Elder & Sister Sanford head for home in Maine after 18 months. They bought a new (2004) Subaru, so will have 2 cars to take their belongings home in. It is a 7 hour drive, and plan to come back for the dedication of the remodeled South Royalton Chapel in August. We will miss them and look forward to getting to know the Peach's from Grand Junction, CO.

The couple across the table from us are the new Visitor Center Directors, Elder & Sister Mitchell from Orem, Ut. They own a scapbooking company called American Crafts.

We have lost another missionary couple. The Vorwaller's from Urda, Ut. headed home March 30. after a year of serving as JSM Visitor Center tour guides. We will miss them a lot! We got together often to play games and eat dinner. Learned lots of new games which we usually lost. They live about an hour from our home in Utah so we plan to visit them when we get home in August. Sister Vorwaller (Shellie) helped me learn some new crochet stitches during the long winter. It is great to meet and make lifelong friends while we are here!

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!