New Missionaries!

Lots of Snow

February 16-22

SUNDAY  --   Regular Church schedule.  Met the other new FM couple (Mooneys) at Church. They just arrived in the late hours of Saturday.  They seem like a nice couple as do the Harmons!  

Icicles at Church

  

Spent the afternoon at home just trying to get caught up on some of the odds and ends I haven’t seemed to finish before now.  We were asked to take Sister Raymond to Tim Luce’s baptism at the Church.    We almost got stuck in her roadway as the wind had blown and snow had drifted in and it was pretty deep.  We were spinning several times to get up her hill.  The Baptism was a nice service with treats afterward.  President Stoker came to the baptism because he was here staying at the Memorial in preparation for Zone Conference tomorrow.    

MONDAY  - Today was Zone Conference at the Church.  We attended until the noon break.  We hurried and grabbed some food and then off to the Memorial to relieve Osborn’s who were on the Conference program in the afternoon.  It turned out to be a really good day.  We had quite a good number of visitors come.  It was nice to be busy again!  We also had a good crowd at FHE.       

TUESDAY  -  We had the weekly missionary meeting at the Memorial before we started our regular shift.  Rhonda gave the lesson and did a great job.  It started snowing in the early afternoon and didn’t seem to be letting up so we decided to cancel Institute for the night.  I didn’t have the students’ phone numbers so I emailed them and ask them to reply.  Only one student replied so when we got home I got out the phone numbers and started calling.  I believe I finally made contact with all of them before they would have left for the class.  We just stayed at the apartment for the rest of the night.  I got out my varnish and gave the walking sticks a going over on the top half.  I also finished my reading The Work and the Glory (volumes 1-9) for the second time. 

WEDNESDAY  -  We had our normal All-day shift so Osborn’s could get a day off.  We had several visitors and at the end of the day we waited at the Memorial so Rhonda could go to song practice with the YW since they were having combined Mutual they were going to practice early.  It snowed off and on for the afternoon and when we stopped at the Church for practice, no YW showed up and only 1 YM so things were pretty much cancelled.  We were scheduled to have the combined activity showing movies at the Memorial but it all fell through since there was no participation.  We finally got home a little after 7:00pm.  I was certainly ready for some food.       

Entering the "Longest" covered bridge crossing the Connecticut River from New Hampshire to Vermont

View from road-side about a mile away

THURSDAY  -   Today is our day-off.  We had a calm morning—but it really turned out to be a nice day.  So nice in fact that I had to get the bucket and wash the car.  We made our shopping run in the afternoon (after a stop to Wendy’s).            While we were in that end of town we headed down the road toward Windsor, VT.  It is there that they have the longest covered bridge around.  It goes across the Connecticut River, probably over 100 yards. All the signs were pretty much covered up with snow to read the particulars.  We took the slow road back to W. Lebanon to finish our shopping and get gas.    We finally made it home and the car was dirty again so I got the bucket and washed it again.  It would be clean for at least a few hours (overnight).  I watched Olympics and basketball on TV.  The BYU game vs. Gonzaga came on TV at 11:00pm EST but was such a good game I had to watch it until nearly 1:30am.     
 FRIDAY  -   Up in pretty good time for getting in so late.  We went for a walk to town and thought the air felt pretty moist.  Sure enough, it started raining when were just about to turn around so we cut through the Sharon School grounds and headed for home.  We had a few visitors at the Memorial.  I ended up watching part of the movie, Testament   with a couple of members from NH.  It is really a touching movie.  With the rain and a warm day, there is lots of standing water on the walks and path to the Monument.  I tried pushing it off but it just kept running back to the low spots.        SATURDAY    -   We had the morning shift and the first thing was cut Elder Osborn’s hair.   It was a little nerve racking as he likes it quite long and I am not used to cutting that way.  I think it ended up looking OK however.    No one came to the Memorial until we were ready to leave and by then Osborn’s said they would take them through.  We went to the cabin/house (the one we once thought about buying, close to the Memorial) where Mooney’s are now moved to--since they didn’t like their other place.  Rhonda was helping to clean some areas with the steamer.  We somehow forgot the floor brush attachment, so I made a quick trip to the apartment to retrieve it.  Went home and relaxed for a while then I went for a walk.  Rhonda decided she had done her work for the day so I went alone but had a good walk up a side road in the mountains.  I watched more Olympics and BYU basketball on TV.  It was just a relaxing night.  

Another covered bridge near Plainfield

Another shot ofthe LONGEST covered bridge 

Is it really Valentine's Day . . . Looks more like Christmas!

January 9-15

SUNDAY  Regular Church meetings then had to hurry as several visitors who were to Church said they were coming right up to the Memorial. Well we waited, ate our lunch and a little more waiting before anyone arrived.  After that  we had quite a steady stream of visitors for quite a while.  It was nice again to have people to see the monument and to give tours too.  When our shift finished we took a drive and looked over the apartment where Osborn’s had been living.  After that we went home and mainly watched the Olympics on TV.

MONDAY  -- We had the early shift again today.  Things were not really hopping today as far as visitors.  We came home and Rhonda started cooking for the Family Home evening that starts at 5:00pm.  With the FM missionaries gone home and the new ones not having arrived yet, we ended up doing a main dish, a salad and a dessert.  Just before FHE, Roni Johnson called and wanted to talk to us about maybe renting or buying John Lefgren’s house where the Osborn’s had stayed.  We had looked at it previously and had about decided to do nothing but we decided to listen anyway.  When he left, we both said we would stay where we were.  

Sisters:  Tarawhiti & Houston

TUESDAY  -  Roni Johnson called early this morning and said he had an offer that even he couldn’t believe.  He had emailed papers in hand waiting for us to sign to buy for $280,000.00!  I said I would think about it and talk to Rhonda and call him back.  Well, we went for a walk and then Rhonda was back to the stove making some dinner for Joseph since he had been hit by his wife  (in car... not living together) and broke some of his ribs.  He didn’t show either.  Tried to call Roni Johnson but NA so left a voice mail asking for the amount of the utilities and property taxes.  He didn’t respond. At the Memorial the Sister missionaries did the training and they showed us how they did “chat” on the computers.  It was pretty interesting.  I missed part of the presentation as I went to the Visitor Center to talk to Drew (fairly regular investigator/visitor).  I was pretty forceful with him and challenged him to be baptized.  Not much excitement the rest of the day until it was time to go to Institute.  We went through Randolph Town and gave a ride to a girl named Kelsey Preston who doesn’t drive.  Institute went pretty good, we doubled our percentage of attendance from 1 to 2.  We were tired by the time we finally got back to the apartment. 

WEDNESDAY  It was a pretty chilly morning, the car showed -9degrees when we left home.

We spent the full day at the Memorial so Osborn’s could have a day off.  We worked on several projects to help pass the time away as we didn’t have any visitors.  I even de-barked a couple of
sticks that were pretty small to help pass the time away.   After a quick dinner, we went back to the Church as Rhonda is accompanying the Young Women for their Young Women  in Excellence coming up soon.  
THURSDAY    We took an early morning walk before the weather turned cold and snowy.  Soon, the weather was not conducive to doing much traveling (or anything else) so we just stayed at the apartment..  Another Nor-eastern snow storm is predicted so we decided to stay home and clean the apartment, did washing, etc.  The Harman’s (new FM missionaries were expecting to arrive this evening so Rhonda fixed dinner and we invited Osborn’s as well for dinner.  Just before time to eat, Harman’s called and said the Spirit was telling them to stop traveling for the night as it was too dangerous.  Osborn’s still came and we had a nice visit after a delicious dinner of corn-chowder, salad, croissant rolls and Valentine Cookies.

FRIDAY  Pretty much snowed in for a while.  I shoveled to the car and then began cleaning the snow off.  There was about 14 inches on top of the car and it seemed deeper on the ground as the wind was blowing and it all didn’t stay on the car top. I guess we finally got to experience the Nor-Easter that all the TV stations were forecasting.  It was kinda fun and interesting and there really was a lot of snow.  Spent a while shoveling around the door and making a path to the car.  This is a new thing for the car as it is usually parked in a garage.    Rhonda spent more of the morning over to Shefchiks apartment cleaning so it would be ready for the Harman’s.    We had the afternoon shift at the Memorial.  I didn’t expect any visitors and sure enough, it turned out to be right, no one came.  We hurried home and made some candy popcorn, picked up the new FM missionaries, Kent and Tammy Harman, drove to the Village Pizza place (supposed to be the best pizza around) for a pickup order and headed to the Memorial again for a “Valentine Party” with the Osborn’s.  It was an enjoyable evening.  We had planned to play some games but got too busy just visiting.   SATURDAY   We were scheduled to go to the Boston Temple today but with the storm we changed our mind so told Osborn’s we would come put in a shift rather than do nothing. I cleaned a few paths and just watched it lightly snow out the window.  Harman‘s borrowed the steam cleaner while we were gone to give their apartment a better going over.

Freezing February

February 2-8

We had a nice snow storm this week

SUNDAY    -    I got up and ready for Church with not a lot of extra time.  We had the usual meetings and came back home.  Not much that interested me on TV until the superbowl and it didn’t go very good so I ended doing a little reading and studying for  missionary training and Institute on Tuesday.  Actually, it seemed like a pretty boring evening and I started to get “cabin fever”.  

People kept coming to tell Dyches "Good-bye"

MONDAY   We traded schedules, morning for afternoon, that way we didn’t have to make an additional trip to run the place while Osborn’s went to Sister Martha Miller’s funeral.  There was not a lot of visitor activity so I puttered with a couple of sticks for a while.  There were workmen in the visitor center replacing the ceiling tile and the place was really a mess.  I was kinda glad we didn’t have many visitors come as things looked so bad and messy.  After our supper, Rhonda took her steamer to the Dyches to help them clean as they are leaving the mission tomorrow. 

They are loved a lot!

After a while, I ended up walking over, visited a while and then rode back with Rhonda.  I tried to watch a basketball game on TV when we got home but kept falling asleep.  Maybe that is telling me something.

Brent & Sally Dyches waving 'Good-Bye'

TUESDAY    I walked back to the Dyches apt. and told them to get on the road and that I would come finish cleaning on Thursday.  On way to Memorial in afternoon, I went by Dyches apt. again to get some garbage and they were still there, having more company.  They finally dropped in at the Memorial about 3:00 to say good-bye on their way out of town. 

Dyches - Driving Away

I was asked to teach the missionary lesson at our training today.  I used “The Iron Rod” as the basis of my text and tried to apply it to the Missionary Purpose.  There were not a lot of visitors and that was good.  Besides the ceiling tile people, there were guys installing more security cameras in the memorial so things were really in a mess.  You couldn’t use either of the rooms.  In the evening we drove to Norwich Univ. to teach Institute.  After quite a long wait, there was one of the four students that finally showed up.  We did have a good discussion with her.  We finally got home about 10:30pm.

WEDNESDAY   I woke up to fresh snow falling and about 6 inches of new snow on the ground, it is the light and fluffy kind.  Not all the roads to the Memorial were plowed but we didn’t have any problems.  
 Since all the FM missionaries have now gone home, there were no paths cleared so I made a swath with a snow shovel hoping that someone with the snow blower would soon come.  It continued to snow all day and Paul finally came with the snow blower a couple of times so I didn’t have to do any more shoveling.  That is good for my sore back.  The ceiling tile people are still working at the Memorial and it is still a mess.  A couple came to look at the Monument but didn’t want to go inside (just as well, too messy).  With continual snow, Osborn’s sent us home a half hour early.  It didn’t make much difference as we didn’t leave the apartment anyway.   
THURSDAY   I went for a couple of walks today while Rhonda was cleaning apartments for the FM missionaries who have gone home.  Even with snow all around, I couldn’t stand to have the car so dirty so I had to take the bucket and rag and give it a quick washing.  It sure looks better even though I know it won’t last longer that the time it is parked.   For my evening activities, I mainly watched the Olympic games from Sochi, Russia.  BYU played a game starting at 11:00pm.  I watched the first half and it looked like they were going to win so I recorded the rest of the game to view later.   
FRIDAY   I got up earlier than Rhonda so I finished watching the BYU game then we went for a walk before going to the Memorial for the afternoon.  Things are still pretty quiet, having only 1 group visit today.  The Opening Ceremony from the Olympics was on TV so I spent most of the night watching that as well as a little BYU gymnastics.