Week 22 - Hegsted's Mission

 18-December-2022-Sunday

While we had power again today at 9:17 pm  [after losing it last night about midnight], the Wilcox's  obtained power tonight about 5:22 pm today.  Thus they were out about 48 hours.  The Buswells did not have power at 6 pm when Dede and I headed home from the site.  We have invited them to spend the night with us.  We have a spare bedroom so it will work for us as we share bathrooms etc. with our friends.

It was so beautiful driving to Rutland this morning. In Killington, the trees were still buried in snow and it was good to see skiers and boarders on Pico Mountain.  Probably not ideal snow, but snow before Christmas.  We had such fun in Sacrament Meeting.  President Shelton had invited ward members to choose a favorite Christmas Hymn, come forward like a testimony meeting and tell why it is a favorite and then we sang at least one verse of the hymn.  It was so fun to be on the organ and play hymns for 40 minutes.  I think the Spirit was very strong and I hope all enjoyed it as much as I.  Sunday school class went well.  Smallish class.  We talked about Malachi, tithing and Elijah and then I showed some pictures from Israel while tying each to scripture stories, mostly Old Testament.  It was Okay, but I need a bigger screen next time rather than using my lap top.

While driving to Rutland, Dede and I listened to the podcast "Don't Miss This".  They were giving their Christmas thought and using a book they had written based on the scriptures a fictional shepherd would have been told about the Messiah from his mother thus preparing him to go to the see the Savior in the manger. As I listened to their scriptures, I thought: "yes we recognize these easily now that the event is fulfilled by Christ, but each scripture cited has or had a different fulfillment recognized by Jews then and surely  since Christ's birth by the Jews.  I am not faulting the scriptures, each clearly teaches us about the Savior and His first coming.  What occurred to me and what we discussed are how many modern and for that fact, ancient scriptures will we think are already fulfilled and thus will not recognize how they are to be fulfilled fully by Christ when He comes again?  It is easy to be critical of the people before the birth of Christ, but I am sure even we faithful members today, will look foolish to future people who will wonder why we did not heed and understand all the signs of His coming predicted by scripture and know more about this second coming?  It is easy once the scripture is fulfilled, but harder when we do not exactly know what is coming.  For example, I would not have known Christ was to be born in Bethlehem and not thought it was a different king of Judah if I had been born before Christ's birth.  I might have thought the verses about wonderful, counselor, etc. were fulfilled in King Josiah.  I would not have tied the star to leading wise men to the Savior.  It is just not easy.  I think I will be surprised after the Second Coming to realize how wrong has been my interpretation of scripture today as compared to after the event.

Arrived a few minutes late for our shift and Buswells had opened for us.  No reason for them to sit around their apartment without power.  We had a few people trickle through the entire day and President Ewer and I worked with them while Dede and Sister Buswell went down to empty their fridge and freezer and get the flute so they could practice.  I do hope they have power by tomorrow.   The following pictures show power employees working on the lights on Dairy Hill later in the week and this sugar shack where they stacked old and new wood to look like a Christmas tree, also on Dairy Hill Road.

Had members come in tonight.  We were again limited as we do not have power to the site and thus had only about 70% of the lights on.  Judging by the large tree branch hanging from the wire along Dairy Hill Road, we may not have any for a while yet.  Still people came and were gracious.  I had a fine couple come in and visit for a long time.  He has had missionary discussion and knows a fair amount, but had never come into the site.  I quite liked him and he gave me his number so we could stay in touch although with the bad cell service I have not received it.  

My favorite guest was a sister who teaches institute in Boston.  She had taught at BYU-I and USU before coming out East.  She came alone because she had never visited the site and she was a fun visit.  We are lucky to have such people teaching our young people.

19-December-2022-Monday

Another Monday and a chance to be edified by President and Sister Ewer.  Helped Dede today with making soup for the other missionaries and finishing up Christmas cards.

We had the late shift.  We are back on full power, but it being a Monday, it will not be as busy tonight even though all the lights are back on and weather is not bad.   However, we had some wonderful visits.  Yes we get a few in that just were hoping for treats, but then we get in people who enjoy history and want to know a little about the history of the site even though they are not much interested in religion.  I had 3 young couples come in together, who were most interesting.  They asked lots of questions about Joseph Smith after Dede told them about the monument and how it was built.  Finally they asked if they could ask theological questions.  I told them yes, but if it was above my pay grade, I would not have an answer.  The one acted as if he were a theological student.  He used the correct words in his questions and started by asking about the Trinity.  We discussed that yes as defined, we believe the Father, Jesus and the Spirit are one in essence (we would say in purpose) but three distinct beings.  This is the original definition of Trinity.  Further we discussed the corporality of God and Jesus and what the resurrection really meant and how that relates to us.  We spoke of eternal marriage sealing and other topics.  The six walked away with their own Books of Mormon, two of which were Dutch.  It would be nice if they read the BoM and take to heart the promise in Moroni 10;3-5.  I doubt I will ever see them again, but thank God they came into our lives for a wonderful hour.

20-December-2022-Tuesday

We had the first shift and were fortunate to have two members come in about 12:30 who wanted a full tour.  One lives in Boston, the mother now live in England, but she was previously in Ohio where the daughter was born.  It was good to have someone come in.  I spent most of the morning digging out lights that were on bushes or next to the road that were knocked down by the heavy snow and plowing.  I think they look better, although for the person who merely drives through once , it probably makes little or no difference.

We had a power outage at about 10:30.  Dede and I were out walking and heard a noise from the generator and Dede saw a puff of smoke come out the door.  When we got back after walking for a bit, we had no power.  I went up to tell Bob (FM manager) and before they could get the generator going, the power was back on.  [The power company was removing trees from wires on the property and thus the power was cut].  Brother Wilcox was able to get the generator going again after several failed attempts with a shot of ether in the exhaust.  I felt it was a blessing.  If the power were to off again when the FM missionaries are not on site in the middle of the night, the generator would not have started and the Ewers would be left without power.

President Ewer is going to set up an appointment with Aaron in SL to watch the video and approve our video.  Hopefully we can do this Thursday as Dede and I plan to go to Boston tomorrow, although we could do it in the evening.  We will see what happens.  President Ewer seemed surprised that people were leaving for 2-3 weeks over Christmas.  Seems very normal to me as we often shut down for a week and I took another week at the time. [Aaron will not be available until next Thursday.]

I am so grateful to have the Boston temple 2.5 hours away.  Yes it was nice to be 5 minutes away in Pocatello, but I love the temple and am so grateful we have the time and means to go about every other week.  And the best blessing, we do not need to go downtown Boston.  😀. Wow it is Tuesday and I have not posted a photo.  Sorry loyal reading audience.  😂

21-December-2022-Wednesday-PDay

I believe today is the shortest day of the year.  Yes I know all days have 24 hours, so I mean the shortest period of light for a day.  We increased the amount of light that we enjoyed by driving to Boston to attend an Endowment and then a Sealing Session.  Oh how I now treasure the times spent in the temple.  We have been able to go every other week, but that is a long time compared to what we had in Pocatello.  However, the Lord has blessed us.  Each minute in the temple seems to be better than those before when I knew I could just come back tomorrow if I was not really in tune with what was happening and the Spirit I was feeling.  We rejoiced in a session with over 35 people (large by Boston's standards).  I noticed the evening sessions had few people who had signed up (I am sure because of the holidays) but people flocked to the morning sessions.  Good for them.

Beyond shopping, there is very little more to report.

22-December-2022-Thursday:

What could be better than to spend entire days with your eternal companion.  This morning we took off at 8:30 and drove to the city of Middlebury.  We were surprised at the size, but then it has a rather large college (at least in number of buildings and size of the campu, with only 2526 students.)  It must be a very expensive college or well endowed to have such a nice campus [I was told both], which also include a ski area about 20 miles up the road.  Regardless, we went to visit Danforth's Pewter shop.  At the main store, they not only sell the pewter, but have a section in the back, behind glass where one can watch them make the pewter items.  Some are caste using liquid pewter into handmade molds, while others is shaped using a slice of pewter that is shaped on a lathe.  Real cool stuff and we spent time shopping and learning about pewter.  We decreased our wallet's weight and bought a few wonderful items including a nativity that I thought was cool.  

We then ate at Rosie's diner down the road.  We then drove back to Middlebury to look at the falls in the middle of town.  They were great and as always one could see the water races which once powered the factories along Otter Creek (which is larger than some rivers).  Also they quarried marble in the same area and many of the building were made of marble.  Cool stuff.

23-December-2022-Friday

Happy Birthday Joseph Smith, born 23-December-1805.  

We awoke, (as was expected) to rain.  The Canadian Clipper which provided cold to the middle of the country has begun pushing East.  However it pushed very warm, moist air with it, so the temperatures rose into the mid-40's and we had very hard rain throughout the day.  The White River and its First Branch are running higher than we have ever seen with the combination of the rain and the melting snow.  We had a family of 5 come in around 11 and spend about 1.5 hours with us.  They had come from NY State to ski and the warm rains made that impossible so they came to see us.  They were delightful and how delightful for us to be able to share the stories about Joseph's birth and early years on his birthday.

The rest of the day at the site was dead, no wonder with the weather.  I worked on a movie of the snow at the site and the lights to share with the missionaries.  Hopefully can finish it by Christmas.  We walked and then spent a few minutes fixing lights.

The heavy winds and rain caused several trees to fall across our roads, so the FM group got to remove them (cut them so they do not hang over the road) along with many branches that had also fallen.  The site was really a mess.  They also had to fix the star with its streaming strings of light.  This had fallen all the way down the flag pole and had broken, but they had it fixed by the end of our shift.

We went into S. Royalton to get a bite to eat.  There was a concert planned at the church to be put on by a very talented family from NH, but due to the weather it was canceled.  In the afternoon, I though this a poor decision, but by evening when we went into Lebanon to buy ice cream, it seemed very inspired; (which apparently I am not).  Dede and I went up to the monument alone and sang happy birthday to the prophet Joseph.  We did a video, but luckily this does not transfer well to the blog.

We are again without power.  I am sure the winds have caused this and it might be a long time before we have power again.  With the temperatures dropping to about 6F tonight, our house could get really cold.  Interestingly enough Elder Burger said our apartment has a generator, but our landlord might be out of town for Christmas skiing.  That could be the pits.  I would rather bath at night, but I have been so tired that going to bed early might be a wonderful thing tonight.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  I hope we spend it with power.  We do not go in to the site until 1 pm, but if Buswells have power and we do not, we might end up showing up early just to stay warm and charge our batteries used to charge our devices.

The following pictures of rivers around us that are higher than we have seen as well as examples of ice that forms on the granite walls along the highways.

24-December-2022-Saturday

I am writing a day late.  We awoke to a continuation of our power outage.  The difference between this outage and our last outage was the outside temperature which impacted the the warmth that remained in the home.  Brother Berger had spoken with the landlord Friday night and discovered that he had a generator for his shop, which runs the pump and the heat.  He was so sure that we would have power last night that he did not want to come over and set it up.  However around 10 am Saturday he came over.  What a difference having running water makes in my life.  It was nice to have the heat back on.  With the radiator type heat in our home, it had not warmed up much by the time we went in for our shift, but that extra few hours made a huge difference when we returned at 7 pm.  The power had been fully restored and the home was warm again.  Our nearest cell tower must be on the same power line as we are on.  When we lose power we also tend to lose the poor cell coverage we have also.  We either have no bars, or it comes up SOS.  Strangely enough when the generator came up, we could get our Wi-Fi to work, but it also stopped with in the hour, so I suspect that we also had issues with our communication lines.  There is an interesting difference between power and communication lines.  They seem to double string the communication lines and they are heavily insulated.  Between each pole they have a wheel with extra cable under tension.  We often see these lines with trees on them dragging them down to where they nearly touch the ground, but it does not seem to impact the communications.  Not like a power line which shorts out when a tree limb is laying on it.  We drove down toward Royalton to get cell coverage and let our landlord know we were still without power and we could see the tree limb which was laying on a wire about a mile from our house and probably causing the power to fail.  Finally may I say how much I appreciate the men and women who work long days in miserable weather to help restore our power.  Again may I say how sincerely I have given thanks in my prayers for running water (hot and cold), heat and lights.  May I also say how blessed we have been.  Yes, we lost power twice already and according to the other missionaries, this is more than they had previously experienced.  However, Dede and I have not suffered in the least.  The Lord has blessed us, often by having us at the site doing some extra things where we had generator power and partially because Dede was so well prepared.  From comments made by others, it was much harder on some of the others missionaries, but Dede and I have just been blessed. At a minimum, blessed with the ability to see the Hand of the Lord blessing us.

We had the site open until 5, although we began eating at 4 pm at the Ewers.  We had only two people come into the site during the entire day.  They were the Andreassons who are members, who live in Tunbridge and go to the S. Royalton Ward.  He is from Rupert, so they are one of the few people in that ward that we actually have met.  They were without power and came down to get water and use the toilets.  We begged them to come to our apartment and shower, but they said they were doing alright, despite the cold.  They have a generator that will run for 12 hour spurts before needing to shut down and cool down.  It is limited so they switch between heat and the refrigerator.  I think he would have come, but she said they were doing fine, although they did not have power last night when Dede texted. [Nor did they on Sunday when she texted again, but still declined to come to our house.  They may be as stubborn and proud as me!]

We had a meal with all the missionaries at the Ewers.  They brought in food from Lui-Lui's in W. Lebanon.  We then did a gift exchange.  I got a bag of chocolates and Dede got a board for pictures which was populated with site photos.  Both are fun.  It was fun to watch the reaction of people as they opened gifts or had gifts "stolen" from them.  We ended our time together with a sing-along starting with "Praise to the Man" to commemorate the Prophet's birthday since we had not celebrated the night before with the cancelled concert and then doing a number of Christmas songs and hymns.  Good fun to bring in the Spirit.

We drove home from the site looking at Christmas lights.  There are actually quite a number of people with lights especially on River Road from S. Royalton to Sharon and we felt grateful for the effort people put in lighting the world to celebrate Christ.   As we were leaving the site, we ran into Santa Clause. He told us that he comes every year to wish Merry Christmas to the children who come to the site.  I think he also stated that Dede had been nice and would be visited with other nice children.

The highlight of the night was watching the Larsens and the Mitchells perform their nativity stories.  Emma and Miles were everything except one shepherd and so they bounced with joy from part to part.  It was so fun to watch.  The Larsens were more subdued using the Little People nativity set rather than dressing up, but the Spirit was also wonderful as Hailey read scriptures and Danielle played most of the hymns and Eric conducted and left us with a wonderful thought and testimony.  It was nice that Anna was with the Larsen family and taken care of.  I had told Dede that with everything seeming foreign as we were not at home, it did not feel like Christmas, but that all changed tonight.  A big wonderful hug to our children and grandchildren who sent the Spirit all the way from Colorado to Vermont for us to revel in.