Marvelous Mother's Day

May 5 - 11

The FM Missionaries are still working to get the Christmas Lights down

MONDAY    I got up early this morning and left Rhonda home while I went golfing with Elder Osborn.  We went to the Montague course in Randolph but it wasn’t the best.  All temporary greens as all the regular ones had frozen and were all dead brown grass.  The fairways also needed a little warm weather to start to grow but it was at least a time to get out.  (I did hit the ball quite well for  not having been out only 1 time since last July.)  I hurried home and got ready for our afternoon shift at the Memorial.  Several visitors came before the start of FHE which is now delayed an hour until 6:00pm and the Memorial is open until 7:00.  

TUESDAY    I woke up earlier than usual, so I ended up taking a walk, doing some extra reading, etc., waiting for our shift at the Memorial which is now 2:00pm.  By closing time at 7:00pm it seemed like a long day.  I did meet with a couple from NY which was quite interesting.  The man had a little knowledge about Joseph Smith and the lady had “diarrhea of the mouth”.  She couldn’t quick talking.  Rhonda started with them but soon passed them along.  When I was trying to talk about Joseph Smith the lady mentioned something about a metal book.  I explained about the golden plates and how they were translated by Joseph Smith to become the Book of Mormon.  She immediately said she had that book.  Every time I would try to talk, she was talking, finally her husband told her to “just listen to the man”.   When I tried to tell Rhonda about my experience, my answer was, “I got four works in”  

Sis. Sumsion and comp. with investigator from Maine

WEDNESDAY    We opened up this morning and when we walked into the office area, it was mostly cordoned off with plastic.  Several workmen were working in a corner of the office, sawing, drilling and mainly making a great noise.  The phone kept ringing and it really seemed like a circus trying to get things accomplished.  Luckily, when visitors came, they weren’t yet working in the visitor center but will eventually get there.  The high water is rotting the floor joist and they are not holding on to the foundations.   One interesting thing happened as a couple of the groups met at the Monument from the same ward.  One of the men, who used to be a missionary at the Monument, told me he heard Pres. Hinckley say JOSEPH SMITH’S BIRTHPLACE IS THE SECOND MOST SACRED SPOT ON EARTH, -- SECOND ONLY TO BETHLEHEM.  If it were not for Joseph Smith, there would be no Palmyra, Kirtland, or even Salt Lake. 

It was fun to see Sis. Sumsion again.

Things seemed to get really busy for a while as several of us were conducting tours at the same time.  Rhonda had to come back to the Church to practice with the YW in the evening so we decided to take a “tour” on our way home.  We took the back roads past the Memorial through the woods, finally ending up in Tunbridge.   From there we took another side road and ended up going through Bethel and located the high school where we will be going for the Vermont Post-card Fair in about 10 days.  
THURSDAY  I got up early and went for a walk.  When I returned, Rhonda was still asleep so I went back to bed for a while.  It was such a nice day, we ended up taking our folding chairs outside to do our Book of Mormon reading.  We finally ended up going shopping in the afternoon.  We really didn’t need much but a few things.  Found a deal on soda and ended up taking my diamond ring (dating back to 1969) to the jewelry story to have it re-sized to a size 14.   We spent part of the night packing our suit cases in hopes of taking a short trip to Florida tomorrow afternoon.    
FRIDAY   We switched our workday with the Likes so we did the
morning shift.  In the afternoon, we had a training with Jason Mitchell from SLC and the Church Missionary committee.  Pres. Stoker was also here.  The training wasn’t too intense and about 2:40pm Pres. Stoker ask to be excused as he had a meeting in NH at 4:00pm. We left right behind him-- rushed to Burlington, parked the car and went directly to the airport.  Shortly before the scheduled flight time, Randy called and said the plane was delayed a couple of hours.  There was a long line of people at the desk, all with questions and trying to change flights, etc.  Finally I told Rhonda I was leaving and not waiting for the plane.  She wasn’t too happy about my decision but what could she do.  I decided that we could be back to the Memorial for the monthly Sr. Missionary party.  We were only a half hour late and got there right after the blessing.   Harman’s were the hosts and they had brought some Kobe beef steaks and Idaho potatoes back from their trip to Utah.  They did a BBQ and also had fresh Salmon BBQ’d.  I think it was the best Salmon I have ever eaten.  I was glad we went.  After eating, we soon excused ourselves and went to the apt. to look at other flight possibilities on getting to Florida.  About 11:00pm I finally decided upon my best alternatives, listed for the flights, printed our boarding passes and went to bed.  It was a couple hours before Rhonda supposedly came to bed.  SATURDAY    We got up at 3:00am to start our day.  Shower, shave, etc.  we headed off for the Burlington airport again.  Parked back at Thrifty rental cars and shuttled to the airport.  We ended up getting first class seats from Burlington to NY-Laguardia.  After about an hour wait, we got seats to Orlando and soon headed through the skies on our way.  We had three seats for the two of us so we flew in great shape.  Once in FL our timing was almost perfect as  Ryan was there about the same time as we got out to the loading area.  It was great to see him.  We made a couple stops on the way to Ryan’s home as he was looking for a Mother’s Day gift but without success.  Upon our arrival, all the boys came running to give us a BIG hug. We were amazed to see how much Ty has grown (not a toddler any more).   It was so nice to see them again.  Rochele had lunch ready for us and things were going great.  After a short visit we all headed to Chace’s basketball game.  His team lost by two points but Chace did really good.  Back at the house, Ryan ask for some help re-setting his toilet.  We found the flange was broken so it was a trip to Hope Depot to get some additional parts.  Before doing any more on the toilet, it was time to go to dinner.  We ended up going to Chili’s (I think it was my doings we went there).  Rhonda and I thought we were taking the family out but somehow Ryan paid the bill over some type of internet gizmo that was at the table without us even knowing it.  Just another sign, I am not up to speed with modern technology.  After returning home,  we got out to put the kids to bed while Ryan took Rochele Mother’s day shopping at the mall.  Soon thereafter, I was to bed.  
SUNDAY   I didn’t know anything until I heard Ryan talking downstairs.  I looked at the clock and it was 8:53am.  Church started at 10:00 so we hurried and got ready for Church.  Ryan and the boys had made Mother’s Day breakfast so we had to hurry.  When Church was out, Ryan had to do fast-offerings/tithing so we left him at the Church.  At that time, Chace and I finished putting the toilet together and hooked it up,  No leaks were detected.  I then had a chance to look at flights to get back to VT.  Some options were better than others.  I choose the one which left at 8:50am so as to have a couple of options in NY.  After that, we just enjoyed being with the kids, playing a few games, etc.   It was nice to have family prayer, etc. with Ryan and his family.  I went to bed while Rhonda did a little more visiting.   We thoroughly have enjoyed this brief, marvelous visit with our family in Florida.

A little BBall fun with Chace & Cael

Zac seemed to enjoy his go-cart