Lots of Nice weather

All of our pictures this week are from our walk on Friday.  Sorry there isn't much variety

This email might be pretty short since I just sent out the last one on Wednesday.  So that is the day I will start with.

Wednesday, Walt got his stitches out.  It was a quick appointment.  Everything looks good.  There is still some fluid there, but it will work itself out by a couple of weeks.  His knee is still a bit stiff, but he just needs to keep moving it and the fluid could be adding to the stiffness.  We worked at the Senior Center for lunch.  The favorite - roast beef.  We always have the biggest crowd for that meal.  We found some people to sit with that we haven’t sat with before and had a great conversation.

This is a little red dot about midway in the picture.  That's our car.

That evening, our ward had movie night.  Walt was supposed to get there at 6 pm to set it up.  I thought the event started at 6:30 pm.  I got Walt there a little late, and then went to pick up Kay.  Found out, it was supposed to start at 6 pm.  They couldn’t figure out the projector, so good thing Walt came.   Kate and I only missed about 10 minutes of the movie.  Richard and his family came as well.  The movie is called “The Fighting Preacher.”  It’s about a couple that was called on a mission to buy the property - Hill Cumorah - where Joseph got the golden plates - translated into the Book of Mormon.  Two citizens of the community owned the land at the time.  The mission was supposed to be about 5 years.  It took about 10 to get the purchase completed at the price the church wanted to pay, plus the owners agreeing to sell it to Mormons.  At that time, Mormons were hated by the people of Palmyra NY.  The couple ended up staying 24 years - a record.  The Bishop and some other ward members told us afterwards that we should try to break the record and stay here 25 years.  I don’t think so - we miss our family too much!!  It was a good turnout!

Thursday was our last morning of seminary for the week.  No school on Friday.  It was a low key day.  We did scripture studying, seminary lesson prep and preparing for our lesson with Hailey on Sunday.   The Elders wanted to stop by and updated us on things going on in the mission.  We were not able to make it to Zone Conference because it was the same day as Renee’s funeral.  I think we both were feeling a little low the rest of this week.  It’s not nearly as hard as losing Michelle, but still difficult.  Even when you know it’s coming, it isn’t easy.   

Walt is in this picture and the next one.

Richard and the kids are doing pretty good.  Their family that was here for the funeral left on Friday - last of them.  We visited them Saturday night.  We were going to show a Book of Mormon video, but the kids had friends over and I think Richard just needed to talk.  That’s what we are here for - helping in any way we can.  

The area at the farthest point in Newcastle

The past week has been pretty amazing weather.  We have been sunny and in the high 30’s to mid 40’s all week.  I was reading over last year’s journal and it was in the negative temperatures this time last year.  It’s been a super mild winter.  Friday we were able to sleep in a bit.  With it being so nice, we decided to go and walk outside - somewhere.  We ended up stopping not far from town on route 16.  There is a small parking area and then a big field and then hills.  So we parked and headed for the hills.  The ground was half snow - half mud.  Walking in the 2 inches of snow was better than the mud.  At the base of the hill, Walt found a great rock for me to rest on while he continued to climb.  I was able to just lie there and enjoy the sun on my face.  Walt climbed all over those hills.  Then he came back and took me up.  We just walked a little up there and then came down.  I had been commenting on how getting gravel for our driveway would really help with the mud.  All my shoes as so muddy.  On the way down, we found some nice flat rocks to put in the driveway.  Make it like a rock path.  Between what Walt carried and me, it was 50 lbs of rock.  Plus it was a long hike back to the car.  Quite the work out.

We came back, and Walt put down the stone.  It looked nice and worked well.  So we decided to try and find some more, but that was close to the road.  We went up 85 towards SD.  We found some on Salt Creek Rd.  Some were up a hill and Walt slipped and slid down - very muddy pants after that.  It was adventurous - our favorite.  It was a much needed one!

Saturday was make appointments, and finish up lessons.  As mentioned above, we visited the Smiths as well.  That took much longer than anticipated but it’s all good.   We did end up staying up a bit later than we planned; especially since Sundays start early for us.

Today, we had a good sacrament meeting on forgiveness.  One of the ladies that spoke talked about how she isn’t very tactful.  She doesn’t mean to offend people but knows that she does.  She said - if I have not offended you, just wait - it’s coming.  It’s pretty much true.  After church, there was a Linger Longer to celebrate one of our oldest member’s birthday.  There was a lot of food left over from the funeral, so it was perfect timing.  It was a surprise for him.

Next we had a lesson with Hailey.  I finally came clean with the Elders about teaching her.  I just explained that the Bishop asked us to be the ones to teach her.  She feels more comfortable with us.  Not sure how hard they took it since it was a texting conversation.  The lesson went really well.  I had asked Becky about feedback from our last lesson.  She said it was a lot of information at one time.  This week’s lesson was the Plan of Salvation.  So we divided into two lessons - next week part 2.  I brought some of my visuals from Seminary along.  Pictures never hurt.  The lesson turned out well and Becky said it was just the right amount.  We talked about our lesson yesterday and thought we should ask Hailey about picking a baptism date.  She had already told us that she wanted to get baptized.  Picking a date doesn’t set it in stone, but does give a person a goal.  She was totally good with choosing a Saturday in the first of April.  She needs to talk to her parents about their plans.  She is pretty sure they will both attend.  That’s pretty exciting.  We will continue to teach her every Sunday.

Walt is in this picture also.  Can you find him?

Tonight we have our Book of Mormon study group with Gary.  Keith had agreed to be the lesson leader.  That was impressive for him to do.  We very glad that we get to do this with Gary and that there are others joining in.  Studying scriptures is a lot different than just reading them.  I think we’re all enjoying studying them together.

That is it for this week.  We’re hoping this nice weather continues.  We know there will be occasional cold and/or snowy weather, but in the mean time - sunny and warmer is fantastic.  We love you guys so much.  We hope you that are studying the Book of Mormon are enjoying as well.  Have a safe and wonderful week.

A quick update.  I wrote this before going to Gary’s and now it is Monday morning.  April was in charge leading the discussion at Gary’s last night.  We had a full turn out - 7 of us.  April shared such a sweet testimony of following the Savior, the temple, and of her love of the scriptures.  The rest of the conversations followed along those lines.  Gary’s comments and questions even lined up with it.  We could really feel the Spirit in the room - it was so nice.  Then we got talking about things that hold us back, and somehow got to coming to church.  I asked Gary, the first time in a long time, about coming to church.  Stake Conference is in March, and somehow Gary has decided to come along to Stake Conference.  It is in Gillette and Gary suggested we just all spend the night and that was we don’t have to drive back and forth for the 2 days of the Conference.  WOW!!!  What just happened?!  Who knows, maybe he will feel the Spirit there and get something out of it.

It’s snowing right now, but are supposed to only get 1-3 inches.  Time will tell.  It’s always pretty to watch the snow fall.  Now it’s the end.  We love you all so much!!