Week 36 - Hegsted Mission

 26-March-2023-Sunday

We have come to love the Rutland Branch.  Such good people who try so hard to be good Christians.  Bless them.  We worked today so we had to leave 10 minutes early.  We sat at the site until 3:45 and then received 10 people in five different groups, so the end of the shift was really fun.  It is amazing the wide variety of people that come into the site.  We had a family of 4 from Detroit, members who were fun to talk to.  We had two different single men come into the site.  They were passing through on business.  We had a young member come through who was visiting his uncle and his uncle's husband in Quechee.  His uncle's husband came with him to the site.  The young man is from the Boise valley, but working temporarily in Boston.  Two woman came through whom Dede took care of.  They were not members but wanted to know the history.  All in all, it was a fun day.

During, the down time, Dede spent time preparing an outline of things to do and read for Holy Week.  I am excited to see what we will do.  We plan to take time during dinner.  She is using Eric Huntsman's latest book and I think it will be fun.  However, as I already admitted to Dede, I was not interested enough to do the work to prepare which material we should review, but excited that she would put the time in to help us prepare for Easter with scriptures, movies and background material that comes from other Christian Denomination.  

 Since it was fast Sunday, I was eager to get home and eat left over boneless pork ribs and potatoes.  As we parked the car I looked toward the interstate (north) and saw these four deer just beyond the owners property line.  They did not seem very nervous about us and since there is a house nearby, they did not seem nervous about that house either.  There are several dogs around, but apparently they do not chase the deer.

27-March-2023-Monday

After our Monday devotional Dede and I went to Woodstock to visit Vermont Flannel.  They did not have what she wanted to create a king-size quilt of flannel blocks, but said it should be here as it was due Friday.  We then washed the car.  We drove all the way to Woodstock and then Queeche without seeing a puddle.  We washed the car and drove half a mile and ran into a mile of intermittent puddles.  Someone has a sense of humor and I have a dirt spotted car.

Not much to report at the site.  We walked, we spent time talking to the Ewers.  Then a member came in from Washington.  Like the fellow yesterday, he was at the U. of NH taking classes and had some time so he came to to the site.  He was very interested in church history and the site and reluctant to leave.  We also had a friend of the Buswells come in.  She will return again tomorrow for a tour, if she can wake up in time.  (She did not come in early enough that we saw her before we left at 1:30.  In fact she came right at the end of Ewer's shift at 5 pm).

The first crocuses emerged from the snowy ground today signaling that spring may actually come.  The snow is melting fast.  If not for the wind, it would be perfect.

The Taftville covered bridge is so wonderful.  We took a back road out of Woodstock and had to cross the bridge to get on route 4 to Quechee.

Dede was looking for the Northen Lights.  I was checking out pinholes in my eyelids and she took this wonderful picture of the moonlight.

28-March-2023-Tuesday

Almost got an hour of work done on the report.  We went into the site and had a group of four women come in.  Two sister missionaries, a member and an investigator.  The investigator was wonderful and had so many questions.  Dede did such a great job providing her a meaningful tour.  I am really proud of her.  As we were preparing to leave, Jordan came back in.  He was baptized last Saturday and came to the site to soak in the history after his spiritual encounters that he enjoyed before, once with the sisters and then when he came back with a nonmember.  It was fun to visit with him about more historical questions.  He is going to the temple tomorrow at 10 am to do baptisms.  We will be there for an endowment session and will thus get to see him.  It is amazing how God has allowed us to become involved with this young man's life.  We are so blessed.  Jordan came in right a shift change and the Ewers were not sure what to do with a young man who has become our friend in the last few weeks.  Jordan said he will come back when the snow is not so deep and we can hike around the site.  He plans to see other church sites as he moves to Utah in May.  (Jordan has amazing FaceBook posts about the church.  He is on fire.)

Tonight we had our second virtual tour with the Poole's from Pocatello.  They are so kind to allow us to once again try out our virtual tour on them.  We used the church log-in we did not need to reconnect in the middle of the meeting.  It was so great to talk to the Poole's. They are the best people.

29-March-2023-Wednesday-PDAY

Another PDAY and another trip to Boston.  We arrived a little early and changed and then came out to the foyer to give Jordan a hug as he came in to do baptisms for the dead just a few days after his own baptism.  He told us he would do work for his grandfather.  What a blessing!  I am amazed that even though I have now gone at least 8 (maybe 10) times to the endowment, since the last set of changes that I continue to learn each time I go.  Today as I listened I considered all the changes made since I first went to the temple over 45 years ago.  For the most part in the recent past the changes have been reducing words and thus time.  Nothing critical was removed and it helped to focus on things of importance. This last change actually went the opposite way in adding to the presentation to offer clarification which was not there before.  In our work as missionaries at the site, we are to focus on key messages and not overwhelm people with too much detail.  I considered what has changed in the endowment presentation and I see how the brethren have managed to focus our attention on the key messages of the endowment while adding more focus on the Savior who is the center of the endowment. 

The gate was unlocked so we walked the path from the temple down to the church.  This picture shows the chapel with the temple in the background.  It was fun to consider the story of locating this temple as we walked around this chapel.  As I remember, President Hinckley was frustrated that he could not find a building site and mentioned it while meeting with brethren in the East.  An attendee asked why not use the property next to the chapel which the church had up for sale.  President Hinckley left the meeting immediately with the man and drove to the site and we now have a temple there.  There was much more drama, but I will focus on the positive end results.
 

After leaving the temple we found a Michael's Store.  Dede is preparing material for Holy Week beginning this Sunday for Palm Sunday.  I am excited to be uplifted by what she will present.  She is using Eric Huntsman's new book on the subject.  We stopped at Michael's to buy palm fronds (plastic) so we can celebrated Palm Sunday with our own palm fronds.  If we get permission our parade will probably be around the monument and we will invite the other missionaries to join us if they so desire.

We then stopped at the Mediterraneon Grill.  Dede tells me it was good.  I was less of a fan but left full.  We then walked to Spindler Confections.  Dede did not need to convince me that this was a delightful place with great product!

We had decided to go to the Lowell National Historical Park.  We only had 70 minutes and need much more time so we will come back, but I will share a little.  The National Park service has restored and have working mill equipment which you can see in the picture to the left.  The model below shows a factory without walls.  Basically a bale of cotton would enter in the bottom of the factory where it was carded, spun, with thread created and then turned into cloth.  Obviously there are a few more steps than this.  Lowell MA, became the leading center on the East Coast for the manufacture of cloth.  The story is fascinating.  A group wanted to get into the business and did so by building a factory in Waltham MA.  This is close to the temple and where we go to Costco.  However the river there had only a three foot drop and so they could only build one factory.  They searched for an acceptable site to built a factory town and decided on Lowell which was at the time named East Chelmsford.  Mr Lowell actually went to Britain and toured textile factories and was able to memorize how the machinery 

worked so that he could bring that knowledge back to the USA.  (The USA was  renowned for stealing technology from Britain to get ourselves started.). 

The location chosen had a 30 foot drop in elevation so they built canals along which to build factories.  They outfitted the factories and added good old Yankee ingenuity to what they saw in Britain to create a one stop factory to turn raw cotton into fabric.  They also came up with the idea of employing woman to run the factories.  They would bring in the woman and have them stay in boarding homes the factory owned that had a matron and promised the woman safety and fair wages.  Thus there were many boarding houses (looked like row houses) with about 25 women to a home with their caretaker and matron.  Each factory would have 1000's of workers.  Before competition became more keen the owners were making great profits and the woman were paid well.  However as competition grew, wages were cut and rent for lodging increased.  After several strikes, the owners began importing workers, first the poor Irish and then the poor French Canadians who would work cheaper.  Finally after water power became less important with the advent of steam power, the mills began to move south for cheaper labor, land and taxes.  It is a typical story of capitalism at its best and worst.  At its best as it provided many people with an opportunity for freedom and prosperity.  At its worst when lowering profits caused owners to reduce wages and benefits.  The mills began shutting down after WWII.  Lowell went from a small farming community in the 1830's to a large industrial cities by the end of the century into the 1930's.  At one point there was over one mile of factories along the canals which provided power.  When the mills shut down, the city was left impoverished.  However it is now climbing back.  There is a University with 18,000 students.  New industry is coming in.  They have converted many of the factories into apartments and other businesses.  There is a long way to go, but there is progress.  We will return again.  Most of the exhibits are shut down, but will open again in mid-April.  We did not even have enough time to really go through the building that was open.  May I say the world away from Pocatello, ID is fascinating and God has brought us here where we can serve, but still have time to learn and grow.

On the way out of Lowell we found an ice cream shop that was open.  Most close for the winter season.  We had to stop.  This place was amazing with 10 windows for ordering. although only two were operating last night.  The ice cream was home made.  I told Dede I wanted a large and so she got one also.  Big mistake, it was like a pint of ice cream.  I still feel like a bloated cow.  However it was so good that we could not stop eating.  Dede had Almond Joy which was good (I sampled a lot) and I had chocolate mint.

30-March-2023-Thursday

Spent several hours working on my report.  The more I write and learn, the more I realize I do not know and so I need to study and write more.  Unfortunately this is going to take time and so you will hear this again.  Dede is working on a sewing project.  Today is granddaughter Lyndee's birthday and so we had the opportunity to watch her open her birthday gifts.  She is such a delightful child and filled with joy so it was fun to watch her open every present.  Technology is so great.  I am glad we can serve when we can use FaceTime.  

The Larsen (Danielle's) family arrived in Nampa Monday morning of this week.  They are moving to the Boise Valley (again) from Colorado Springs.  Swires Coke had a large reorganization and Eric was put over sales for all of Idaho and will be based out of the Meridian office and will have Pocatello as one of his cities.  Their first move from Pocatello was to Boise where Eric became a Area Sales Manager, but due to interesting circumstances ended up running the sales center for a short period before getting his own sales center in Sierra Vista, AZ and then moving up to a larger sales center in Colorado Springs.  Swires Coke has been good to Eric, but Eric has been hard working and loyal to Swires and so it has been a symbiotic relationship.  They found out about the move to Boise just before Christmas.  Danielle and the kids will remain in Colorado Springs until the end of the school year as there are classes that will not transfer to Nampa and Danielle has a job playing the piano for choir at the Middle School where Lyndee attends.  The Lord has truly blessed them, but it has been hard.  Eric has been serving as Bishop and it was hard for him to be released and everyone will leave behind another set of dear friends.  However in a slow housing market, they were able to sell their home in Colorado Springs and find a brand new home in Nampa which the company wanted to move off the books and so they were not homeless.  They closed on the home about a month ago and their stuff arrived earlier this month and then they took spring break and came to their new home to unpack and set it up.  Eric will continue to live there while Danielle and the kids live in a AirB&B in Colorado Springs until the end of the school year.  They will then move to Nampa, be there 3 days before they come out to visit us in VT.  It has been so fun to see the miracles that God has provided for this good family as they have made this move.  One last miracle.  Danielle contacted the WebPage owner for their new ward to get contact information so that Hailey and Lyndee would be able to participate in camp this summer.  One of them contacted her back to tell her, she had been in Danielle's ward when they lived in Meridian before.  They are all set up for the summer.  God is so good.

Only one visitor today, a family of four on a tight schedule.  Apparently they plan as tightly as my family when on vacation.  Good for them, sad for us as we love to visit with people.  It was a bright sunny but windy and cold day.  We are now back home and Dede is cooking a skillet dinner while I do the blog.  After dinner, I will return to work on the report.  

31-March-2023-Friday

The month is over and with just a little irony we look forward to General Conference on April Fool's Day. I suppose the fools are those who do not listen to the Lord's prophets, seers and revelators, along with a number of others who will participate in the conference. 

We had a great day at the site.  We were visited by 9 visitors in three groups  with 7 additioanl missionaries who have visited us in the past.  It is fun to meet the missionaries and feel a small part with them.  The first two groups who came in were pressed for time and thus received shortened tours.  Nevertheless, we felt honored to have them come in a spend their precious time with us.  It was not that they did not want to be there, just that they were pressed with other deadlines.  The final group was a family of 5, with 3 adorable children, ages 1, 4, and 7.  I cannot say enough for the story-telling capability of Dede.  While I spoke the kids were running around like wild.  She had much better control over their attention than I.  I was blessed during the last story about the monument to sit on the coach and play with the 1-year boy.  He was delightful and we played with his sister's boots while the family learned about the monument.  I felt that I could not have been of any greater service than to allow the young parents who are from Vernal Utah, but live in Maine while he finishes a medical degree, to be able to focus on Dede's message to them. I took this picture as a token that spring is returning to Vermont even though it is now snowing.  Tomorrow we will have rain to melt whatever new snow we receive.  I am not complaining.  We had a very nice Vermont winter, but it was mild according to the locals.  Meanwhile loved ones in Idaho and Utah have had a more severe winter.  I know we need the snow to end the drought, but sometimes blessings can seem tedious.  

Sister Ewer asked Dede to spearhead a meeting with the senior missionaries from the Manchester, NH mission.  We will invite them to visit the site and feed them dinner and provide them a tour or information about the site.  This should be fun for our missionaries as well as for the missionaries who serve around us.  Some of these have received tours in the past, but the experience should be grand.

We are reminded that serving the Lord is never easy.  Our missionaries sacrifice to come and be away from their families.  With that sacrifice, they still have physical bodies which limit what they may want to accomplish on their mission.  Families at home go through struggles.  At home, there are those who do not embrace the gospel, those with sickness and one couple has gone home for a funeral since Dede and I arrived.  The Ewers are now experiencing medical trials in their family.  It is so heart-wrenching to be so far away.  Knowing that being by their side may not change anything with the illness, but may be a comfort to loved-ones and balancing this with the responsibilities that come with a mission call.  I pray for all of our senior missionaries and all missionaries serving throughout the world.  I know that God blesses us beyond any losses we may endure.  But I also know that those blessings can seem so far away during the trial of faith each of us faces.

After our shift, I took Dede to see a waterfall/cascade on Faye Brook which is caused by a mill dam and the foundations of that dam.  I noticed it while walking last night because the water is running high with spring run-off and it was noticeable behind the trees.  A few pictures are in order.  One sees the dam and the cascade coming down the dam.  The foundations which would have also been part of the water ways and a sign on the building above the dam.  Whether or not this was original to the mill is not certain, but the word mill is on the sign.

I love this picture.  One can see a pole coming out of the water in the run with a pulley belt at the top.  The pole was most likely attached to a small water turbine and provided power to the mill above the water.  The rod and wheel would spin and then other leather belts could be taken off the belt wheel and used to power pieces of equipment in the mill.

We then drove to the Goodrich Maple Farm owned by members of the church.  We were disappointed to find they were not cooking as yesterday was too cold.  A worker was there who asked us if we wanted to tour but we declined.  However we went over to the loading shed which had 2 8000 gallon tanks to store sap.  As we were coming out a truck pulled in so we decided to watch the driver unload.  She was Michelle, the owner's daughter and she talked to us and then she got her mom.  Because the operation was not functioning, we had a long visit with her.  She is a "spark plug" and is involved in family search in the stake.  Her energy and ideas are unlimited.  She told us of her conversion and work she has done in the church.  She then shared stories of taking her mom's name through the temple and a story of how God has blessed them to avoid danger.  We still learned a great deal about sugaring (creating syrup or sugar from maple sap) but were blessed to learn a great deal more.  God is so good to us missionaries.  This is a great example of blessing us so much more than we sacrifice.

1-April-2023-Saturday

April Fool's day, conference Saturday, and Lazarus Saturday all on one day.  The temperature reached 58F and was great.  We had a couple and a family of 4 come into the site and were delighted to give them tours.  They kindly came in between sessions of conference.  How kind!

After shift we had a wonderful meal of pork chops and gravy.  Life I so hard on this missionary.  We then settled in to watch the Saturday night session of conference.  Surprised it ended at one hour and did not have an apostle as a speaker.  Guessing Elder Holland was supposed to be the last speaker, but that got derailed when he got covid.  We will miss his speech.  Hopefully the church prints it with conference so we have it.

Conference was great and for the most part we heard all the Saturday talks.  What a blessing!  I do look forward to reviewing them all.