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

April Showers

April 6-12

The Sisters using their dirty car for advertising "mormon.org"

SUNDAY     It was nice to watch Conference and hear the inspired messages which were all so wonderful!  As soon as conference was over at 6:00, we prepared for dinner with the sisters.  We invited the Harman’s as well but only Elder Harman came as Tammi was not feeling well.  (Harman’s just returned from Utah for a baby blessing and a medical emergency which caused them to stay a little longer than planned).   

MONDAY    We were at the Memorial as usual in the afternoon and then Family Home Evening.  About 5 minutes before the start of FHE, Elder Osborn ask me to conduct, he said the people were tired of hearing his voice.  No big deal.  I locked up the visitor center while the FHE people were getting their plates full.  We were just about ready to head home when a carload of visitors pulled up.  They had read the sign which said we were closed but they had driven a distance and wanted to see what it was all about so I unlocked and turned everything on and had the tour.  We finally got home about 7:45pm.  It all worked out OK as the NCAA final championship game didn’t start until 9:00pm EST.     

TUESDAY   The day started off on the rainy side as it rained most of the morning.  The rains are starting to take a definite toll on the amount of snow still on the ground.  I had to give the missionary lesson to the group meeting.  It was supposed to be something from Preach My Gospel so I choose the topic of Accountability.  For Institute,  we decided rather than give a strict lesson, we would highlight some of the trials and episodes that occurred right after the Church was organized.  I thought it went pretty well.  Besides the “regulars”, the sister missionaries showed up! :)   Rhonda made some good snicker-doodles which made up for any slight in the lesson.  After arriving back home, I watched the Women’s NCAA finals which I had taped from earlier in the night.

WEDNESDAY    This week Wednesday turned out to be our day-off.  Osborn’s asked us to trade as their son is coming on Wednesday night and they wanted to be with him starting on Thursday.  We took another shopping trip to W. Lebanon for a few hours in the morning and afternoon.    When we finally got home, I washed the car again.  With the days getting longer, Rhonda decided to go on a walk with me.  I took her through town and up the hills for about a 3 mile walk.  When we got home, we were both pooped.  I had to fix a pair of suit pants I had ripped the clasp on.  Guess I am putting on too much weight for my britches.  Not a lot happening in the evening.  I spent quite a while taking to LeIla on the phone.  She wasn’t feeling good and depressed.  She often feels lonesome.   
THURSDAY   Started some cleaning for the arrival of Randy and family tomorrow evening.  Osborn’s asked us to come to the Memorial an hour earlier than scheduled so they could go out with their son and his family.  We were really quite busy giving tours, etc.  After our shift, we were doing more cleaning when Randy called and said Alena is sick and they may not make it to see us tomorrow.  We finished our vacuuming since we had borrowed the vacuum from the Memorial as the one we have doesn’t pick up much.  It won’t even pick up a little sand off the wood floor.   
FRIDAY    Hurried and checked the flights as soon as we got up to see if Randy’s family was flying.  No luck!!  We are disappointed as that is the second time they have scheduled to come see us and couldn’t make it.  Today was another full day at the Memorial and we only had a few groups come for tours so it was a long day.  It was a beautiful spring day so after we went to the apartment and changed our clothes, we took a walk around town.  We couldn’t find much happening so we just spent the evening watching TV and trying to do a little reading    
SATURDAY    Today was another all-day affair as Osborn’s were taking their son and his family to the airport in Boston.  There were a good number of people coming for tours and they seemed to space out quite good so we were busy most of the day.  The day seemed to go much faster when you are busy.  Osborn’s hurried and were back by 4:00pm so they sent us home an hour early.  We were debating about going to Stake Conference in Essex (75 miles north by Burlington).  About that time, Elder Harman called and needed us to take some walkie-talkie radio’s to the conference to be used for parking on Sunday so that made our decision to go.  When we got to the Chapel, there was no one in the parking lot which seemed unusual as we were still a minute or two before the hour.  We walked in and the meeting was going on so we found a row of seats in the back of the cultural hall right behind the Osborn’s and newly arrived FM missionaries, the Egan’s.  We no sooner sat down and the Mooney’s walked in.  It turned out that all of us were an hour late for the meeting.  Somewhere along the like the communications broke down.  But, it was probably good we did go.  As soon as the conference was over, Sister Scott, from the South Royalton ward, had some type of emotional breakdown and I and Elder Mooney were able to administer to her at the stake center in Essex. 

Actually April

March 30-April 5

SUNDAY       We were scheduled at the Memorial after Church today (fast and testimony meeting).  Again they called on me to lead the singing but at least with Rhonda playing, the organist kept up to time.  I hadn’t realized there were so many songs in the hymn book with 6/8 time.  I packed a quick lunch which didn’t seem to go far enough at the time, especially since I didn’t get a chance to eat it until after the first visitors.  They came before Church was out so they walked thru the snow and down around the old home-site foundations before coming to the visitor center.   To top that off, it has rained for nearly 24 hours straight.  It has reduced the snow from 3 feet deep to about 2 feet.  It almost makes me think Spring is really going to come.  After our shift it was “too rainy” to go for a walk so I just watched basketball and my recorded tennis match on TV.     

 MONDAY       I went for a walk this morning but I wished I would have taken my scarf.  The wind blowing in my face made my neck pretty cold.  RSO was eagerly involved making our home evening food assignment while I was just around not doing anything constructive.  Went to the Memorial for the afternoon shift and had some visitors but it is still cool and windy. It is just not an inviting atmosphere for people to be out and about.  The activity for family home evening was to go to the visitor center theater and watch several of the short Mormon Messages.  There really are some great messages about the Church and inspiring people.  It seemed to be well received by those in attendance.    
TUESDAY    Today was a beautiful day here in Vermont.  The temperature was in the upper 40’s but it seemed quite a bit warmer.  There were visitors when we got t the Memorial and more came before our training meeting so I had to miss the meeting.  With several visitors coming through the day, it seemed like the day was over before I thought it should be.  We went home for a brief rest before going to Institute.  Kelsey said she wanted a ride but to be careful coming down her road as MUD SEASON had started.  That it had!  There was no getting out of the ruts once in them and if you tried to avoid them, it seemed like you were involuntarily slid right back into them.  It sure left ugly tires on the car.  I thought the class went quite well and we had a safe trip so it was a successful night.

WEDNESDAY       I guess I was re-taught a lesson on always being prepared today.   Maybe the lesson was: STAY WITH YOUR COMPANION.   Rhonda and Sister Osborn went to clean the apartments for the new missionaries who will be coming later this week and 2 weeks away.  We were expecting the carpet people to be at the Memorial changing the carpet when we arrived but they weren’t here.  Soon after Rhonda left with the car, there was a young family come from Cincinnati, OH to see the visitor center.  They had given their middle child some walnuts earlier in the day and he had broke out in hives and itching all over.  They had just started the tour when their baby threw up all over himself, the dad, the floor, the whole works.  They ask if I had a plastic bag to put the soiled clothes in so I ran over to the office to get a spare key to the custodial closet (my key is hooked on the car ring with Rhonda) to find a bag.  I asked what I could do to help them next and the dad asked if I had some oil to help him give the kids a blessing.   (Sure, my oil is in the jockey box of the car)  I called Elder Osborn who had gone to check on the ladies to see if he had some oil in the house I could find to help the dad.  He was almost back so he got some oil from his car and I helped the dad administer to his two boys.  By this time the carpet crew had come and started tearing up the carpet so I ask them if I could just leave the throw-up on the floor since they were going to rip it out today anyway.  They said OK.  Shortly after that, the carpet crew left to find some lunch and the delivery truck hauling the new carpet arrived.  The driver said he needed some help unloading the rolls of carpet since they weighed 2300 pounds.  I told him he would have to wait for the carpet crew as I couldn’t do that.  Maybe this just wasn’t my day!  The rest of the day, we just walked over and through where the carpet people were working without too much inconvenience.  

,THURSDAY   After doing some laundry and a few odds and ends at the apartment, we went shopping for some different kick around shoes and  pants for me.  I believe I went to every available store in W. Lebanon before finally settling on a pair of shoes at Wal Mart on sale for $13.00.  After getting some groceries and filling the car with gas, we headed home.  It was late afternoon so I called Bro. Dunkle and ask him if he was boiling maple syrup.  He said, "Yes, come and see."  He lives several miles off the main road thru Tunbridge so we re-visited the mud season again.  I had just washed the car in the morning but there was no indication that it had ever happened once we returned home. Anyway, the “sugar” business is quite interesting.  He has feed lines from the trees right into his sugar house and also uses buckets to hang on trees which are not convenient for the lines. His sugar house is quite small but very adequate for a personal enterprise.  He had three different bins where he was boiling maple sap.  It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.  Bro. Dunkle really had to keep adding wood to his stove to keep the pots boiling.  He gave us samples of the different boiling bins to see how the sap concentrates.    After we left his place, we drove further up the highway to Chelsea just to see some new territory and visit some of the local towns.  Some towns are quite quaint and looked like I think they must have looked when they were chartered in the late 1700’s.  The one thing that is really remarkable is that every town has a large white Church with a tall steeple.  They are really quite attractive.   
FRIDAY   I had to take my new shoes out for a walk.  They seemed very good to walk in and quite light and comfortable.   I washed the car again but on the way to the memorial there was a big puddle of muddy water on the side of the road and with approaching traffic, it had to go through it.  Needless to say, the car wash only lasted about 2 miles from home.  We arrived at the Memorial the same time as a car of visitors and since the carpet crew was out to lunch, I took them directly on a tour without checking in at the office.  There was another large group in the house seeing a movie since the theater was all torn up for the re-carpet process.    I was not quite so lucky for the rest of the visitors who came.  They mostly had to hear the tour message from the outside.  It was windy and cool so they didn’t want to stay out by the Monument too long.   They had coats, etc. and asked me how come I wasn’t cold.  My response was, who said I wasn’t?   We had our monthly senior missionary activity at the Mooney’s apartment.  We had a great time visiting and some delicious treats.  We almost got too involved to play their "Apples To Apples" game but finally got to it.   We missed the Harman’s who were in Utah helping out children who were having a medical emergency.   
SATURDAY    Today was the first day of the 184 General Conference.  We opened up at the Memorial and tried to watch the sessions on the Internet as the TV’s were all unhooked with the laying of the new carpet.  The internet was slow and there would be long pauses in the talks so they were a little hard to follow.  As soon as our shift was finished we hurried home and watched the Afternoon session (we are on 2 hour time change from MDT) and the Priesthood sessions from home.  It was much better.

The frozen river is starting to break from all of the rain

Chelsea Town Hall in Green

Other buildings on Main Street in Chelsea

Marching On

March 23-29

SUNDAY -  We had Church as usual and the went to the Memorial to open up.  Shortly thereafter Osborn’s come back from their talking assignment and took over so we headed back to the apartment.  There wasn’t much excitement the rest of the day so I spent most of the rest of day watching NCAA basketball games on TV.   
MONDAY -  I had an interesting tour just before the starting time for FHE.  It was a young man from California who claimed to be an atheist.  He hurried so fast through the first part of the visitor center I hardly got to explain anything.  If I would start to talk, he would move on to another picture or something else.  When we finally got into the Meditation room, he started asking lots of questions about things of the Church.  Before long, he made the comment that I seemed like a very knowledgeable guy.  That made me feel quite good.  I even feel  I made some positive impact.  We had to agree to disagree on a few matters but I had a chance to bear my testimony about the truthfulness of the Gospel and the Prophet Joseph Smith.  Family Home Evening went quite well and the people are starting to stay longer and visit with each other which is a good thing for most of them.  Several of them don’t have any contact with the outside world except for Church sponsored activities.   I got home to watch parts of the BYU women basketball game on TV.  They are going to the sweet sixteen with their win.   
TUESDAY -  It was finally warm enough that I took a walk this morning.  It was still quite cold but I managed.  After walking, I got out the bucket and washed the car, it was so filthy.  I knew it was cold as the wet wash glove would stick to anything metal it touched.  Not much unusual happened for our shift at the Memorial.  We hurried home and made candy popcorn for the students at institute.  We were on our way when Kelsey called and said not to pick her us as she wasn’t feeling too good.  When we arrived, we waited and waited for students to come and soon decided that none were going to make it.  I tried to call Wilma (who is late due to another meeting) but no answer so we had to just sit and wait a while longer.  Finally Wilma came and we visited and shared our popcorn and were just starting to leave when we met Stuart Brown in the hallway.  We shared our popcorn with him in the hallway and soon headed for home, arriving back home an hour earlier than usual.  After waiting so long, I was out of the mood to give a lesson and this way I won’t have to prepare another lesson for another week.

WEDNESDAY -   More tuna fish sandwiches for lunch today on our all day activity at the Memorial.  By noon I am thankful for the tuna fish as I am always ready to eat lunch.  We had a few visitors which always helps break up the day.    

  
THURSDAY -    Today for our “P-day” we took a ride.  We headed up I-89 and got off the highway towards Barre.  We kinda got lost but found a Big Lot store that we had been to before so it all worked out good.  We made our way to the Cabot cheese processing plant and had an interesting tour.  It is really a big scale operation.  From there we went to Pres. Goodrich’s (counselor in mission presidency) maple farm.  We saw his big fancy “distiller” to reduce the maple sap to usuable Maple Syrup but unfortunately, the sap isn’t running yet so we told him we would try and come back later and watch the operation.  From there we went on the highway via St. Johnsbury down I-91 to West Lebanon where we did some quick shopping.  We were on quite a whirlwind trip as I had to be at the Church to help serve for the Relief Society birthday celebration dinner at 6:00pm.  After a quick clothes change, we arrived at the Church to find that most of the cooking still needed to be done for the dinner so that is how I spent most of my time.  Towards the end, I was still preparing dessert while the main course was being served.  I took a quick chance to eat a plate of food and then went to the nursery to watch the kids while those who were in the nursery could go eat.  All I did in the nursery was sit on a chair and talk to a couple of the fathers who were there with their own kids.  When the meeting broke up, I headed for home without checking back to the kitchen.  Once home I saw a couple of good NCAA sweet sixteen games on TV. 
FRIDAY -    Even though it was still cool, the sun came out so I went for a walk up in the mountains first thing this morning.  I was glad I went early as it started to rain before we went to the Memorial.   As soon as we got to the Memorial there were several cars already there and another once came shortly.  What we thought was to be a busy day, soon faded out as no other cars came the rest of the day.  Somewhere along the line I got feeling like I had missed a meal or two as I was sure hungry when we finally got home, I guess it must have been the walk.  Anyway, after some good cheese sandwiches, etc. I settled down to watch a couple of really close, exciting NCAA games.  My tourney bracket is almost completely broken but it is still fun to watch.   

Connecticut girls with Elders

Parents from Connecticut

SATURDAY -   Elder Osborn wanted a haircut today so I did that first thing after we got the center opened and the flags out.   It was a blustery, windy day but in spite of the weather we had two rather large groups.  The first group of 10 had several kids which had been in the car for a few hours so about all they wanted to do was run and play in the snow.  Other than that the parents were very interested not having been in this area before.  The other group from Connecticut, was a family where the parents were not members but two daughters were LDS and were talking about going on a mission.   Osborn's had prepared some sandwich materials for a light lunch and invited the guests and us to stay so we had a good visit with everyone.  Once home, I got involved in tennis matches and NCAA basketball games (BYU women vs. Connecticut) so I just stayed put while RSO went to W. Lebanon shopping.   I hadn’t lost anything to shop for and I am sure we both enjoyed the time better that way.  When RSO got home, she decided to just watch the Women’s Conference from SLC on TV rather than go to the Church.  The only sad part is that I heard she missed a good meal prior to the meeting.