September 6, 2015

September 6, 2015

The milk can dinner was a big hit.  Everyone loved it and we had a good turnout.  It was relaxing and people enjoyed sitting around visiting with each other.  I couldn’t believe how much food the Millers had in the one can.  One can held enough food for 50 people.  First he put whole, clean potatoes in the bottom of the can, then he had carrots wrapped in cheesecloth, kielbasa wrapped in cloth, and then onions and cabbage, then whole ears of corn and a couple of quarts of water and sat it on the single burner camp chef and steamed it for over an hour.  It was delicious.  (Barbara and Kelly—you may want to have an evening every once in a while with this at Rusty Lantern; people loved it)  The potatoes were so moist and everything tasted fresh.  We have tried looking online for a can like their (that won’t rust) and they are quite high; $120-200.  

Brother Chuck Lehman, Sister Merrill, Elder Miller

Brother Lehman 

I warned the Elders to be careful--injuries on a mission are not good!

The weather was perfect; not too hot or cool.  We had several non-members that came and they had a good time also.  The other senior missionaries in the branch did a short home evening for the branch.  Several said that we should do something like this every month.  I think people need to socialize more—it bonds people together. 

We had a good week at work and Elder Merrill only has 1 pickup left to sale.  He started with 11 and is down to 1.  He has decided that he doesn’t want to be a used car salesman when he gets home though. 

We went to the Dr. here in Rochester (Dr. Pulley)  and visited with him about blood pressure, etc.  He is a member of the church that the mission uses for medical needs.  He surprised me by being quite young.  He said that he is from Utah and his wife is from Texas.  He did his residency here and then they went back to Utah.  A couple of years later they felt that they should move and they both decided that they wanted to come back to New York.  He is very friendly and after having my blood pressure taken and seeing that it was in the normal range, I wondered what had been wrong in Idaho when it had gone higher.  I guess our bodies are just trying to keep us guessing.  I am trying (a little bit) to eat less salt or the ‘no salt’ substitute.  We are trying to get more exercise and eat less.  PHEW!

I had a call from a man this week that will be coming to our mission in the next month or two.  He had a question on insurance.  (which I know nothing about)   He told me that he has Medicare and Blue Cross insurance and that Blue Cross had told him that it wasn’t portable from state to state.  He wondered what other missionaries were doing and we had a good talk.  One of the sisters in the office had a supplemental that she loved and said it was portable and so I told him about her insurance.  We got talking about it and –sure enough after Dennis made a call he found out that our supplemental (Blue Cross) isn’t portable either.  They told him that once they found out you’re were not in Idaho they would give you 6 months coverage time to get another insurance.  Isn’t that crazy?  So, he got another supplemental that will work here In New York.  That call was timely.  We want to be covered.

We had MLS (Mission Leadership Council) on Friday and we served them dinner.  I made the meat and did Swiss Chicken.  I had 2 cake pans full of chicken and then one of the big aluminum (throw away) pans full.  Well, the ovens at the church had been cleaned by the FM group and I didn’t think anything of it.  We could smell it cooking and I didn’t go back to check the ovens.  Dang!  The ovens were set for 325 for 1.5 hours.  Well, we served the 2 cake pans full to the missionaries, but when we went to serve the other pan, it was raw.  I hurried and asked them to come back to the table and put their chicken back into the pan and we baked it in the good oven and served them their meat 2 hours later.  It was embarrassing, but I was so glad that no one had tried to eat it.  We are having the ovens checked out.  I think something got disconnected when they cleaned it.  Funny thing, it would heat up a little bit and had cooked the top part of the chicken but hadn’t finished the job.

Verl and Jan Dial called us and wanted to meet for a visit.  We were excited to hear from them.  Their daughter, Annalee, lives on the army base in Syracuse.  They drove over to Palmyra Friday and we meet them in the afternoon and visited with them.  Their granddaughter will be baptized on Sunday.  Both sets of grandparents flew to New York for that ordinance.  I told Nicole that she was lucky little girl to have such great grandparents to fly across the United States for her baptism.  It was good to see them! 

The Dials and Merrills

Jan and Verl Dial with Sister and Elder Merrill at the Smith farm

We went to Seneca Camp on Saturday to meet the Kenworthys.  We drove through a little town that had a grocery store that said—‘One day a year Meat Bonanza Today’.  Of course, we had to stop—who wants to miss a meat bonanza/palooza?  The prices on their meat were pretty good and we bought a few packages to stick in the freezer.  Dennis is becoming a New Yorker quicker than I am –he likes their hot dogs.  They have red hots and white hots and he likes them both.  (that has nothing to do with spice)  We had to go back home to put the meat into the freezer before we could go to Seneca Camp.  We met the Kenworthys and the Fowlers and went to Rose Hill Mansion.  It is a historic spot where a family named Swann lived and raised their family.  I’m not sure why that makes it special or important, but it was interesting.  It was a very warm day and we went into the mansion and viewed the basement.  It was quite large, musty, and cool.  The main floor felt pretty good and then the 2^nd floor with most of the family bedrooms was pretty warm.  As we ascended the next floor I leaned over and told the group below, “good news, it’s warmer up here!”  The poor lady giving the tour was pouring sweat and her hair was getting wet.  THEN, we went up another floor—and it became unbelievably hot.  We ended up in a ‘crow’s nest’ type thing where we could look out over Lake Seneca.  It was really pretty, but the heat was still cooking us even with the windows open.  It was such a blessing to get out of the mansion!  The temperature outside felt so nice.  We went to the Ponderosa for supper.  We had a nice steak and a great visit.  (we didn’t see Ben, Joe, Hoss, or Adam Cartwright)

The formal dining room

Elder Don Kenworthy, Sister Dawna Kenworthy (from near St. George) and Elder Merrill

We had church today and our testimony meeting was very good.  The Sanders (the other senior couple in our branch) had some of their family members visiting.  It was a great boost for the branch.

The Sanders family.  They are from near Heber City, Utah  (2 of their kids didn't make it for the surprise)

We were told about doing online donations and that is wonderful.  We will be able to get our mission payment to Grant easier. 

I had a funny thing happen; I sent Carol Beesley a text asking for their address and for a lasagna recipe.  I had texted her before, but this time someone texted me back that I had the wrong number.  I said, no-I need to send Carol Beesley some money,  I got back that this wasn’t Carol Beesley.  I said sorry.  So then I texted Cliff Beesley’s number and signed it Sister Merrill.  Well, I got this message, You Mormons.  Tell you what I’ll give you my address and I’ll throw you a random lasagna recipe if you can send me some of your guyses magic underwear :-}  I wrote, “is this Bishop Beesley?”  they wrote, “I’ll be your Bishop Beasley baby.  Lol  I knew then I didn’t have the right party.  They had changed cell phones and I now have the right numbers.  Cliff and Carol got a good laugh out of it.