Melting Snow

April 12-19

The Snow is finally going!

Melting so much snow causes floods and puddles

SUNDAY    It was raining very hard this morning when we got up but we hurried and went to the Hanover Ward (9:00am Sacrament meeting).  We only stayed for sacrament meeting because we had to open up at the Memorial at 1:30pm.  There was a car there when we arrived to start things off.  We were getting ready for a new-member fireside at the residence but found out that there were probably going to be too many people coming so we made plans to move to the Church.  Rhonda went to the Church to practice on their piano while I manned the ship.  President and Sister Stoker soon arrived to prepare for the fireside but were soon about their own business and I hardly saw them again. About 2 hours before the fireside was to start, missionaries started arriving with their guests who hadn’t been to the Memorial before.  We were going like crazy trying to take care of all the people.  Rhonda finally went to the Church to play prelude.  I finally told the guests I had to lock up, which I did, and walked to the Church.  I also needed to be there on time as Elder Osborn had ask me to lead the congregational singing.  The fireside went great.  Pres. Stoker gave an inspiring talk about the early times of Joseph Smith in this area and then expanded on the theme.   The BEST part of the fireside was when Rhonda played a piano selection of Joseph Smith related hymns.  It was perfect.  After the fireside everyone was treated to cookies and punch which all the senior missionaries had made.  Delicious!  We then went back to the Memorial and finished the lock-up process.     
MONDAY       We had to take the sister missionaries shopping in W. Lebanon this morning.  It was kind of a quick trip as we had to get back to duty at the Memorial in the afternoon.  One interesting thing, while we were looking for a post office, the GPS took us on a “wild goose chase” as that facility had been closed.  We finally found another one and the lady asked to see my credit card.  I asked her if she didn’t want to see my ID as well and she replied NO, I see by your badges that you are Church officials and that is good enough.  It seems like it is getting to be the norm that about the time for family home evening to start, a visitor comes to see the memorial.  Oh well, not to complain.  The Egan’s (new FM missionaries) were the program before dinner.     
TUESDAY      Since I had gone to bed earlier, I woke up earlier.  As a result, I went walking and did some exercises.  I even got out the pots and planted some flower seeds.  We went to the missionary meeting at 12:30.  It rained off and on in the morning and then in the afternoon it really came down hard at times, but rained most of the afternoon.  Needless to say, with all the rain, we didn’t have any visitors all afternoon.   We picked up Olivia Wilson and Kelsey Preston and her brother Zachariah (14 yrs. old and on crutches) on our way to Institute.  We ended up with 7 people in attendance.  It snowed heavily all the way home from Northfield.  The dirt roads to Kelsey’s were pretty muddy and rutty.  Once in a rut, you were doomed.  With the snow and mud, we were past 10:30 getting home.  I was tired and soon to bed.

WEDNESDAY   The ice frozen on the windshield was pretty hard this morning.  There was also snow on the ground.  The snow on the grass finally melted about a day ago and now more.  At times, it could be depressing.  We were back to the all day shift and Elder Osborn wanted a haircut about as soon as we arrived.  It was quite cold and windy outside but we still had several visitors come, for which we are grateful, it makes the all day shift go by so much faster.  We were thinking about closing about 4:30pm when three different groups of visitors came within about a two minute period. We combined a couple of the groups but by the time we got to the monument, they were all together anyway.  We were late getting home but that is OK.      
THURSDAY     We traded our day off for Friday so it was back to work this morning.  Rhonda and Sunya took the steam cleaner and spent most of the day, cleaning the apartment for the Likes.  George and I were trying to hold down the fort.  He was back-up while I took the tours.   The ladies came back just before our shift was over but we just talked until time to go.  We hurried to go shopping since we needed a few essentials.  After we came home, we did a thorough car washing.  It wasn’t before it needed it however.  I tried to vacuum the interior but the vacuum wouldn’t pick up the sand.  Rhonda got out the steam cleaner and went over the seats, it was the best cleaning the car has had so far in the mission.    
FRIDAY   For our “day off” this week we took a trip to the Montreal Canada Temple.  The Mooney’s (FM missionaries) came to the apartment and we traveled together.  On arriving at the Canada border, we were behind about five cars one of which had a real problem.  They ended up moving them out of the line and going through their car.  Cars coming into the US were backed up for miles, three cars wide.  We commented that if we had to wait through that line, we would miss our Temple appointment.

 We arrived at the Montreal Temple just about an hour early (right on my scheduled time).  The Temple will be closing in a few weeks so the session was full.  It is one of the small Temples but very nice and beautiful.  We enjoyed the session very much.

As we were leaving, we ask two sister missionaries what we should see while in Montreal.  They took our GPS (which I was amazed that it worked in Canada, even in English, not French) and programmed it for a restaurant in “Old Montreal”. It took us a while to find a parking spot and then to get to the restaurant.  In the time we were driving/walking the streets of old Montreal we saw a good part of the old town.  After dinner, we were worried about the wait at the border crossing so we decided to head for home.  The GPS led us right out of town and it was smooth sailing.  At the border we only waited for one car.  I mentioned to the crossing attendant that the line was different than what I saw this morning, his response was that the wait this morning was over two hours long.  As we continued home, we took a quick stop at the mall in Burlington (Rhonda bought a yellow jacket) and were soon home.  Out total trip time was a little less than thirteen hours.  I was tired and soon to bed.

 

  
SATURDAY    We had the early shift today and morning seemed to come way too early.  Osborn’s were doing various things in town so it was peaceful except for the visitors who came to see us.  After our shift, we changed clothes and hurried back to town as we were in definite need of gas since our Temple trip.  We tried to relax in the evening but our Dish Receiver went on the blink.  About every 10-15 minutes it would freeze up and then another 15 minutes for it to re-boot.  Then shortly it would freeze again.  It was frustrating as I was trying to watch BYU volleyball and a Ladies golf match and couldn’t keep the flow of anything.     

FM Missionaries taking down Christmas Lights