Missionary Moments #35--May 3, 2015

It was hard to send Rachel home this week.  We hope she enjoyed being with us as much as we enjoyed spending time with her.  On Wednesday we headed back to work and feel like we are now back in a routine again.  We had a visit from our supervisor.  He was down from Canada checking on new missionaries assigned to record preservation and meeting with some of the archives to get contracts signed to start new projects.  He told us that they are still waiting to hear from Vermont about when the work would begin there but we told him we hoped that we could stay in Concord.  This week I worked on a large probate file for a woman who was committed to the insane asylum after her husband died.  It is painful to get a glimpse of the suffering.  She and her husband had one son and when her husband died she was taken from the cemetery and committed.  Because the state insane asylum is right by where we work I always think about what it must have been like for her and her family.  It appeared from the paperwork that she was there for a while and then they moved her closer to her son and his family and had people hired full time to care for her.  I was curious about the family so I googled the husband's name when I got home and found that he and his brother were very successful businessmen in the lumber trade.  When you are declared insane a guardian is appointed to look out for your interests and to manage the estate and I believe this particular guardian did a lot to help make her feel safe and comfortable.  Today Scott and I begin teaching the youth Sunday school class so we stayed home yesterday to make sure everything was ready for our first lesson.  We both love the new format for teaching the youth and because of that we probably over prepared!   We are thinking of driving down to Hartford, Connecticut next Saturday to see the progress being made on the new Temple that they talked about in General Conference.  Last night we had been invited to have a BBQ with our friends Tim and Phyllis Mayville who work at the archives with us.  They were spending the day at their daughters house who is in our ward.  She lives with her husband and son in a house that was built in 1790.  I will be putting pictures on the blog later today.  The project was to clean out the barn that is attached to the house and the Sister missionaries spent much of the day helping them.  Because of dad's back we didn't help!  The original outhouse was still connected to the barn and although the couple living in it now are doing some major renovations they are being very careful to keep the integrity of the time period as they go (don't worry they now have indoor plumbing in the house!).  After dinner the Sisters had a short activity for all of us to do and then bore their testimonies.  They are so impressive the way they take a gospel subject and gather everyone in to be a part of the fun and then share a profound correlation with what we were doing and what it means.  So honored to know these impressive young people.  For the grandkids you can check out the Lego designs on the blog.  Loved the boats you all made!  In a couple of weeks I will share the next challenge.  Thanks to those who were able to participate and thank you Lincoln for the fun idea. Have a great week!