for another year.  I think I can save enough on gas to pay my membership.  While we were at Costco, Elder Harman got a text back from President Stoker saying that it was good to go to the Temple but we were supposed to be back in the mission boundaries to spend the night but since we already had hotel reservations, he would let us go this time.   Maybe easier to get forgiveness than permission but we really didn’t understand the policy good enough to do different.  

SATURDAY   We enjoyed a nice session at the Temple.  We saw a “new” film that we hadn’t seen before.  This one seemed to be a little more personal and yet a little more gentle than the last new one we saw in Boston. 


 
After the Temple session we drove into downtown Boston.  Things are really crazy there and driving is pretty intense. Things are also quite expensive.  Weekend parking was a little better, we found a lot for $9.00.  We walked down to Boston Harbor and looked around and found a place for lunch/dinner called Legal Seafood.  Food also seemed expensive, $16.95 for fish and chips.  After eating, we walked around downtown for a little while then headed back up the interstate for home.  We made a stop in Manchester NH for the ladies to shop at Michael’s.  We arrived home about 8:15pm and were glad to be here.  We were both to bed earlier that we had been in quite a while.

Shots taken around Boston Harbor