Missionary Moments #76--Feb 14, 2016

Happy Valentine's Day!  I am so late getting this written today because I was speaking in Sacrament meeting and didn't want to have other things on my mind until that was done. Scott speaks next week so he still has another week to be nervous!  I told Bill that I have spoken more in this ward than I have spoken in our ward in the last 10 years!  Small wards definitely give you opportunities that you don't have when you are from an area where there are many members of the church.  After the Sacrament meeting we taught our last lesson to our wonderful Sunday School class.  I was surprised how sad I felt to say goodbye to these amazing young people. Today before class began I had a brother and sister tell us about raising pigs.  They started raising pigs years ago to be able to pay for college.  They raise two at a time and when they are old enough they sale them and all the money they make goes into their college fund.  I wish all of our grandkids could have opportunities like that.  I asked Hannah if she named the pigs but she said not anymore and her brother John said pigs are the smartest animals.  You could tell as they both talked that they took great pride in their combined effort. 

We have finished prepping all the documents that we can before we turn off the lights and head home.  Our big challenge is to be able to take all the pictures of the documents that are prepped in just four days (Archives closed for President's Day tomorrow).  We won't leave until all of the pictures are done so that may move our exit back a day or two.  Last night I added up the pictures we took in Rockingham County and the pictures we have taken in Hillsborough County through last Tuesday.  It came to a grand total of 576,205 pictures.  We're proud of this! It has been so amazing to think back to our first week here when we had no idea of what we were doing and going home so discouraged because we could barely finished 200 pictures in six hours.  What a reminder to all of us that when something is important we can never give up! I have loved sharing these brief glimpses into the lives of wonderful people who endured so much for all of us.  They lived in what we would probably consider very primitive conditions, they fought to establish a nation and later to preserve that nation.  They never gave up and because of that we must remember to keep this a land of liberty by fighting for it even today. They are our inspiration and we have to honor our past by how we live in the future.  

My Aunt Edith passed away this week.  That leaves dear Uncle Chester the only surviving child of Pearl and Marion Lambert.  Although we lived quite a distance from them I always loved the time we got to spend in Texas with them.  We never went to Disneyland or Yellowstone National Park but Texas was the best place in the world to go on a vacation.  We ate watermelons, make homemade root-beer, homemade ice cream, set off fireworks, and planned and cooked dinner for all the adults.  It was wonderful and Aunt Edith always made it better.    I am so thankful for family and especially for the wonderful memories I have.  Have a great week.