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.