I have learned to take my camera with me everyday as we go to the Monument to work on the grounds. Early in the morning when the fog is thick and the sun is breaking through, you can get the most wonderful pictures!

Elder Jensen has been on a ladder most this week scraping and painting the visitors center. I, with the 2 other sisters, have been planting the fall mums. We are planting them early this year because we have had sooo much rain some of the plants are not looking their best. Traditionally, the mums are planted in mid to late Sept., all other annual flowers are pulled out and the perennials are cut down. Just mums and some kale, I personally did not like the looks of it, as did another one of the sisters. So we are trying an experiment this year, of course we had to get permission. Hope it works out well!!

Driving down our favorite dirt road (Dairy Hill Rd.) one day, & an older gentlemen was selling a bunch of neat stuff for a $1.00 each. So we got this old rocker. Nephi put it all back together after fixing it and I painted the back and stained & vanished and made a cushion. It is a granny rocker, but very comfy!

The road less traveled!!
Our favorite activity here is driving around on dirt roads looking at the beautiful scenery and taking photos of covered bridges, old churches and barns. We are getting quite a collection. Sometimes we even stop at a yard sale and pick up a treasure to bring home. Soon we will need a trailer to get it all back. Oh, well, it is fun. The roads in Vermont & New Hampshire are so different from out west. As you turn off the main roads, you go about half mile or less and the road turns to dirt. It can be quite a muddy mess after a good rain (which we have lots of). The other strange thing is they don't believe in road signs, so we get lost a lot~and no GPS to help us. A favorite saying in Vermont is, "You can't get there from here". I have been spending a lot of time painting after we finish serving at the memorial. I have done several pictures and Nephi has been making frames for them. We are able to use some of the equipment at the church's shop to cut wood, etc. We have lots more time away from the usual hurried life we have led in the past. Plus we don't have TV!

Traveled last week to Franklin, NH (1 & 1/2 hours journey) where we worked at the Chapel there. We packed up the church pickup and with another missionary couple, the Lambs, spent the day cleaning the building and weeding. On the way home, saw this beautiful covered bridge.

All 6 of the sister missionaries serving at the Memorial were able to attend our Relief Society summer social last Friday. It was held, atop a moutain, at one of the ward members farm (the Kill's) in Bethel, about 10 miles away. It was beautiful and nice to get away from the usual work to spend lunch time with the other ladies.

Old pictures of Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial

The granite monument and cottage were built in 1905 to commemorate Joseph Smiths 100th birthday.

Some early pictures of the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial were shared with us and as you can see it has changed over the past years. These photos were taken some time after dedication of the memorial. The Memorial Cottage was built on or very near the site of the home Joseph Smith was born in. The cottage was tore down in the mid 50's. It looks like a neat place, but of course, Ruby and I like old houses. There was even a reflective pond at the bottom of the hill.

First Edition Book Of Mormon

We had the great experience of holding and and turning the pages of a first edition printing (1830) of the Book Of Mormon. We went with my sister and her husband Tom and Rosie Bell to Dartmouth College to their special collections library and they will let you hold, read and turn the pages yourself. To think who might have handled this Book, one of only 5000 printed in 1830.

The book is in remarkable condition. While we were looking at it, one of the assistant librarians came over and asked if we were LDS. She was one of 4-8 LDS students attending Dartmouth, with some of them still on vacation or on leave to serve missions. She told us an interesting bit of information. She was at a party when they were having a triva quiz game. One of the questions was; Which book in the Collections Library was the most often requested to view? It was the First Edition of the Book of Mormon. We have been told that a first edition copy had been donated to the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial, but when Salt Lake heard about it, they requested the book be sent to them so it could be placed in a control environment and under better security conditions. So off it went to be preserved and protected. To actually hold one and turn the pages was a real treat.

More pictures of Maine

Two Lights Light house Maine , We could not see the other light house as the fog was moving in and out two fast and we could not see it to take a picture.

This is Old Orchard Beach in Maine. What a great beach with thousands of people. It was the best day that we had seen this week and there was no rain. I'll bet people thought we were strange to be fully dressed and walking on the beach ...

Travels through Vermont and Maine

Portland Head Light ... Light house Maine

Okay ... It's been a while since we last posted ... but have been very busy with work and celebration of the 24th of July. We have been working so hard that our FM managers gave us both Thursday and Friday off so we could celebrate the 24th of July and have an extra day to see the area. On Thursday we decided to travel to Rutland with the Slades to see the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Vermont Marble Museum and the New England Maple Museum all are within a few miles of each other. This was there normal day off but we had not had a Thursday off before so it was great that it worked out for us to spend some time traveling and visiting with them.

Norman Rockwell's main museum is in Mass. but he lived near Rutland for several years so has one there also. I was really impressed with his works and did not realize that he had drawn so many illustrations. The next stop was the Marble Museum and it was interesting to note that several of our nations monuments in DC are built from Vermont Marble ... it was an interesting visit. We came back to the JSM Visitors Center that evening to have dinner with all the other missionaries. Played a game after and had a really great time.

The next day we traveled with the Sanford's to the coast of Maine which was still in our our Mission. The Sanford's are from Maine so they wanted to see the coast again and eat some seafood. So we were lucky to have a guided tour of a small part of Maine. We travelled first to Old Orchard Beach. Beautful white sands and thousands of people. We walked the beach and enjoyed the ocean for a couple of hours then travelled to Two Lights light house and to Portland Head lights light house. Portland head light is the most photographed light house in Maine and it was a great place. We did a little shopping at a place called Mardins, which is only in Maine, and they sell things at wholesale. Then we drive home. Long day but now we have been to Maine.