Missionary Moments #13--November 30, 2014

What an interesting week this has been.  And actually a perfect week to be grateful for so many things!  We were so excited to have the missionaries come for dinner.  The menu was made, grocery list compiled, and on Monday night the shopping was done.  They mentioned that a snow front was coming our way and about 11:00 a.m. Wednesday morning the snow started to fall.  Not a problem--we were prepared--at least we thought we were.  We left work about noon so I could pick up some bowls and dishes to serve the dinner in and planned to spend the rest of the day making the pies.  When we got home I decided it may be a late night so I would take a little nap.  After the nap I made us some dinner and started the pie crust extravaganza.  All was well until we were in total darkness.  The electricity was off and actually stayed off until Friday afternoon.  Since you are reading this you know that it ended well.  You can read the blog about our Thanksgiving dinner but I wanted to share some reminders I gained out of this experience.  Reminder 1-You are never as prepared as you think you are.  We had coats, sweaters, gloves, hats, snow shovel, the right kind of windshield wiper fluid, automatic starting car, cat litter(!) and so we confidently said, "let the snow begin!"  What we didn't have was flashlights, fully charged tablets, or enough food to eat when there is an electric stove but no electricity.  Reminder 2-Always live by young healthy missionaries.  Talk about sweet, positive, hardworking young men.  I can't wait for my grandsons and granddaughters who serve missions in the coming years to become lifesavers to so many in need (both spiritually and physically). Reminder 3-If you don't laugh, you may cry.  When we were locked out of our apartment I would have absolutely cried buckets of tears but it was so typical of some of our experiences lately that it just got me laughing, especially when we were back in the apartment.  Reminder 4-When you have a prompting to do something--do it!  I had mentioned to Scott a week or so ago that we should probably buy some lanterns for the apartment in case the electricity went out.  He agreed but we didn't.  You see what I mean. Having the lights wouldn't have solved all the problems we encountered but it would have kept us out of Walmart on Thursday night (during some crazy people shopping time) to buy flashlights because all the lanterns were sold out.  And last, Reminder 5-You are never alone.  During this time I had a strong sense that we were being comforted and protected and that although inconvenient we could do what needed to be done.  Just the week before I was in a 17th century one room house with no lights, paper on the windows, and smoke permeating our clothes from the small fireplace.  I remember thinking how wonderful these people were to have endured so much and how blessed we are not to have to.  Two days without electricity is very doable--don't you think?

Thanksgiving Dinner--Sort of!

Scott and I were so excited to have the Elders coming for dinner on Thursday.  All the food was purchased.  I even bought dishes that we could serve the food in.  The turkey was in the refrigerator and Wednesday night I started working on pies.  At about 7:45 the apartment went black.  That beautiful snow I was admiring earlier in the day was wreaking havoc in New Hampshire.  Apparently there was a statewide power outage and thousands of homes no longer had power.  I was sure that it would come back on soon so I settled down and enjoyed the quiet and read from my Kindle.  When my tablet no longer had any battery left I headed off to bed.  I figured I'd just have to work the pies into my schedule Thanksgiving morning.  Sure enough about 7:15 the power turned on and I got busy with the pies---for about ten minutes.  That's right.  Power off again and now I am in trouble.  We didn't have a barbecue.  We did have an electric stove and we were in trouble. The missionaries came over at about 10:30 and we came up with a plan B. Find a restaurant!  All is good until we left the apartment at 12:30 locking the door behind us--with the keys sitting on the kitchen table. Missionaries could drive so we left our troubles behind and headed to find a place to eat.  We did find a restaurant, Ruby Tuesday.  Unfortunately, so did a large amount of Concord residents who were also disappointed and out of electricity.  It took us almost three hours from the time we left our apartment until we finished at the restaurant.  But I have to say the food was very good--just not very traditional!


Now we had to deal with our dilemma back at the apartment.  We are locked out of our apartment.  Don't worry we have amazing young missionaries who took everything in stride.  After a phone call to a local member of the ward we had a ladder leaning against our bedroom window and Elder Johnston (in missionary attire) climbs up the ladder, pulls out his pocket knife, cuts the screen, and opens the window.  Problem solved.  Even more impressive to both Scott and I was that those two young men and the two sister missionaries had spent the morning out in the parking lot of our apartment complex helping the residents clear snow from dozens of cars and moving snow out of the way so cars could be moved before the snow plow came.  One of the people they helped was a new widow who  wasn't sure what she would do to get her car ready.  I am so amazed at the quality of the missionaries that are serving in our area.  I'm sure they are like that all over the world.

Oh by the way--we did get electricity--two days later!

My Sister

I haven't seen my sister for over ten years.  I knew she moved to somewhere in New York.  One night I was thinking about her and decided that I needed to see her.  Fortunately I was able to get her phone number and her address so last week I called her and asked if we could come and see her.  We made plans to meet for dinner.  What a treat to see her and Cheryl if only for a couple of hours.  She was excited to hear what Scott and I were doing at the archives and shared that she has been doing a great deal of work with Find A Grave.  She loves cemeteries and so she has gone and photographed many head stones.  She recently worked at a cemetery by Niagara Falls.  She has also been helping some of her friends work on their family history.

When My Name Was Keoko

Another great historical fiction.  It was written by Linda Sue Park and it tells of a little girls experience growing up in Korea under Japanese occupation.  I am always embarrassed by how little I know about what has gone on in the world and I am trying to right my lack of knowledge.  The book is 192 pages long and is a quick read.  It is always interesting to me that when I am reading something and I think that it was just the authors imagination.  I then find out that it actually did happen.  There were many stories in this book that were just like that.  At the end of the book the author explained many of the historical facts she had found out when she was gathering the information to write the book.   I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in Korean and Japanese history.

First Snow!

I know, I know.  I won't be excited about the snow after a few snow storms.  But right now it is beautiful--especially looking out the window of our living room!

The First Thanksgiving

What a perfect weekend to go to the Plimoth Plantation located in Plymouth, Massachusetts--the home of the first Thanksgiving.  It is a living museum of the 17th century ways of cooking, gardening, building, speaking, thinking and believing.  (Yes, I copied this off of the brochure they gave us!)  Once you leave the entrance of the plantation you can go over to the Wampanoag Homesite.  There are only 5,000 registered Wampanoag Indians now but at one time it was a large tribe in the area.  Their dwellings were made using tree branches and bark and they used deer hides to cover the windows and doors.  From the Indian Village we were able to go to the fort/meetinghouse and then through the 17th century English Village.  Their dwellings were made with logs and thatch roofs.  Everyone was dressed in period costumes and the Wampanoag Indians looked pretty comfy in their deer skin clothes and moccasins.  We had planned to go down to the ocean to see the replica of the Mayflower but the community was having a big festival and getting close to it required more time than we had so we will save that for another day.  The last area we visited was the craft building where they had artisans making candles, weaving, and woodworking.  There was a special area for children to work on crafts as well.

It is really nice to be so close to so much history of our country.  Along with having wonderful missionary experiences in our record preservation we have the added pleasure of seeing this land that was ordained to be the home of the restoration of the gospel.  So blessed!

Wing Fort House

Wing Fort House 1641

Last Saturday we took a trip down to the Cape Cod area.  My friend Beth had shared a blog about her ancestors.  I noticed it was close to where we were going to go so we made a little side trip to see the Wing Fort House.  This house was built in 1641.  It is recognized as the oldest house in New England which was continuously owned by the same family.  The last resident was Miss Cora Wing in 1942.  She sold it to the Wing Family of America at that time.  The tradition says that the home was built to protect the earliest settlers from the Native Americans.  As it turned out the Indians were found to be friendly, and the town did not need it for protection.  It is now a privately operated museum by the Wing Family of America.  It is open June through September Tuesday through Saturday.

It was easy for us to locate the house and the area around it is beautiful.  I took a few pictures so you could see--especially Beth!

Stephen Wing--Quaker

There are some houses around but a great deal of open spaces surround the actual home

You can easily walk to the Atlantic Ocean
which you can see from their house.

This a part of their land.  Apparently a
 place to meditate.

Sweet Selfie!

I love this handsome guy!  Thanks Christian for brightening up my morning with your "selfie."  A year ago I spent three months in Gilbert when Amy was on bed rest waiting for Eden to come. While I was trying to take care of Amy, Christian was taking care of me in many ways.  What a sweet son-in-law I have been blessed with.  Thanks for the trips to Dairy Queen when I needed a little something extra!

Missionary Moments #12 November 23, 2014

Another week has sped by.  We are making great progress at work and now we are accomplishing our goal each day.  We started with 24 boxes of unopened probate files and we have three boxes to go.  Now don't get excited because that just means we are going to get another set of boxes to work on.  But we are getting the job done!  It is fun to see the names on the files and sometimes when it is a name I know I start thinking about someone I know with that name.  One name in particular for me was Blake.  There were a lot of Blakes around this area in the 1800s.  Most of you know we named Ben after Benton Blake who was my bishop when I was in high school.  I admired him so much.  He was also a lawyer and many of the people I have worked on named Blake were lawyers as well.  I think that is so interesting.  Anyway we are both learning how to add a little interest to what we are doing.  One of our co-workers is leaving to go work at the capital building doing research for the legislators so they had a little going away luncheon for him.  It was nice to be included in the celebration.

Yesterday we had a nice p-day visiting Plymouth, Massachusetts--the home of the first Thanksgiving. (Check the blog in a few days for pictures)  We went to Plimoth Plantation where we enjoyed visiting a Native American village and then a 17th century English village.  They had people dressed in period costumes and if you asked questions they would answer you with information pertinent to that time period. The Indians didn't use their native language (needless to say) but the people in the English Village all had English accents.  The houses were dark and smokey, the tools and utensils were primitive, but life went on. The Indians slept on deer hides and kept the cold out with hides hanging on the entrances of their homes. They had a fire in the middle of each structure with a hole in the ceiling so the smoke could escape.  They dealt with extreme weather, starvation often on the horizon, illnesses that could kill many of them.  Two cultures came together with neither of them trusting the others but eventually their survival depended on each other.  The goal for all of them was to just survive.  And survive they did.  How can we not be proud of our wonderful heritage?

Missionary Moments #12--Part 2

Today we attended Stake Conference.  What a great meeting.  One of the speakers was a young father.  He told us he came from extremely humble beginnings in Brazil.  His mother died when he was one year old and from that point on his father could no longer function and wasn't able to work.  They lived in the slums of Brazil.  He said as a young boy he noticed some things about several men who helped their family.  They were members of the LDS Church, they had all served missions, and they had gone to America and got MBAs. He decided he would do everything he could to be just like them.  He joined the church when he was 14 and from that time on he made a goal to some day earn his MBA in America.  He served his mission, got a degree in Brazil and now he is attending Dartmouth to earn his MBA.  Brazil will be so blessed when he gets back!  He bore his testimony that good examples and the gospel changed his life and we were able to see that it had. Anyway, today was another great day.  We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We will be thinking of each of you.

Labels

When we prep the documents for the camera I don't have a lot of time to look at what they are.  This week I did pick up a pretty good sized probate file and thought that this must be someone who had a substantial estate.  As it turned out, it was actually commitment papers to the insane asylum.  I will be sharing more about what are in probate files in a later post.  As I started opening various documents in the file I kept seeing insane, insane, insane on everything.  I was thinking at the time, "was he really insane?" or had other issues, or someone who wanted to get him out of the way.  I know these thoughts are probably a little dramatic but I don't think history will always look at asylums in a good light  during the earlier periods of time, nor the admitting requirements. One of the last documents I picked up was a handwritten request.  It was a letter written by a brother of the patient a number of years after he had been committed.  The gist of the letter was that the brother requested that his brother have the label of "insane" removed from his record. He stated his brother was not insane he just wasn't capable of taking care of himself.  I don't know if this was an older or younger brother but apparently he was old enough to get involved in his brothers case.  I know I was proud of this stranger who cared about his brother and wanted people to know who he really was and what his abilities were.  I guess coming from an education background I am sensitive to the shift in parents who use to fight us when we dealt with special needs of a child because they didn't want the stigma associated with certain words.  Then I saw a shift when we began dealing with parents who came in demanding that their child be labeled ADHD or autistic, or some other issue.  I have thought after reading the request of a brother if some of our so easily labeled children will have someone do that for them.

Why Grandpas and Grandmas Should go on a Mission!

There are so many good reasons to serve a mission.  But one of the exciting reasons is the wonderful pictures, cards, letters, emails, and poems you get from your grandkids.  When I decorated the wall by our kitchen table I anticipated being able to pin up all the cute things that the grandkids would send us.  The wall is getting full and sweet words and pictures keep coming.  This morning when we checked the mail we had such a cute picture from Peter and an amazing poem from Ava.  What a great way to start the week!
I want to thank the parents of our amazing grandkids who have encouraged them to keep in touch and for taking the time to keep us updated on what is going on in their families.  We are truly blessed. Being home with the grandkids is great and I can't wait to see them all again.  But I wouldn't give up the opportunities we are having to serve here in New Hampshire especially knowing we have wonderful family back home just cheering us on.  I hope you all enjoy Ava's cute poem.  It is now on my wall so I can see it every day.

Missionary Moments #11, November 16, 2014

Grandma said it is my turn to do "Missionary Moments!"  On Tuesday we took another trip into the nether parts of Massachusetts.  We wanted to see the John F. Kennedy library in Boston, which was on the big bay between the city and Cape Cod.  After we figured out how to get there, we went into a very impressive building, with a giant flag.  We have been to several presidential libraries before, but I think this was one of my favorites.  I didn't remember how good JFK was as a writer, and several of his speeches were loaded with good references to God and religious principles.  Check it out at the library if you are interested in what he said.  There was also a section in the library about the Cuban Missile Crisis, which almost put us into a nuclear war with the Russians.  Also worth learning more about.  

From Boston we drove to Salem.  We were interested in our family connections to the Salem witch trials.  There are a lot of creepy stores and museums in downtown Salem, and a few cemeteries, but we were glad that Halloween was over.  There were many people still decked out in witch-oriented costumes.  We found a nice museum that showed us a well-done movie about immigration to the Salem area and the witch trials.  You can see more about the story on Grandma's blog.

We are loving our mission.  We had set a goals to take 1,500 pictures a day but were having trouble getting that many done.  We decided that maybe we could only do that about twice a week.  On Monday we did over 1,700 pictures and then Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we did over 1,500 capture each day.  Hooray!  We can do this because we are working together and being blessed because we are serving the Lord.  Last night we got a knock on our door at 7:30.  It was one of our missionaries.  His companion was really sick and he wanted to know if we had a thermometer.  We didn't but we told him we would go get one.  We went to the Rite Aid up the road from us and got him some medicine, a thermometer, saltine crackers, ginger sale, Seven-up, and some Gator aid.  When we got back I changed into my Sunday clothes and the Elder and I gave his companion a blessing.  We found out after church today that the other Elder ended up sick during the night as well.  We think they ate something that made them sick.  Both are doing better today and said they are eating saltine crackers!  We love you.  Thanks for writing us and for your prayers.

Not Guilty

After visiting the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library on Veterans Day Scott and I headed to Salem, Massachusetts. I vaguely remember the Salem Witch Trials from high school history but low and behold Scott is a direct descendant of the infamous Putnam family so we had to check it out.  The Putnam's daughter Ann was one of the accusers of the victims of the witch trials.  We found the town of Salem is very quaint, old, and charming.  We headed over to the Salem Witch Trial Museum but we found that it only had a gift shop and showed two films so we wandered around a little and ended up in the Park Service information center which had a 38 minute film on the Witch Trials and another film about the settling of the area.  Both were excellent and we learned many interesting facts.  What was fascinating was that Ann Putnam was the oldest of 12 children and both of her parents died in 1699 leaving Ann to raise her nine surviving siblings.  When we got home that evening I wanted to see how old Ann was when her parents died so I went on familysearch.org.  When I found the information on Thomas Putnam and Ann Putnam it showed that they had only four children but when we watched the film they finished by telling us that Ann never married and when her parents both died in 1699 she raised her 9 siblings.  She was 20 years old at that time. I wrote our family history expert Phil Duncan to see if he knew about the additional siblings.  He didn't have any information so I started "googling" and found a site called familypedia.com which gave me a list of 12 children of Thomas and Ann Putnam as well as their birth and death dates and the name of some of their spouses.  It is amazing how much is available to us now to link our generations.  I have passed on the information to Phil and I know he will update the Family Search website.  It was exciting to be involved in finding the children of the Putnam family from the 1600s. In searching for information I also read a letter of apology Ann had written about being a part of the death of innocent people.  A little sight seeing became an interesting experience in the importance of continually updating our family records.

Presidential Library

Scott and I have loved visiting several presidential libraries the last couple of years so when we got to New Hampshire we had to go to see the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.  What a step back in time.  I remembered sitting with my parents watching him speak at his inaugural address.  I remembered

how scared I was when everyone was waiting to see if we would be attacked during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I could remember exactly where I was when we were told he had died in Texas.  Visiting the library was a treat for both Scott and I and when we got home we googled the location of other Presidential Libraries so we could visit them if they were close by.  I didn't take pictures while we were inside but these are some of the pictures I took in areas where pictures were allowed.

New Decade

Grandpa and I are now working on probate files from the 1870s.  While everyday people were going about their days here's what was happening in the United States.

• 1870--The 15th Amendment to the Constitution is declared ratified.  It gave the right to vote for black Americans.
• 1870--The National Weather Service makes its first official weather forecast.
• 1871--The first professional baseball league plays a game.
• 1871--The great Chicago fire started.  The fire killed 250 people and left 90,000 homeless.
• 1871--National Rifle Association is granted charter by the State of New York.
• 1872--The world's first national park is established--Yellowstone National Park in the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.
• 1873--Jesse James and the James-Younger gang engage in the first successful train robbery in Iowa.
• 1874--The first United States zoo opens in Philadelphia.
• 1875--The first Kentucky Derby is run in Kentucky.
• 1876--The United States government orders all Native Americans onto a system of reservations.
• 1876--The Battle of Little Big Horn occurs.  General George Custer dies in the battle.
• 1877--Indian leader, Crazy Horse, surrenders to the United States Army in Nebraska.
• 1878--Thomas Edison patents the cylinder phonograph.
• 1878--The Edison Electric Company begins operation.
• 1879--The first five and dime store is opened--Woolworths.

Little Pumpkin!

Here is our Eden in her backyard waiting for Halloween!
She's 8 months old now.

The Emperor's New Clothes

The beautiful dense forests are now majestic matchsticks!  I am finding that there is beauty in each season and the end of Fall introduces the opportunity for the earth to rest and renew itself during Winter.  In a few months we will see Springs new leaves, flowers with blossoms and color will again be introduced into the landscape.  In the meantime, we can enjoy the blue skies with clouds scattered about and see areas usually hidden behind the trees awaiting the first snowfall.

We Love to go a Wandering!

The Director of the archives made up a map for us to follow to visit different towns and villages in the southwest part of New Hampshire.  The trip took us almost five hours but the sites were fascinating and we enjoyed more of the wonderful history of New Hampshire.

Dublin, NH Town Hall

I showed you earlier the Franklin Pierce
Manse and this is the Pierce Homestead
where he grew up.

This is where the Farmer's Almanac
is published

You never go very far in New Hampshire without
finding a large body of water.

Keene New Hampshire, Main Street

We ate lunch as a cute little family restaurant in Keene.
Especially enjoyed this grandma with her granddaughters
spending time together.  Jealous!

Stocks at a British Fort

The fort was closed but they were having a special activity
that evening so they let us come in and take some
pictures.

This is the longest wooden bridge in the United States.
It was neat to drive over it.

Washington, NH Birthplace of the
Seventh-Day Adventist Religion

More Names

We are in the 1870s now and I'm still enjoying the names we find as we go through the probate files.  I hope you understand that I love these names.  Not to laugh at but to be fascinated by the story behind each one. What were the parents thinking?  Did the child love their name?  Were they teased because of their name? Did they have a nickname?  My mother-in-laws name was Gerlene Olive and she told me once that she did not like her name very much. Now I love it and wish I would have told her that when she made that statement to me.  Enjoy the names we have found.

Persis, Ai, Comfort, Willie, Wattie Grace, Hulda, Lavina Joy,

Mesheck, Anda, Nellie, Rhonda, Rosamond, Ithamer, Anner,

Permelia, Olive, Jerusha, Sophia, Ebenezer, Silas, Perby, Eureline,

and Gardner Green

Something else I have discovered is that there really were Doe's.  Mary, Andrew, and other first names to go along with the name Doe.  I always thought that Jane and John Doe were make up names when the person was unidentifiable.  Now I know better.

Our Town

My latest read has been Our Town by Thornton Wilder.  I had read this when I was a senior in high school and I remember being so sad and crying as Emily said good-bye.  This time when I read it I had such a different feeling.  A feeling of understanding and comfort in knowing that we are on a wonderful journey that doesn't end here and just importantly that life will go on for those left behind.  I found the play quite intriguing because it supposedly takes place in a small town in New Hampshire.  An imaginary town I have found out.  But the play was actually written in the 1930s at an artists colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire not far from Concord.  In the play the stage manager said, "You know how it is: you're twenty-one or twenty-two and you make some decisions; then whisssh! you're seventy: you been a lawyer for fifty years, and that white-haired lady at your side has eaten over fifty thousands meals with you."  Sometimes I look back in my life and I can't believe how much has happened.  I can't believe my children all grew up, married wonderful spouses, had children and before they even realize it they will look back and wonder how it could have passed by so quickly.  I think Our Town reminded me of what the gospel has always taught, there is purpose and order in everything we do and although we are only here for a short time it is our responsibility to make sure we cherish the gifts and time we have been given.  I also admit that Owen was the Stage Manager in his school play of Our Town which I know was one of the best plays ever produced in Fargo, North Dakota!  If you haven't read Our Town for a while you might enjoy a second read.

Thankful

I added a turkey to our decorations to get ready for Thanksgiving.  I'm already starting to plan my Christmas decorations for our balcony!  Hope you all have a great month and have much to be thankful for.

Missionary Moments #10, November 9, 2014

What an interesting week we have had.  Our goal is to try to take 1500 pictures a day.  We make it about twice a week because if anything happens and we can't start right when we get to work we only make about 1000.  On Wednesday we decided to go in early to give us more time and of course the computer decided to freeze up.  After an hour on the phone with Salt Lake they finally said we need to replace a part and so for us that meant no pictures for the day.  We decided that it was time for a visit to the Boston Temple. What a nice day it ended up being.  Getting to the temple is like being in a huge maze and continually encountering a hedge.  After about an hour we decided to go back towards the way we came and then try to come up to the temple which finally was the answer.  It is bizarre to see the Angel Moroni from every point we were but unable to get to it.  That would be a dream I would typically have!  Once there, we were the only couple in the session which gave me much to reflect on.  How sad it would be if we didn't have all of our family with us when we make that final trip.  On Thursday morning we were back to work.  We had to wait for the part that was coming from SLC but I decided to turn the computer on and of course, everything started right up with no problems.  I called Salt Lake to let them know what had happened and then Grandpa and I got to work.

This week I woke up one morning and said, I love being here and working on these probate files. I usually add, "but I wish we could have gone overseas!"  Not this week...I feel content and excited to be part of such a great program and I am so proud to be serving with the best companion who never complains, always extends himself to others, and keeps me grounded and motivated to do my best.  Yesterday we took a map given to us by the head of the archives and drove all around west New Hampshire visiting little towns and villages.  We had a wonderful lunch in Keene, NH which became famous for it's "pumpkin chunking" which apparently involved carved pumpkins with candles in them which are placed on a catapult and sent flying.  Unfortunately, they became a little more famous this year because of a mini riot by drunk young adults which ended up causing some severe damage to cars and buildings down Main street. We drove in parts of Vermont as well and I did get some pictures that I hope to post some time this week.

One last thing I would like to mention was that when I was reading the Book of Mormon this week I had an epiphany!  I was reading in 2 Nephi 29:6-9 and the following jumped out at me.  It says, "Wherefore murmur ye because that ye shall receive more of my word?"  I don't think I have ever appreciated what was said in there until that day.  I wanted to go wake Grandpa up and talk to him about it!  When we attended zone conference the sisters asked the other missionaries what they hear a lot from investigators.  Many said, "We already have a Bible, why do we need more?"  So I say to them--are you complaining because a loving Heavenly Father has given you even more knowledge about what He wants you to know and do?  Even better is that he also has given to the world a Prophet, President Monson, and twelve apostles!  It is amazing when you think about it!  Have a great week!

We Found It!

When our computer quit working on Wednesday we decided that we would go to the Boston Temple.  Although finding it was quite an experience (our navigation wouldn't accept the address but gave us the mid-point of the frontage road it was on).  What a beautiful edifice in a nice neighborhood.  We were the only couple in our session which was also a first for both of us.  When we left we both felt very grateful to live so close to a temple and hope to make many trips there in the next 16 months.

I Confess!

I love Molly Mormon and feel sad when I hear people disparage her.  She inspired me when I was a young mother because it gave me a goal.  I love her in my sixties because I have had glimpses of what great effort has meant in my life and to our families lives.  I am reminded that all of us need to live a little above ourselves and give it all we've got!

In the October 2003 General Conference President Hinckley said, "Now my dear sisters...you are doing the best you can, and that best results in good to yourself and to others.  Do not nag yourself with a sense of failure.  Get on your knees and ask for the blessings of the Lord; then stand on your feet and do what you are asked to do."
Recently I opened up an email that I receive from Inspiration For Moms written by Laura Tusken and saw this quote.  I knew immediately that this would be my new motto.  Thank you Amy for dressing it up a little for me!  I plan on having this on a wall in our apartment while we serve here in New Hampshire and I intend to ask myself --Were you awesome today?  When I can answer yes I will celebrate a great accomplishment and when I have to say no I will "get on my knees and ask for the blessings of the Lord; then stand on my feet" and try a little harder!

No Place Like Home!

I truly love the beautiful houses in New England.  Every time we go somewhere we pass another unique home that was built in the late 1800s or early 1900s.   On Sunday after church Scott and I drove around so I could take pictures of some of them for you to see.  I focused on the area right around Concord's downtown Main street because these are older houses.  I think in the spring I will branch out and show you some of the other beautiful neighborhoods that are here.  Another unique thing about these houses is that most of them are literally a few steps away from the road.  Having big yards seemed to be available only to the wealthier residents.  I also noticed that there was often different entrances which probably made it possible to rent out a room or two.  I love all of the beautiful colors that people use here--a white house with black trim or a bright bright yellow with a bright blue trim or a pale green with orange trim.  I think in the snow these houses will really cheer me up!