Hegsted Mission

  11-June-2023-Sunday It was Branch Conference today and to allow the stake to hold two conferences in one day, they moved up the block by 1 hour.  Poor us, had to leave by 7:30!  I almost felt like I was pre-mission when I went to leadership meetings early in the morning.  (I think 6:30).  Anyway the meetings were good.  I really like the Stake President.   On the way to church, a black bear cub ran across the road.  This was the first bear siting for us in Vermont.  I guess that was the blessing for leaving an hour early. After church, since we had the second shift, we took a longer way home on highways we have not traveled before.  We saw two waterfalls and revisited a coverage bridge, I will put up pictures below.  The covered bridge has the best example of no mortar rock work in the state connected to a bridge.  The waterfalls were not spectacular, but we were glad we went.   We were on our way home on highway 106 whe...

  4-June-2023-Sunday It is hard to describe the pleasure of attending church in the Rutland Branch of Vermont.  The people are so kind to Dede and I and we feel as much a part of the Branch as is possible without being able to attend many activities.  We had the best Fast and Testimonial Meeting.  All pure born testimonies rather than sermons someone felt their neighbors needed.  How powerful, despite the organ player. We had the first shift and after a slow start, 10 men came into the site together.  That is rather odd.  They claimed to be friends from W. Lebanon.  There was one inactive member in the group, who wanted to answer questions from his friends and did so well.  We did a short overview having been given a deadline of one hour.  In the restoration room it turned into a free-for-all question period.  I have not had so much fun in a long time.  Some were skeptical while others interested in knowing what we believed, bu...