It is hard to believe that today I am writing the 74th missionary moment. This has been a great experience for us and one that I am grateful that we could enjoy together. Today would have been Grandad Lambert's 92nd birthday and I have lately wondered what he would have thought about the politics that we are experiencing right now. I suspect it would have been painful on his ego to see that the democratic party he loved so much has become unrecognizable. I had promised myself that I wouldn't start packing up until February and beginning tomorrow I will begin the sifting and sorting. The young missionaries send much of the things they have accumulated home in the mail and I will probably send a few things that way as well but mostly I have to figure out how to get the accumulation of STUFF we have gotten since we got here back into the back of our Edge. When you see us you will know rather it worked or not. The young Elders and Sisters said they would help us load everything up and I will be especially glad about that.
Yesterday we took our last trip enjoying the beauties of New England. We drove down to Hartford, Connecticut and checked on the progress of the temple. We had gone earlier when it was just beginning to be wrapped on the outside but yesterday the walls were all up although they were wrapped in big sheets of plastic and the beautiful symbol on most of our temples stood proudly on the top--the Angel Moroni. The have put in all of the parking lots and sidewalks and I am sure that as soon as the weather begins to warm there will be flowers and grass added. There seems to be a hundred trees planted all around it and most were very young. I am sure it will be stunning when it is done. We had dinner on Monday night with our friends the LaDieu's who work in the Boston temple every Friday. Dan was telling us that when the Hartford CT temple opens half of their temple workers will be gone. I am impressed that they come all the way to the Boston temple every week to serve.
The work at the archives is going great! We had 20 boxes when we finally got back to work and we are already down to eight left. I suspect that when we finish those we will close everything up and then spend our remaining time helping the Mayvilles prep their documents until our release date comes. I was thinking at work this week how amazing it is that we are working as fast as we can getting documents ready for picture taking and still barely stay ahead of the newly prepared folders. I love that we have those little reminders that we aren't alone in our efforts. We owe much to our young missionaries who come in each week and help us get the documents opened up and ready or we wouldn't be able to keep the camera going all day.
A little side note is that Janie sent us Flat Stanley who will be spending the rest of our mission with us and will be traveling back with us as well. He is having a good time so far and really enjoyed our little journey yesterday! Have a great week everyone.