October 7, 2018
Autumn is in full Fall SPLENDOR, and it is absolutely breathtaking!!!! We have fallen in love with the lush green forests that cover Atlantic Canada, but now we get to appreciate how absolutely stunning the mixed forests are!!! Imagine a watercolour pallet with every red, pink, orange, gold, brown, and green hue!!! It makes me wish I could take a brush and record some of these magnificent scenes!! With stately red maples beside rust-coloured oaks, flanked by golden birch, and lacy lime-green larch, forest green balsam fir, and towering deep green pines, the Maritimes truly have a corner on autumn beauty!!!
Logging trucks almost monopolize the highways which makes us sad to know they actually chop these trees down…I’m just glad they don’t do it in view of the highways we travel.
Thursday, October 4th, was a banner day for us!! For three months we have been anticipating the visit of Isabelle, Berkley, and Claire, and had butterflies as we made the quick 6:15am jaunt to the airport to collect our three twelve year olds!! They are so excited to be here and we are even more excited to have them here!! We keep remembering four years ago, travelling with these three when they were little eight year olds, to attend General Conference in Salt Lake City. After they had a quick rest at the Mission Home, I collected the three and brought them to the Dartmouth building for our meeting. Part of our presentation at MLC (Mission Leadership Council) included 3-5 minute talks by each; Isabelle talked about prayer, Berkley talked about scripture study, and Claire talked about repentance. We were so proud of their well-prepared, and well-presented messages. We love our MLC meetings, and especially love our interactions with our wonderful missionaries!!
Friday was our second ever P-day, and we drove in to Caribou, Nova Scotia and hopped on the ferry bound for Prince Edward Island. Those kids were so excited about everything, and were snapping photos right and left. I loved hearing them say: Claire can you airdrop that to me, or Isabelle, can you send that to me, or Berk I love that..I want that!! They were delightful travellers, and loved being together! And we loved being together with them!! It really was a PEI whirlwind visit, but we did see Green Gables, we explored several Cavendish Beaches, drove over hill and dale through Avonlea, had ice-cream at the famous Cows ice-cream parlour, slowly drove by Confederation Hall (under restoration)where in 1867 the fathers of Confederation met, saw fields and fields of potatoes, and many cute little farmers market stands with every freshly harvested vegetable imaginable!! The Anne of Green Gables gift shop seemed to have souvenirs for everyone, so PEI was a hit!! Driving back to Dartmouth over the Confederation Bridge was a thrill, and when Claire found her commemorative coin at the special New Brunswick gas station she was elated. Isabelle and Berkley loved finding cute animal sling shots for their brothers at the same gas station. What unselfish kids always thinking about their family members back home!
Richard found General Conference online as we travelled, so we heard President Nelson as we were in the back country on dirt roads, following Berkley’s directions to get down to actually see the Bay of Fundy!!! What exciting changes for our Sunday schedule!!
We stopped in Amherst at my favourite shop - Deanne Fitzpatrick’s Rug-hooking shop, and each of us found a kit we loved!! - Claire had the shop lady adjust her kit to include yellow for her flower, Berkley found a fun lighthouse kit, and Isabelle had the greens adjusted in her pinetree kit. A quick stop at Michael’s to get embroidery hoops, and we were all ready to
rug-hook while listening to General Conference!
Arriving home to Dartmouth, we were thrilled and screamed when we came home to find Jonathan and Jordan sitting in our Office!!! Richard, and Berkley had been in on the fun surprise, but were great secret keepers!! It felt like Thanksgiving with some of our dear ones with us!!!
We loved watching Conference here at home. Rug-hooking kept us all wide awake, and focussed on both listening and hooking! Deanne, our new friend loved when we forwarded a photo of us happily rug-hooking away!!!Associating and interacting with all our missionaries is the highlight of our service, so were thrilled to have some of our Halifax metro missionaries join us for the afternoon session of Conference. Thanksgiving feast turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie, fresh rolls, potatoes, etc. aromas kept us anticipating the dinner ahead!! With twenty-four in our dining room including all of us, metro missionaries; Sisters Gillett, Cartwright, Swenson, Clark, Elders Boardman, SawaSawa, office missionaries; Elder and Sister Boyle, Elder and Sister Majeran, and Sister Arnold, as well as friends Emma Robarts, and Harley Westerman. What a thrill to have family and so many wonderful new friends, who feel like family join us for a meal of Thanksgiving. Know that we certainly dream of Thanksgivings past, and, future Thanksgivings with you, our dear ones at home. Another perfect day!!
Monday morning dawned the ideal day for sight-seeing with Jonathan, Jordan, Isabelle, Berkley and Claire. Driving to Peggy’s Cove, Mahone Bay and Lunenberg on the glorious Thanksgiving day was amazing; brilliant fall colours with Nova Scotia beauty around every corner!! Again the kids phone cameras were snapping photos…such fun!!
Richard had organized and reserved seven spots for a four hour deep-sea fishing adventure starting at one o’clock in Lunenberg and you can imagine how excitement built!! Gravol, and the anti-nausea patches we stuck behind our ears Sunday night, sort of helped us with the ocean motion! Everyone was thrilled learning to jig on the ocean, and were especially thrilled as their jigs actually worked and caught fish!!! (I was so excited to watch each of them catch their fish that it didn’t matter to me that my line was empty everytime I reeled it in!) Berkley’s catch was especially thrilling as he caught two massive cod at the same time!!! We can’t even tell you how wonderful it was to have those GREAT kids here!!!
And now it is three weeks later…Thursday, October 25, 2018 and we are in Cleveland, Ohio
Monday evening, Dr. Fox who practised in Fall River, confirmed our area medical advisor - Dr. Keyes diagnosis of ‘shingles.’ My forehead is where they have manifest themselves, so I carefully place a polysporin dabbed bandaid parallel with my eyebrow to try and conceal the nasty blotch. Dr. Fox prescribed some huge blue anti-virus pills to hopefully contain the spread..(I think) I am suspicious of two more spots - another on my forehead, and one beside my nose…. After Richard finished his Presidency Meeting, and Mom and I returned from the Dr. we packed up our loaner van and headed to the Alt Airport Hotel to spend a few hours!!! Since our flight was international, we needed to check in at four am, so we were happy to have a little sleep, and just a walkway away from our checkin spot.
Twice a year we get to attend a Mission President and Companion Conference, and so…our reason for being in Cleveland. Our flights were from Halifax to Newark, New Jersey where we found our friends the Vest’s who are serving (with their five children) in Utica, New York. Oh my they have stories to tell!!! Richard description as this Conference being EFY for Mission Presidents on steroids is pretty accurate!! Instructing us are our Area Presidency : Presidents Randall Bennett, Kevin Hamilton, and Allan Haynie here as well as Elder Robert Gay and Elder Whitney Clayton, along with their lovely wives who I just love to listen to!!! We love listening to all of their inspired, motivating council, and have so much more we want and need to do!!!
Tomorrow we have a morning of instruction, and then we get to take the half hour bus ride to Kirkland, where we will be taught in the Kirtland Temple!!! Wow!! It has been 30 years since we were there last…who remembers that???
Cleveland is a neat old city, and they say it is the city of forests, and the city of Rock and Roll—who knew? There are some great old buildings that look like they could be in Washington, DC or even Paris…someday we will have to come back and explore. From our 22nd floor room view we have a beautiful view of Lake Erie so after supper we enjoyed a little jaunt down towards the water, BUT…there was a freeway in the way of us getting right down to the shore!!
Leading the music was a thrill…singing ‘We are all Enlisted’ and ‘How Firm a Foundation,’ with
our dear Mission friends was a thrill, and a bit scary!! I tried my best to not have a shaking head!!
our dear Mission friends was a thrill, and a bit scary!! I tried my best to not have a shaking head!!
The Church of Christ which still owns the Temple, are very friendly with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and have made arrangements so we can take special tours, and have meetings in the Temple which is amazing….Being taught by Elder Christofferson in the Kirtland Temple was the highlight of all our training. He reminded us of the amazing visits by the Saviour, and by Elijah, Elias and Moses in the Kirkland Temple, restoring all the Keys. Brother Anderson, the Kirtland Patriarch, and a local expert historian was our bus tour guide, as well as a guide in the Newel K. Whitney store, and oh my, he knows his Kirtland history…in fact has written a historical book commissioned by Elder Neal A. Maxwell which we are excited to read. It was astounding to hear of all the amazing events that occurred in and around Kirtland!!
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