October: First Frost

Week Six  (Oct. 20-26)

We definitely sense that winter is on its way.  There was heavy frost several mornings (but the mums are still holding on).  The FM workers are busy each day putting Christmas lights up in the trees and around the porches, etc., and most of the leaves are now gone.

 Sunday we were able to go to all three meetings for the first time since coming here.  Just to make sure, we drove to the memorial after sacrament meeting to check but no one was waiting so we went back to Church.  At the end of the block, we hurried to the memorial and there were three cars waiting.  After our shift, we were invited to dinner at the Dyches' (church service missionaries) apartment.  It was a good dinner with potatoes, gravy, turkey, stuffing, fresh rolls, etc.  In the middle of our dinner we got talking about an estate sale that one of the people told us about while at the pig roast so we decided to go check it out.  We had to hurry before dark and without a GPS we would never have found the place.  These GPS things are a real blessing for this part of the country.  I was amazed that all these dirt roads in the mountains have names and numbers and probably even more amazed that the GPS could find them.  

            The days are getting shorter (not as much sunlight) and cooler.  The number of visitors at the monument is slowing down as well.  The first sign of Frost was on Wednesday morning.  I had to scrape the windows to be able to drive to work. 

            Thursday morning, there was frozen rain on the windows and car.  I scraped the best I could and then we headed for the Boston, MA Temple.  Along with our GPS, we did OK.  We even arrived ahead of schedule.           

  David Gunther was the ordinance worker who presided over the session we were in.  He asked us if we would be the witness couple.  Boston is really a pretty Temple, nice grounds and beautiful interior.  After the session we followed Gunther’s to a ninety-nine restaurant for lunch.   They invited us to leave our car in their apartment complex next week while we go to Utah and they would take us to the Logan Airport.  Hopefully we can make it work; it is too good of a deal to turn down.  After dinner we stopped to a Costco for a few items.  This may not have been our best move.  We left the store at 4:30pm and really got caught in traffic of people leaving the Boston area after work.  Many times the freeway would just come to a complete stop in all the lanes.  As a result, we were much later getting home than we had planned.  It still turned out to be a good day

We spent Friday morning doing some cleaning at the apartment.  Things at the Memorial were a little better but nothing like they were when it was warmer and we had leaves on the trees.  After locking up, we hurried home so I could watch the BYU/Boise State football game on TV.  Rhonda made oatmeal cookies so I had a great evening, football game and fresh cookies. Both turned out excellent.

 We opened at the Visitor's Center Saturday morning.  Things were a little slow at first, but then got fairly busy.  In one group of four, I had three non-members.  Two were Jewish and the lady really asked some strange questions.  I had been thinking a lot about visitors of other religions since I had a Hindu couple on Friday.  I always hope I don't say anything offensive to them.

Shortly after our shift was over, Radene and Edwin Sunderland arrived at the memorial.  They visited with the Osborn's and heard most of the tour before we got back up there.  They were traveling with some friends from Tremonton.  We took a few pictures and visited at the center.  Just as we were about to leave to go eat, the Dyches came.  They are long-time friends of Radene and Edwin so they were also happy to see them!  Since the Dyches had their daughter's family staying with them, it worked out well for Radene's group to stay with us.  We went to W. Lebanon for dinner at Applebees and just had a great evening with our friends!

 

October: "The Falling Leaves"

WEEK FIVE  (Oct. 13-19)

The leaves are falling rapidly and the temperature is getting chilly.  I am afraid the beautiful flowers will not be with us very much longer.

Sunday, Oct. 13:  David Gunther, a former Bishop from the A.F. 14th Ward visited with his wife, daughter, and son-in-law.

They were given a photo book of pictures from around Camp Joseph and the Memorial

Sunday evening, after the visitors' center was closed, all of the JSBM missionaries had a birthday/farewell party for Elder Sherman and his wife.  They have run the girls camp (Camp Joseph) for two years now and they are going back home to New York tomorrow.   We had root beer floats, birthday cake, and tons of other treats.

While taking a walk this week, I realized I have not taken pictures of our little town, Sharon, VT.
So, here we are:

Every town seems to have the little white church house.

There is often a little town "green"

Just a house along the road

This week has been especially full of activities:

• Sunday-- the party for Elder & Sister Sherman
• Monday--Family Home Evening (pot luck dinner, as usual)
• Thursday--Day Off.  Mac Niel went golfing with Elder Osborn and then we took a scenic drive to Rutland (approximately 90 miles round-trip).
• Friday--Missionary Couples Party (popcorn, banana splits, rootbeer, cheese/crackers, cookies, etc).  Watched the movie, "Ephraim's Rescue"
• Saturday--Wedding party in Tunbridge.  This was a "Pig Roast" and pot-luck dinner/dance in the  barn of the brides's father. 

 This is a picture of the pig being roasted!










Below are other pictures from the Tunbridge area

Tunbridge Store (where Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack first met

Over-looking some of the Asael Smith farm

Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith were given some of this property when they got married.

A cemetery near Tunbridge where Steven Mack's business partner, John Mudget, is buried

OCTOBER: A Kaleidoscope of Color

WEEK FOUR  (October 6-12)

The leaves are really starting to fall but the amount of color everywhere you look is still unbelievable.

It is actually easier to see some of the sights along the road as we drive now that the leaves are not so thick.

Our road (route 14) runs along the White River

I find it interesting to see how most of the homes set nestled on the hills with tons of green grass (always mowed) all around.












 






There seems to be a lot of LDS members on the go for conference weekend.  Also, still  a lot of leaf lookers.  As a result, we have been busy every day, all day long.  One thing about being on Eastern time, it is after we get home that most BYU football games start.  On the negative side, we have to wait for conference sessions and the night meeting ended pretty late in the day.  I was supposed to go to the Chapel for Priesthood Meeting but the sister missionaries in the area called Rhonda to take them to Bethel to see one of their investigators who got run-over by a bull and broke her nose and some bones in her back.  They had been to the hospital 2 times earlier in the day and were out of miles.  As a result, with no transportation, I stayed in the apartment and watched it on live TV for the first time.  One problem with the live TV, about 20 minutes before the end of the morning sessions both Saturday and Sunday, there was some problem with interference from the sun and the TV signal which caused it to go blank for several minutes thus ruining the talk.  Had to make-up those talks up on the internet.

 (I still find the flowers and surroundings at the JS Monument to be especially beautiful).





















 

           

Sunday we had to go in early as more tour buses came with larger numbers than the two people on Schedule can handle.  We just stayed the rest of the day because our shift was 4-7 and lock-up.  It was quite a bit cooler today.  The leaves are starting to fall quite rapidly at this point.

            By Monday, it rained off and on throughout the day,  a lot cooler and quite windy--yet we still had a lot of visitors.  By late afternoon, a couple of  the home-evening people had called and said the weather was too bad and they weren’t coming,  All of a sudden we really had some fierce wind and rain.  People had seen on TV about a tornado warning so the ladies hurried and tried to call all home evening people cancelling the night.   Well, some didn’t get the message and they kept stringing in and in so we ended up calling those who lived close and told them it was “on” again.  Ended up with a pretty good turn out after all.

            Tuesday turned out to be a much better day as far as the weather was concerned so the crowds returned as well.  About the only thing not doing as well is the foliage.  After the big winds last night, they really took a hit.  With all the people coming out, Rhonda had several groups of people from Midway.  We didn’t know them but we knew common people in town.
  

            Wednesday was our “day off” this week as we traded with Osborne’s so they could spend time with their daughter who came to town.  On our way shopping, we stopped at the Quechee Gorge.  It was a neat, deep canyon with the river running through the bottom.  We were planning on going to a couple more towns farther down the road but there was so much traffic that we decided instead to go to Dartmouth College.  We went to the “Special Collections” library.  As we went to the desk, the girl ask if she could help us then looked up and saw our missionary tags and said,  "I know, the Book of Mormon."  She brought out an 1830 first edition of the Book of Mormon.  We were permitted to handle it, look through it and do about anything we wanted except use it to make photo copies.  They didn’t want to lay it flat and cause damage to the back.  It was pretty neat to get to handle it like that.  The girl said it was the most highly circulated book in their library.  

The campus 
at Dartmouth
was very nice. The buildings all had a "New England" appearance.
 

 The 1830 'First Edition' of the Book of Mormon is found in the "Special Collections" Library.









(Below:  Special Collections Library Building)
 Other pictures are some of the other buildings on campus.

After picking up a few more groceries, we didn’t feel like just sitting in the apartment so we took a ride to Tunbridge to see what we tell people about.  (Joseph Smith Sr. met Lucy Mack at the village store in Tunbridge). It turned out to be quite a nice little town.  Several covered bridges, etc. It is about 6 miles from South Royalton.

Tunbridge Cemetary

Tunbridge

We, again, had to accommodate extra hours to our schedule for tour buses on Thursday.  We had over 200 people that day and, as usual, greeted more people that we knew from American Fork, Midway, and St. George.
 
The closest town to the JSB Memorial is South Royalton.  We decided to snap a few pictures of the town "green" and surrounding buildings and homes.  The Vermont Law School is right there as well.

The park in the center of town is called the "Green"

Stores

Post Office

Bank

Vermont Law School

Some Church

Homes

More Homes

Saturday morning, we decided to drive up to the Memorial and hike "Patriarch Hill" which is the highest hill over-looking the original Solomon Mack farm.
We did fine on the road where we often take visitors in the golf cart. But once we started on the actual hiking trail, the leaves were so thick that we could not tell where the path went.  We wandered around a while until we finally spotted a tree with a little blue arrow.  Hurrah!  We were back on the path again!
The hike ended up be a little longer than I had expected, but it was a perfect day and really seemed good to be out and moving around.

















The marker at the top reads:
Elevation
1440


We were surprised to see this lovely home just beyond the elevation maker.  (But this is very typical of homes scattered all through the mountains).












The next thing we noticed was an nice view through the trees to the south.
 
As we walked closer to the edge of the hill to take some pictures, we were amazed to see the Monument in the distance.