Week 45. - Hegsted Mission

 28-May-2023-Sunday

I awoke feeling slightly better which was good.  I played the organ and then taught Priesthood Meeting.  I did okay on the organ, but could tell I was not fully together.  However, when I taught Priesthood, I felt the Spirit directing me and I thought that went well.  Hurrah for praying before hand and having the Spirit teach instead of boring Dan Hegsted.

We got home in time for me to take a 45 minute nap and I awoke from that nap feeling as well as I have in several days.  This led to a great day at the site.  It was really busy when we arrived at 3:00 pm.  I took a family of 8 who had walked up to the monument.  They were so delightful.  We sat in the shade of the monument to learn about it and then went inside to learn more.  At the restoration board they were so much fun.  This was their first church history site and mom has been doing a great job preparing these children.  In fact they went to Tunbridge before coming to the site and plan to go into S. Lebanon.  At the end of the tour, they went down to walk Patriarch Hill.  Good for them.  They were from Emmett Idaho.

Dede did a family of 9 who had driven from Texas.  They were also great according to her especially at the restoration board.  I took them on a tour of the foundations and would have to agree.  I talked them into hiking Patriarch Hill.  They claimed they enjoyed it, but they got into ticks.  

We had several small groups and then finished with a couple who wanted to have everything and since they were the last Dede was able to give them a very long tour.  I came in and out as I was taking people below and handling some small groups.  One could not ask for kinder people and easier to lead in a tour.  What a blessing for us and they claimed for them also.  They took a picture of us at the site with the shine on the monument from behind.  Why do I care about the shine?  Joseph said he was just a rough stone rolling down a high mountain and the polishing he received was from hitting stones as he descended or having all hell break loose to knock off a corner here or there.  But he would be a polished shaft in the quiver of the All-mighty.  When I see the shine from the polished obelisk, I think that he really was that polished shaft and the image of his monument represents it so clearly.

29-May-2023. - Monday

First of all, Danielle's family landed in Boston late last night.  I did not stay up to cheer them on, but we will go see them tomorrow.  I heard their whale watching trip was cancelled.  I am not sure why, but this is the second time as it happened with Anna and now them.  Hard to give that company a 5 star rating.

We had our normal Monday morning meetings.  What a great group.  We are worried for Elder Wilcox who seems to have a bad cold in his lungs.  Hopefully that is all it becomes.  With us old missionaries, one cannot be too slow in beginning our prayers one for another.  I spent the morning gluing down rocks again.  I did well over 50 and have not finished the first (and hopefully worst span). Many of these do not rock (no pun intended) when you walk over them, but they are loose so I pulled them up and glued them down.  I might need to stop and hit the worst stones (those that rock under your feet first) and then get all the rest.  It is somewhat time consuming.  

The Buswells were swamped and we had a pleasant afternoon.  Almost always busy with people, but not overwhelmed.  We had a group of 5 where two adults spoke no English, but the other couple translated into Spanish.  Then a family of 5 that were from Brazil.  The parents spoke adequate English and we gave them time to translate.  They were sweet people.  The Spanish group were also kind, but it was hard to feel of their Spirit due to communication issues.  We also had a family of 5 (young children) from Mass. who had left the army and found work in Mass.  Long way from home, but having been in the military so long, they were used to not being by family in Montana and California.

The final two to come in were a mom and daughter.  She enters the MTC June 12th and is assigned to the Manchester NH mission, so mom and daughter were touring the mission she will soon join.  Both were delightful and I think she will be a good missionary.  Again, all I can say is God really blessed us today as He does every day.

30-May-2023-Tuesday

We worked a 2 hour shift before leaving for Boston.  We had a number of people come in and thus had a great two hours and needed to leave the Ewers with two sisters who were so fun to teach.  Perhaps the highlight for me was a lady I ran down at the monument.  She told me she was working and had little time, but she had so many questions.  She is Muslim, but a person who wants to learn.  The oddest question, she asked if we believe in Enoch and had more about him, since he was taken out of the Bible.  I showed her how to download the church library App so she could read the Book of Moses and gave her a BoM.  She seemed excited to read and to learn.  I then invited her to return when she has time.  She lives in upstate NY but travels into the area at times.  Who knows.

We were on the road by 12:30 heading to Boston to check into our hotel and from there we took the subway to find Fenway Park.  Riding on the subway in Boston is so nice.  Traffic is such a problem and parking is not only hard to find, but expensive.  We need to figure out how to use it when we come in to do the Temple.  I think it would cut down our time getting to places.  Fenway Park is so old and such a great visit.  We were given a pre-game tour and learning about the history of the Park and going down on the field to watch practice.  We also got to sit up on the Green Monster Wall.  They wanted us out so they could get people back in for the game and so we went to eat before returning for the game.  Rather a one-sided affair with Cincinnati up 8 to zip when we left.  (Actually ended up 9-8). However we did get to watch a grand slam which was fun.  Fenway is the oldest baseball park.  It is right down town and has no parking.  Arriving and leaving by subway in almost the only option.  When we left, it was difficult to fit on the subway due to the press of people..

31-May-2023-Wednesday

We slept in a little and started the day with a wonderful hotel breakfast.  Again we took the subway to catch one of the trolly tours.  The first driver was so good, while the second driver was less than desirable.  Such is life.  We stopped at the USS Constitution.  When Dede and I first toured this ship, we had a guided tour.  It was open deck (i.e. no tour guide)and so one just wandered around although crew members were there to answer questions and they have signage to help guide people.  I liked the tour and was glad I could share some things with the kids that I had learned.  Regardless there is great signage on board.

Back on the Trolly we headed to Boston Commons for lunch and then took the noon tour of the Freedom Trail.  Our guide was excellent.  His stage name was Knox who had been Secretary of the Army under Washington and fought in the Revolutionary War.  He did an excellent job, took questions and worked in the answers.  I would highly recommend him to anyone.  Years ago with Anna we had a similar experience, so I would suggest paying for a guide or at least listen on an App.

We were tired and hot after the tour, so we stopped and bought Ice Cream, which was excellent and helped cool us down before walking down to take the Tea Party Museum Tour.  There was a mishap with our City Pass tickets, but we decided it was worth it to pay for the tour and I enjoyed it for the third time.  This was my favorite part of the trip.  The tour is designed to make you feel like you are one of the 5000 people who met together to be riled up and ready to dump tea in the harbor.  They want the audience to cheer and boo with the speakers and there are two speaking parts (one liners).  I took one and sat behind Hailey who was dying of embarrassment that her Papa would be so outspoken and loud.  After my first outburst and her obvious dismay, I just became more animated.  The poor dear child will probably be scarred for life. 

I caught photos of these three rebels throwing tea into the harbor.  I hope the British authorities do not see them and prosecute them.

Danielle found a great Brazilian Restaurant and it only took 30 minutes to drive the 8 miles to get to it.  Leaving Boston at 5 pm is just not the best.  The restaurant was nice and was located in a Brazilian neighborhood in Medford.  The people were kind and we ate well before heading home, where we arrived after 10 pm.  Boston has had 350,000 Brazilians.  

1-June-2023-Thursday

Is it possible to being having too much fun.  All I know I am very tired, but would not change my time with kids and grandkids for anything.  We decided to take the family to Barre and hike the Grand Lookout Trail.  We love this hike and have now done it 4 times.  Anna went with us also and it is just fun.  However it was also somewhat laid back after the last few days and the next for the kids.

When we got home to eat, we learned that the tour busses scheduled for 9 am were to come in at 3:15 pm.  They had all kinds of fun issues.  We were glad as we had met one of the people in Boston yesterday and thought we would miss them.  Being late, they had us go through everything quickly about 15 minutes each.  I was impressed with these young people.  They had experienced a difficult experience, but were cheerful and upbeat and most important very kind in remembering to thank us for doing the tour.  Now with 110 people if 10% remembered to thank us, it was a large number of people.

Danielle's family came up after the busses left and we were able to give them a tour.  I had to stop toward the end to visit with a man at the monument who had come because in his professional scouting career he had worked with several members and wanted to send them a picture of the site.  Very kind of him.  I told him of building the monument and he was gone, so I missed little time with my family.

I had arranged to borrow the gator and then took Danielle's family up Patriarch Hill.  It is good we do not do this for groups other than our own families, but it was fun to go up with my family.  It would just not be safe to do this routinely. We then came home to eat homemade pizza and milkshakes.  It is hard to describe how wonderful it is to have family come out and visit us.  It is expensive from them and takes away from other things they might want to do, so it is truly a blessing.

2-June-2023-Friday

Last morning with the Larsen's and we made it a great one.  Other than the tears at parting one could not ask for a better day.  I took Eric up to see the place where Hyrax (his 5th? great-grandfather) was born.  We then gathered everyone up and headed to Dartmouth's Rauner library to handle the original 1830 Book of Mormon they have there.  What a special experience.  I am not sure the grandchildren appreciated it like the adults, but there are pictures so they know that they touched this precious book when the time comes that it means more

We left after eating at the KFC/Taco Bell.  We needed to get them out the door and on their way to NYC where they will spend the remainder of their vacation.  Thank you for coming Larsen's. We so appreciate your sacrifice to come and see us.  Also this is the location where the famous leg surgery was performed on Joseph Smith Jr's leg when he was 7 years old.  The story is inspiring, the chicken was not.  But I am full.  The tears of saying goodbye are now behind us, but it is so good to see the love that we feel for all of our children and grandchildren and see it so beautifully expressed in the tears of Lyndee who loves her Gram so very much.

We were back to the site by 1pm and were there only a few minutes before it was our turn to be interviewed by Elder McKay who is the Church Historian and had come with his lovely wife (what a delight she is) to tour historical sites and talk with the site leaders and missionaries.  How lucky we are to have a small mission and thus have time to not only spend 20 minutes with the two of them, but also to take them through the visitors center.  One could not ask for a more attentive pair.  We had another couple from Utah there when we started with the McKay's and so we merged the two groups together.  It turned out that they had common acquaintances which made the tour even better.  Beyond that it was a slow day, but this evening we will have dinner with all the missionaries and the McKays and then he will present to us.  I am so excited.  These are extraordinary people and I am grateful to know them.  Well at least to have met them and talked with them.  I am sure they meet so many people that we will be forgotten tomorrow when they reach Palmyra.  But they will stay in my memory for a long time.

Elder and Sister McKay were among the kindest people I have met.  One immediately feels at ease when they interview you.  We also had the opportunity to give them a tour of the site (at least the upper portion).  I had hoped to show them a shine on the monument, but the sun was too high.  However right before our 5 pm dinner, it appeared and I ran them over with the golf cart to see it.

We had a great dinner with many contributors, but with Sister Ewer doing the brunt of the labor.  Afterwards, Elder McKay talked with us for about 70 minutes.  He explained the important of church sites and their history, starting in the Old Testament.  But we also learned that the historical department's main function is to keep a record of the church.  As the church has spread throughout the world and the membership is so much greater both in numbers as well as experiences in different parts of the world, the job of keeping a history becomes ever greater.  This is his major responsibility and function.  The historical department is tasked with gathering history from around the world, not just church headquarters and keeping that record stored.  Thus as church historian is to travel much so that he can experience the history as it happens and he is on the road a great deal.

He told us many things, but this one thought really impressed me.  In 3 Nephi 23:14 it says:

And now it came to pass that when Jesus had expounded all scriptures in one, which they had written, he commanded them that they should teach the things which he had expounded unto them.

I have read this verse many times, and I have always read it thinking, it is a good thing there were prophets writing down scripture so Jesus could expound it unto them.  But Elder McKay pointed out that God will in the future expound into one all the scripture each of us writes.  This would be our own histories.  What if I leave Jesus nothing to expound to me because of my lack of a record?  I have done well on my mission.  I have done well in the past, but not for 2 decades before my present mission.  This appears to be a life time endeavor and I am grateful for that insight.

He also shared with us a thought from the last meeting with the first presidency where it was asked.  It is wonderful to meet with people who meet regularly with the first presidency of the church and thus are allowed to "see" some of what they "see."  Have I prayed to see more.  Not to lead the church, but to become more pliable in following our leaders whether they are local or general.  I could use help here also.  

3-June-2023-Saturday

A very interesting morning.  I awoke and we had no children in the house.  It was quiet and a little dreary and lonely.  But we are so glad our children came even if it is sad to see them go.  We spent the morning working around the house.  I even chased the vacuum around the first floor, while Dede did the majority of the work.  I also worked on the review.  It was great to get a few minutes to work on it again.

After a rainy morning (about 1/2 inch of sorely needed rain) we had a cool but dry afternoon.  We had three groups come in.  The first a family of 6 from Provo were delightful.  Children ages 12-21 were attentive and ready to answer questions.  Dede took them below.  I had two gentlemen come in.  One was very interested and kept asking many great questions.  His friend just seemed to be along for the ride.  He wanted only 15 minutes but we went well over 30 before his questions were exhausted.  He is from Boise and is doing a residency at VMU in Burlington.  He knows members and like many others has many questions and seeking a very safe place to ask such questions.  What a delight.

We ended the day with a family of siblings and spouses from the Palmyra area.  Their parents bought land near the site and they had come to visit.  No home built there as far as I could tell.  Probably because it was a cold day they stopped by.  One sister was full of questions and was happy to have a 30 minute tour.  They had never been to the Hill Cummorah Pageant and seemed sad to hear that it would not be held again.  I am not sure they had ever visited the historic sites there, but assumed they knew all about  the Mormons.  Again they were delightful to have visit the site.