I painted a picture of Cassie and sent it to for her birthday. Now she's not sure she wants a picture of herself on the wall. It was suppose to have Chynna in it, but couldn't get it to look right because of the angle, so had to paint her out of the picture.

The Vorwaller's have tapped a couple of sugar maples for sap, then cook it outside on a grill to reduce it to syrup (3 gallons to get 3 pints or so). A lot of work for so little. Makes you appreciate what goes into it.
We have been painting the office and break room at the shop. It is looking brighter and cleaner and gives us something to do while things are so slow. Also, planted some flower seeds inside to spout. Then will plant in a cold frame, like a tiny greenhouse, outside when they are an inch or two. We have ordered over 2000 from the nursery, these will just be back up flowers and to fill in if needed.

Zone Conference is always a treat. We are uplifted by the young Elders & Sisters as they share their missionary experiences and testimonies of the gospel. We had our picture taken with Mission President & Sister Jensen, as two of the senior couples we have been serving with at the Memorial are about to be released to go home (the Vorwaller's & the Sanford's).

Mission Updates for 1st week of March

Hint of spring ... our land lord gave us the flower and we have really enjoyed it's beauty and smell.

The weather has been very nice this last week. It actually rained during night and now the news said we will wake to more snow in the morning. Will it ever end. The road to and from our apartment is so muddy we have to put the car in 4 wheel drive to make it certain spots. I've been told that it only get worse during spring with all the rains.

Ruby and I went to the Vermont Flower Show this week end at Essex Junction. It was okay ... I think Ruby enjoyed it more than me. The above picture is of a small potting shed I would like to build in our back yard someday. She took a painting class and painted with water colors, and is painting as I write this ... but only after her Sunday nap. I went to a class on composting, sound interesting but not sure it's worth the trouble. I will give it try when we return to Utah.

As we drove by the house on the corner where we turn off Dairy Hill Road on to McIntosh Pond Road, I noticed they were packing up to move. We stopped to talked, an then I noticed they had a small utility trailer and asked if it was for sale. He said yes, so looks like we may have just the trailer needed to haul all the stuff we have collected back to Utah. Nothing important mind you, but because our car was so full coming out we decided that we did not want to return back the same way.

Flowers Around the Memorial
~ Summer 2008~ "Dark Horse"

I have slowed down a bit with painting because the country store where I was selling them, closed. Eaton's Sugarhouse (a restaurant with gift shop) has a few, but haven't sold any there as yet.
Just made cornbread for "Meet the Mitchell's" tonight at the Memorial. The new directors are busy getting the word out and inviting people to visit. We have both had colds and are sooo ready for winter to be over. We hear there is more snow on its way this week...can't wait!
We will be ordering about 2000 annual flowers for planting around the grounds for this May. Since we are the only missionaries who will be here this spring, I have the responsibility of planning the gardens (hopefully another couple will be coming in April when the Sanford's go home). It has been fun, but quite a challenge. I used a lot of the flowers we used last year. Some that flowered the longest and were the hardiest. Also, ordering more flowering annuals and not so many just green leafy fillers. We had some vegetables in the flower gardens last year, I really didn't like them in the formal beds. I have learned a lot about flowers while being here, but it is not my best thing. Hope the gardens will turn out nice!!

A few random thoughts for a winter's day!

We have new directors at the JSB Memorial, the Mitchell's. They have lots of great ideas for attracting guests to the Visitors Center. Family history classes, garden tours, talking in all Wards and encouraging members to bring investigators and so much more! They are real go-getter's. They have already gotten us to wear our missionary tags while serving on the grounds as well as during our off times. The paid church employees, we work with do not like the idea of calling us Elder & Sister. But Elder Mitchell, is very much in favor of it. We think it is great. And have always wondered why it wasn't always the practice.

We are just over the half way mark of our mission. Sometimes it feels like it has flown by, other times I would love to go home tomorrow! It will be different this summer with so many new missionaries (should be 4 new couples coming out and with the new directors). It will be very interesting and exciting!

Over the hills the through the woods, to our little apartment in the woods we go. Can't wait for Spring, it has been very cold, but know it is still a long time away. So we will enjoy the winter beauty for a few more months.

The little village of Tunbridge, one of our favorite drives through the woods, about 10 minutes from where we live.

Last weekend we were able to travel outside our mission boundaries to attend the Boston Temple. Elder & Sister Vorwaller invited us to go with them. We had a very nice time and only got lost a few times. We ate lunch at the temple, went to the Distribution Center, tryed to see the inside of the old North Church (but no place to park) and drove though Salem on the way home. It was a great day!

Snowshoeing around McIntosh Pond

We had a big winter storm last Saturday Jan 10th. So Ruby and I borrowed the landlords snowshoes and went for a walk around McIntosh Pond. Everything was clean, white and beautiful. We saw many deer tracks in the snow and had a great time till the sun started going down.

This is a picture of the entrance to McIntosh Pond which shows snow all the way up to the fence.

The ice storm, which has bent these small trees to the ground, from a couple week before Christmas did a lot of damage to the trees and many people lost power for several days. We were lucky as we only lost power for 4 days. Nearby in New Hampshire some people were with out power for 3-1/2 weeks. So we felt lucky even though it was not fun being without running water.

As always, Ruby, looks good even in snowshoes and big coat. The sun was out and the weather was very nice. This was taken on Saturday and that night we had another foot of snow which continued through most of Sunday. So church was cancelled. Later, Sunday afternoon our landlord, Stewart, knocked on the door and wanted company snowshoeing. So I headed out with him for another couple of miles. This time we took sleds with us and rode them down the hill which was a lot of fun.

This is an over view of the things we are doing on our mission here in Vermont.

The Lamb's, Sanford's and (us) the Jensen's spend most of our days serving at the Joseph Birthplace Memorial. We are called the FM (Facilities Management) Group and our primary assignment is to assist in the preservation of Church owned facilities within the mission. We have all been called to serve for 18 months. We, as a group, strive to keep the sacred grounds at the Memorial as beautiful as possible. It is our tribute to Joseph Smith as well as giving the many visitors to the grounds (about 30 thousand) a peaceful, lovely place to feel the spirit of our Heavenly Father.
We begin our day at 8 AM with a spiritual thought and prayer around a large table with Tim Packard and Gene Hill who are paid church employees. We talk about what needs to be done for the day.





In early Spring, the Elders are usually working together tree cutting and trimming, clearing around the ponds, taking up the boardwalk (wooden forms which cover the slate around the monument in winter, to protect and help with slippery conditions) and much more. The Sisters are getting the many gardens ready for planting, and raking, raking and more raking. We planted over 4000 flowers, with some help from the Elders, the first of June (after fear of last frost). We wanted to get them in as soon as possible, because many guests had already started to visit the Monument.

All Summer we care for "our baby's" and try to keep them picture perfect by weeding and deadheading nearly everyday. We fertilize and transplant, roll in the dirt, and even break fingernails and get bee stings for our plants. Fall is a busy and hard season for us. We must pull many plants that we have cared for all summer. It is probably the hardest thing we have to do, because most are still looking pretty good. We did leave some that could survive cooler weather, this year. Then it is time for planting the over 600 Chrysanthemums. Last week, all the flowers had to come out except for the mums and perennial plants, which had to be cut down. Right now the mums are looking pretty sad because of the freezing temperatures we have had. We will have to pull most of them next week. It is hard for us to see all our brightly colored flowers gone and just the dirt surrounding the monument and around the grounds.
Winter~ We check everyone of the 100 thousand Christmas lights, to make sure they work before going up on tall trees, bushes, fences and house tops. The Elders work from a cherry-piker lift to hang lights in high places. The Sisters put the lights on the fences, small trees and bushes around the property. About 15 thousand visitors come to see the Christmas lights and live Nativity each year. The Christmas lights start to come down after New Years Day. The Sisters work where they can to help take them down. Then as the Elders bring the wet, cold, strings in, we retest the 100 thousand lights, and package them up for the next year. Winter is long, so we organize and clean the shop, plan gardens for the next spring, paint, etc. The Elders make picnic tables, cut down trees, and work on equipment. But most of all, they do a lot of snow removal. They shovel the walks around the monument everyday, just in case someone comes to visit. They also travel to chapels around the mission to remove snow from the rooftops of chapels. There are always special projects to do around the mission as well. "Road trips" as we call them. Delivering supplies, landscaping, weeding, laying granite around the flower beds at Montpelier and inventory of all the chapels, to name a few. We feel blessed to have the opportunity to be in the service of our Heavenly Father. We are grateful and happy that we can give back to Him who has given us so much. We enjoy being a part of the team who are making the grounds a beautiful spot for visitors to come and partake of the wonderful spirit at the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial.