Merry Christmas!

Week 15 (December 22-28)

The opening of Church was pretty small so I ended up passing Sacrament again.  We went to the memorial early as we were having a “Birthday” party for the Prophet Joseph

Smith (today so as not to interfere with family night on Monday).  The Parker family (family of 12 children and polished musicians from New Hampshire) came to play background music for the “party”.  Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get to hear a single note of their program as I went to the visitor center to give a tour while they were setting up and then people just kept coming in and after about 3 hours their program was over and I missed it all.  There were about 350 people we counted in attendance.  As we were trying to close up, Misty called and said they had just moved to the cabin for their Christmas and there was water running on the floor from broken pipes someplace.  David tried to fix the problem bur couldn’t find the leak.  He took out a wall in mud room and the cabinets and still had to go higher.  They couldn’t find my torch so I called Morris Tanner and sent them to his place to borrow his.  They replaced the cap but didn’t get far enough in to the ceiling to find the leak so they turned off the water and spent the night with water for the toilets they bucketed out of the ditch by the town center.
Monday 12/23  Joseph Smith  Birthday   Today was a warm and windy day, a lot of the  rain is melting and making things very slushy and wet.  After several calls back to Misty, they finally got a plumber there from Kamas  who was able to finally “plug” the leak in the pipes.  They ended up cutting several holes in the basement ceiling before they found where the pipe was split.  The plumber said whoever put in the lines laid them right along the outside wall which was a dumb thing to do as far as freezing is concerned.  After things for the cabin quieted down a little we got in the car and went back to Lebanon to get more supplies for today’s Family Home Evening, Christmas Eve dinner at the Dyches and Christmas morning breakfast at the Osborne’s.  When we got home from town, I grabbed a bucket and gave the car a quick wash job as it was so dirty from the snow/road sand, etc.  Just as we were getting ready to go to the Memorial for FHE, Misty called again and said that Janalee had called her and said Kevin’s house had burned down and that Kevin was being transferred to the hospital in Provo by ambulance.  Very upsetting news to hear.  Janalee only had Misty’s number so she was to call Rhonda who then was to call her sisters.  So, when we got to FHE there were several calls going on trying to get the facts.  About time FHE finally started, visitors came for the Memorial so I missed all the lesson and almost missed the treats until Rhonda came and had me fill a plate which I did so I could eat it later. You would have thought we were having the birthday party all over again as we had nearly as many people stop in for cider and a cookie as there were yesterday for the original party.  As we were headed home about a half hour past quitting time the Johnson’s were just waiving good-by when I happened to look up and see Annie (the donkey) running around out on the grounds.  It took a few minutes but Elder Johnson and I along with our wives were finally able to head it back into its pen between the buildings.  It was quite nerve racking and I was beginning to wonder where I could quickly find a lasso rope but luckily enough, we didn’t need it.

           Tuesday was still warm in the day but by night the skies had cleared and the ground was frozen again.  I ended up having to put on my over coat, gloves and ear warmers to keep warm.  Feet were cold all the time.   I could hardly believe the throngs of people out on Christmas Eve coming to see the lights and have refreshments.  We were in hopes to close an hour early but by 8:00pm we had recorded over 325 people who had been there with other groups still roaming around.  Finally, the Johnson’s decided that they didn’t dare leave with so many people roaming around so they sent us on to the Dyches for a Christmas Eve dinner party.  We didn’t change and went straight there and were just in time for the eats.  After arriving back home, Rhonda started making her food assignments for tomorrow.  I meandered around for a while and finally went to bed at 1:00am.  MERRY CHRISTMAS.

   

Christmas Breakfast at the Osborn's cabin

Christmas day was actually very lovely. We had Christmas breakfast in the up-stairs area of Osborn's cabin.  It was pretty and fun.  Then Elder Ogden and I had to leave by 10:00 to go to work  (This was an hour later than usual).  There were actually some visitors on Christmas day, so it was good we were there.

After our shift was over, we went with Shefchik’s to Christmas dinner in Bethel, VT.  at the home of the Feeney Family.  Had a nice dinner including lamb and ham.  We saw their home movie about how their home was washed out from hurricane Irene a year or so ago.  It was pretty miraculous how they were able to rebuild as nice as they did.  After a nice evening, we came back to the apartment and opened our Christmas presents about 9:00pm.  It was a little different for a change but it was nice anyway.  I think we had a Wonderful Christmas although we missed being with our family.

Ready to unwrap gifts around 9:30 pm

Misty made these cute "Missionary" stockings & filled them full of presents.

Merry & Bright--LIGHTS!

Week 14 (December 15-21)

Monday morning we took Sister Shefchik and went to the Quechee Gift Shops.  She was all excited to show Rhonda some antiques, etc.  I followed them for a few minutes and then sat in the car and read The Work and the Glory for a while.  After Quechee, we drove on in to West Lebanon and did a little shopping.  I missed family home evening as we no sooner got to the Memorial and three visitors showed up for a tour.  When I finished, they were having home evening treats.  I came for the eats and moved on to visitors for the lights.

Tuesday--The temperature for Sharon this morning was 19 degrees below 0.  So, it was a good day to do the laundry at the apartment.  About noon it started to snow very lightly and snowed most of the day and evening until we finished up at the Memorial.  During the course of the evening, I shoveled the walks twice for my exercise.  I figured it would be very slow with the snow, etc. but we still had about 25 visitors who came in to see the animals/hot cider visit.  Elder Osborne and I gave a blessing to Elder Johnson a blessing prior to his going to the hospital in the morning for a medical procedure, something to do with a scope and checking on his ulcer.  About the end of the evening we received a phone call saying Jay McClure from the home evening group had passed away.  We were also saddened to get an email saying that JoAnne Brown from our St. George ward had also passed away on Sunday previous.

 Wednesday evening we went with the young Sister Missionaries to teach a lesson to a young father that has brought his two little kids up to see the lights several times.  This was our first experience like that.

The lights and stable definitely draw a lot of visitors.  We have hundreds of people nearly every night.
Saturday we manned the facility alone for quite a while as all other missionaries went to the Ascutney Ward for the funeral of Jay McClure.

Decidedly December!

Week 13 (December 9-15)

  
Things at the Memorial have slowed down considerably.  We are only averaging 2-5 visitors a shift so we are thankful for the evening shift where we get to meet a good number of people who come to see the Christmas lights. Week nights are not so rushed as weekends but there are still a good number.  So far the weekends have all been over 100 people each evening who come to the visitor center/house to pet the animals and get some warm cider.   The cider is getting more popular now that things are getting quite cold.  When we came to work the temperature was 2 degrees and only got up to 9 degrees during the day.  Each night for the last several there has been an inch or so of new snow.  Saturday night the weather forecast was warning people to get ready for a “nor’easter” snow storm.

When we went to bed it had started to snow and seemed to be piling up quite fast.  Sunday morning it was shoveling for sure.  There were 13-14 inches of new snow.  The phone started ringing asking Rhonda to play the organ for sacrament meeting before we got up.
Once up, it was time to shovel out the car.

There were a lot of people who couldn’t make it to Church.  (There wasn't a single member of the Relief Society presidency or teachers there.)  Some kept straggling in until just before the closing prayer of priesthood/relief society. They made it Just in time to say amen and go back home.  We went straight from Church to the Memorial where I shoveled more walkways.  As I expected on a day like today, things were quite slow for the afternoon.

Osborns and Ogdens