Well, this
last week has been a COLD one! The
school was out all week because of President’s day.
But, they would have probably been out anyway because of the cold weather. The mission tells the missionaries to stay in if it is -20. They have been in enough to be stir crazy! We have been out doing things most of the week. We just noticed our 2nd bedroom ceiling is leaking. Bother! We have a bucket under it and have taken the bed out of the way. We will dry the covering, blankets, etc.
But, they would have probably been out anyway because of the cold weather. The mission tells the missionaries to stay in if it is -20. They have been in enough to be stir crazy! We have been out doing things most of the week. We just noticed our 2nd bedroom ceiling is leaking. Bother! We have a bucket under it and have taken the bed out of the way. We will dry the covering, blankets, etc.
We have a
home teaching assignment and went to see the 3 families on our list. We now go (Yes, we are assigned as a couple)
to the Longs, Haggerty’s, and Voorhees.
The Longs live about 25 miles away and the other 2 families live here in
Batavia. Brother Haggerty (Bill) is the
blind organist I talked about. He has a
nice wife and 2 kids that they don’t see very much. He is discouraged because he would like to be
working, but was laid off when times got tough in the music industry. (he worked at a music store) He is 60 and they have a home, but I think he
likes being very independent and doesn’t want anyone to pity or help him. He is really an amazing guy. The
Voorhees didn’t want a visit as they were ‘too busy’, but we took them some
cupcakes and they didn’t want Dennis to leave.
(I didn’t go up as the sidewalks were about 3 feet deep and didn’t know
if we would be received) Dennis shoveled
quite a while to get their walk cleaned. P.S. from Dennis: While shoveling I met a neighbor
(Richard, I think) and had a nice conversation with him. He works as a dealer in
a casino in Buffalo. I hope perhaps to get better acquainted with him later.
We had zone
meeting this week on Wednesday in our church building here in Batavia. That was nice. Afterward the missionaries asked us to join
them for lunch. We had 12 of us
there. We had a nice time being with the
young missionaries. One of the elders,
Elder Gubler, from the Warsaw area is so funny.
He was offering suggestions at the meeting and saying all the right
things and then said, “I think we should do the Hauka.” Out of nowhere—I laughed to myself, but no
one cracked a smile. (outwardly) He then said that he can see the future where
the Warsaw areas need more missionaries and that a couple more will come to Warsaw and he
will move out and they can have his ‘hobbit hole’. We have giggled about the way he says things
in such a funny way. There is a lot of
comparisons to Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and the Hobbit with the kids (Elders). (they make the comments)
On Monday
night we decided that I needed something done with my hair and for the first
time ever in our marriage, Dennis cut my hair.
NO, he didn’t want to. BUT—I told
him all he had to do was follow the pattern already set and just trim off the
ends a little. He did a pretty good
job. We had a lot of laughs doing this. The next morning we went to the Temple with a
neighboring district (because they needed a car and we were willing). The Elders that went with us had a new
Elder that has some special needs (not too much, maybe Asperger's). Anyway, he needed a haircut and they were at a
home of an older couple. The man said
that his wife could do the job. The
companion showed me the video he took of the haircut. The gal was smoking with one hand and trying
to swing scissors with the other. She
didn’t have a comb, etc. It was so
funny! I guess he didn’t enjoy the cut
and went back to their apartment and buzzed his head with the shortest
guard. I have asked for the video and
hope to be able to share it with those that would like a good laugh.
We have been
working on Familysearch and Dennis was able to print off a Temple sheet for one
of his relatives. We thought that this
was pretty fabulous as they want us to have our own names to go to the Temple
here. I tried my first time at
indexing. (I had told the Elders that it
was easy and they could encourage other to do it.) Well, I found out that it was easy to get
into the program, but reading the papers and the way that they wrote many years ago wasn’t too
easy. I will try it again, I can see that
it is very much needed.
We had a
Mission Leadership Meeting on Friday morning.
Our President had been called to Salt Lake City and they were trained on
using the IPads (for real). Our mission had
been using them for 1 year as a pilot program. Now all of the missions in North America and
Canada will be getting them and it has a structured program. We will be traveling all over the mission
when the new IPads arrive and be meeting with all of the missionaries. This should be really fun!
We went to
the Temple again yesterday (Saturday) and took our zone. It was really great. There is such a calm, peaceful feeling there. The snow was softly falling and we could look
out over the Sacred Grove and the valley there.
It is so beautiful here. The
Elders kept remarking that they couldn’t believe that they had been called to
this most sacred of missions. It is
pretty wonderful!
When we were
leaving the Temple we met Rex Brown and his wife. (from Dad’s store) and she was so happy to
see someone she knew. They are in the
Utica Mission and had come over to do baptisms with a youth group.
It was good to see them and hear of their mission. He is a former military man and they have been
assigned to the base there. (I don’t
know what division of the military he is in)
He said that there are a bunch leaving for Afghanistan shortly and they
will be busy helping with their families while they are gone.
We had the
best church today. Our mission
president, President Francis, took 2 of the hours. He is such a giant of a man—6’7” and a spirit
to match. He really inspired the branch
members to invite others to come to church and hear the missionaries.
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| Elder with the Hair CUT |
Here is a picture of the hair cut and color (not bad, huh?)
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| Winner so far in the icicle contest |
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| Another barn, this one is made of plywood |
- We are so blessed to belong to such a great family!
- We haven't been sick (or too homesick) I (Rhonda) had a cold that lasted about 12 hours. I know, colds usually last 7-10 days. This one was fast!
- I haven't gotten the cough that accompanies cigarette smoke. People here haven't heard--cigarettes aren't good for people. There is so much smoking here and I have been able to avoid (so far) getting the terrible cough that usually accompanies my allergy to cigarette smoke. We have been able to visit in homes that are very smoke filled, but without any incident. Our apartment complex has several smokers in it and it can get pretty stinky, but we have been blessed to not be bothered too much.
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| Palmyra Temple |
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