Service with a (Southern) Smile

November 6, 2012

Election Day!  Have a feeling I am not going to like the outcome of the presidential election.  Putting my trust in our Heavenly Father that He will continue to watch over this great nation and preserve it.

On a brighter note, we did our service tonight at the Palmyra Lions Club.  Lee & I and another senior couple help with their dinner meal before they have their meeting.  We serve the meal and then clean up afterwards.  I really enjoy this.  Bonnie Hayes, Palmyra Historical Group, oversees this and she is a wealth of knowledge concerning historic Palmyra.   Hopefully when the weather gets warmer, we can visit some of these sites on our preparation day.

Lions Club

Could Use the Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning!

November 4, 2012

Fast Sunday and it is another COLD day.  We arrived at church early for a correlation meeting.  While we were waiting in the hall, looked out the window and it was snowing again.  Thank goodness none of it has stuck thus far.


Unfortunately there is no heat in the Relief Society room and the air handling unit will not turn off and it is blowing out cold air.  Thankfully the Bishop has decided that the sisters can meet in the chapel for Relief Society and the brethren will meet in the Relief Society room.  Glad Lee wore a sweater vest this morning.  Top on my list for this week is to purchase a blanket to bring to church...can't stay very spiritual if I am freezing.

Time to Pull Out the Winter Coat!

November 3, 2012

Brrrr!!!  It is cold!!!  Working at the Book of Mormon Publication site this morning and we have a mixture of rain and snow.  Glad we only have a short distance to go and we will only be there four hours.  We started our winter schedule on the first so the sites are now closing at 5 PM. 

Since Lee is the Activity Chairperson for the senior missionaries, we have been busy planning our Thanksgiving meal.  There are two other couples on the committee helping us.  We are having turkey, honey ham, and pork loin.  The committee couples are providing the meats.  Any guesses what the Strouds are providing?  We are going to expose all these Utah Mormons to some southern cooking.  Everyone else has been asked to provide a covered dish (salad, vegetable, dessert, bread).  We hope to have 50-60 people there.  It should be a great time to relax and enjoy some fellowship.  

Halloween!

October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween everyone!  We worked at the Joseph Smith Farm this morning.  Another day with very few visitors.  It is beginning to get really cold here, so I guess that is why we have a decrease in visitors.  We normally have site meetings every Wednesday, but since this is Halloween,  Elder Searle thought it would be great for us all to attend the temple tonight.  We had the opportunity to attend either at 6 PM or 7:45 PM.  Our session was full with all the young sisters and there were nine senior couples attending.  It was great!  The temple is closing next week for a couple of weeks for cleaning, so it was great to have this opportunity before it closed.

The Winter Lull

October 30, 2012

It's going to be a long winter.  The week has been fairly uneventful,  Worked our shifts at the historic sites.  Handled our first solo shift Sunday at the Peter Whitmer Farm.  We were the only senior couple and we had Sis. Chatterton and Sis. Lee with us.  We had a grand total of six visitors in six hours - a very long afternoon.  Guess the winter lull has begun.  We have been asked to speak Sunday, November 11th, in our ward.  I will speak on Obedience and Lee will speak on Gratitude.  Sure hope these people can understand our southern accents.

Her Bucket List

October 17, 2012

We worked the Joseph Smith Farm this morning and had the privilege of taking a young woman and her mother on a tour.  The young woman was in her early 20s, in a wheelchair, and when we asked her what brought her to Palmyra she replied, "This is on my bucket list." I looked at her mother and she had tears in her eyes.  Needless to say, my heart broke.  Alisha is dying with lung cancer; any exertion and she goes into a coughing spasm that about takes her breath away.  But she was determined to see everything.  We arranged to take her to the log home and frame home via a golf cart.  In the log home there are steep stairs leading to the bedroom where the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph.  She was determined to go up.  With Lee in front and her mom behind her, she made it upstairs.  The church has special wheelcairs that can be used in the Sacred Grove; her mother was able to push her through the grove without difficulty.  She is a remarkable young woman with a strong testimony of the restored gospel.  I am so thankful we had this opportunity to meet Alisha and feel her spirit. 

We're Here!!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

We arrived in Palmyra at 10:30 AM and Elder Searle, Site Director, met us at the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center.  Elder & Sister Searle met with us for about an hour and gave us a new missionary orientation to the historic sites.  He suggested that for the rest of this week we visit each of the historic sites as often as possible and take tours.   That seems to be the best way to learn what goes on at each site.  We received a schedule for us until the end of October.  We will be really busy! 

We found out today that we cannot get into our apartment until later this week.  So, we are staying in the Martin Harris home.....can you believe it!  This home is not open to the public.  There are actually three apartments and Facilities Management couples live in them.  We will be staying in a guest room....at least it has a king size bed.  Hopefully we will be in our apartment by Friday morning.

Martin Harris Home

Our Home for the Next Year!

October 13, 2012

We are finally in our apartment.  Elder & Sis. Malan left today headed back to Utah via Kirtland and Nauvoo.  We wish them a safe trip home.

We spent this week visiting all the historic sites and taking tours, listening to the young sisters and other senior couples and trying to take it all in.  It is truly awesome to walk these sacred grounds and know that we are walking where the prophet Joseph Smith walked and be in the Sacred Grove where Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared. We will be conducting tours at the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center, Joseph Smith Farm, Peter Whitmer Farm, and the Book of Mormon Publication Site.  So much information to learn; I'm sure some of my brain cells have died; so, it will take me a long time to retain all this information.

It will take a couple to weeks to feel like we have really settled in, not only to the work, but also to our "home away from home".  Elder Searle, our Site Director, told us before we came out that our apartment was "adequate".  Actually, it is very comfortable.  It will be hard to go back home and have an entire house to clean.

We start working at the sites Monday.  Wish us luck!