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!