Week 48 - Hegsted Mission

 18-June-2023 - Sunday

It is Father's Day.  For years, we would have stake conference on Father's Day and thus did not need to attend a meeting and hear about fathers and feel inadequate as a father.  Since, I became a father shortly after we married I never felt the pain of sitting in the meeting wishing I were a father.  A tender mercy not shared by all.  I think of the years Jon waited for the Father's Day with Kal.  I am so grateful for both my lack of pain and the pure joy Jon feels of finally being a father.

I have reflected upon my father and how I wish he were alive to wish a Happy Father's Day.  It is not until the person is gone that we realize how much they impact our life and that is so true for my father.  He was such an ordinary person who did such amazing things for his son.  Mostly he just cared about me and involved me in his life and shared with me his testimony.  I have often prayed, that my mom and dad can know that I want to repent of my many years of taking both for granted and thinking them just ordinary folks, when they were actually the two people chosen to bless my life and give me everything I needed to have a wonderful life that revolves around the gospel.  I have contemplated their callings and their dedication to their callings.  I am sure they made mistakes, but they were always there and such a large portion of success is being there every day when you are supposed to be there.  I do not remember a time when mom and dad were not there for me.  I remember times when I did not allow them to be there when I really needed them, but that was my issue and not theirs.  God gave me parents, so it would be super easy to believe in the God, whom I never see, but to Whom I pray every day and Who touches my life just like my parents did.  How inadequate are words when describing my parents.  God bless them in the mission they are now doing and the good they are doing to the people on the other side of the veil.

Church was great.  I will never cease to be amazed by the Rutland Branch.  May God bless them for being so kind to us and for the Spirit we feel there every week.  No bears or exotic animals were seen  today as we had to rush back for the first shift

The day started slow, but was eventful.  I had a couple who were just fun.  The wife was so prepared reading a book on places to stop and what to see.  What she missed is that something 50 miles away in New England can take 2 hours to reach.  So she will not see everything, but we had fun talking about what they might see in their time here and in the next two days going to Palmyra and the Priesthood Restoration site.

Dede had the most fantastic group.  A family from Mass with two friends.  He is the Spanish Branch President in his stake and they brought two members who spoke no English and his wife and two sons spoke very little English.  He spoke a little English, but the rest did not so he was the translator.  So Dede slowed way down giving a sentence and letting him translate to Spanish for the others.  She said the Spirit was so strong and when I saw her she was in tears.  I went with her down to the foundations since the Buswell's had arrived and I talked a little, but the Spirit was directing Dede in what to say and so I just shut up and listened to her.  What a wonderful church we have.  So diverse.  We often see many multi-generational families from the West come to the site.  But we see these first or second generation families from different countries who are making the church so powerful.  I loved the spirit with which Dede conducted this tour and watching the Spirit take over her so she could become a power teacher to these wonderful saints.  

I was speaking to President Ewer right before we left and postulated;  Church growth in Europe is stagnant except among the refugees that have come.  The US missionary work seems to be slowing down as well as in Europe.  Could it be that the refugees to America will once again be the focus of missionary work in the USA and allow the church to see an explosion of growth in the USA as well as Europe?

19-June-2023-Monday

Danielle's family sent me two ties for Father's Day, so the day started great, because I had a brand new tie to wear to the site.  We had excellent meetings this morning.  However, I fear that Elder Buswell and I are in competition to see how many times we can get President Ewer away from his agenda.  He plans so well and we are at times less than helpful although our discussion are usually good about teaching and bringing in the spirit as we teach.  We still got done before 10 so we would be ready for the tour that was scheduled at that time.  Same tour as a week before, and they went to the Rauner library before coming to our site, so they did not arrive until 1 pm.  About 11:40 (after having no one else come in) they let us know they would be here at 1, so Dede and I were able to get home and eat lunch and then get back to the site.  As might be expected, the moment we left, it got busy.  We had sat around without a guest up to the time we left.  Oh well.  We got back and the tour went well.  We then had just two couples after the tour.  It was such a gorgeous day, the entire world should be beating a path to the site, but it was not to be.

With our spare time, I started working on a list of people who assisted Junius on the monument.  I would like to see if I can find out more about some of these key people who made it possible for us to have the site, even though they were not members of the church.  Kind of interesting and our list is very vague so it will not be easy to find birthdates etc. for these people so I can really know I have them identified.

Dede is heading over to Buswell's to help her sew a dress for charity.  I will stay home and work on my review.  Both will be great fun, but I get the better deal.

20-June-2023-Tuesday

Definitely an interesting day.  We had the first shift and we were busy all four hours.  We had a mother with three children come in early whom Dede met at the Boston Children's museum.  She home schools and the boys were great.  This was followed with a family of 6 with three children with disabilities.  My heart goes out to the family, but I admire the courage with which they move forward and try to involve their children.  It was just a great morning as we had a great couple from Provo and then a single man who spent a great deal of time with Dede.  It is always good to work at the site, but it is better when it is busy.

After work, we decided to to go Saint-Gaudens National Park in NH.  Saint-Gauden was a famous American Sculptor whose home and workshops were in Cornish, NH.  The site is now a National Park and run by the park service.  It was a great visit to learn about this man and see some of his art.  (Replicas we shown at the park as the originals are in other cities.). On the way home we stopped at a covered bridge.  NH numbers there covered bridges and this was #23.  We also stopped at an old mill/power plant on "Blow the Man Town River" which is part of the Saint-Gauden park.  All in all a great time.  And obviously deserves pictures.  There was also a great waterfall.

Next the power plant.  Dede has the pictures of the covered bridge.  It was a multi-king post and I thought the bridge was in poor repair compared to most Vermont bridges that are still being used.  Along with the power plant an old bridge next to the power plant.

Since we had to drive through Lebanon, we stopped and shopped and got gas so we would be ready to go to Boston tomorrow.  Then home to warm up dinner.  I had no more than got my sloppy Joe warmed up, then we received a phone call from President Ewer about a guest who got lost on Patriarch Hill.  He had called President and President misunderstood the road, but I got a hold of him to get clarification on his location.  He was about 12 minutes from our apartment, so we picked him up and took him back to his car.  He would have been two hours walking as the roads come down to the river and then along the river and back up a total of about 8 miles.  Rather exciting, but President Ewer thought it was all said and done in about 25 minutes so not too traumatic for the young man.  He explained exactly where he went and so I could retrace his steps.  There is a farm above Patriarch Hill, I was not sure how to reach it, but I now know exactly how to get there and will go back up there some day to trace out ways to get to the site.  Always fun and exciting.  Glad we know the back roads so we had an idea how to get him.  Having GPS also helps since he could use GPS to locate the road and we could use it to find him.

21-June-2023-Wednesday. - PDAY

What could be better than a PDAY?  Spending a PDAY with a glorious companion!  We arose early and headed to the Boston Temple to do an Endowment and Sealing Session.  I would like to say that I was 100% there for the endowment session, but some days after driving 2.5 hours and then running in and sitting in a darkened room is just hard.  That having been said, I was able to receive an impression that was totally new to me and will slosh around in my half empty brain for some time.  I also had an impression that I shared with Dede and will forget as quickly as I can, because that idea has no merit and will not ever help me beyond getting an eye-roll from Dede when I shared it with her in the Celestial Room.  

We packed a lunch and left immediately from the temple to go back to Lowell Mass and the National Park centered around the industrial revolution and the role Lowell played as a center for cotton fabric manufacture.   We had visited for 30 minutes one day coming home from the temple, but today we had 3 hours.  I really like this place.  There is so much history as the mills were around for a little over 100 years.  This makes it very difficult to interpret because over 100 years conditions change, the people change, the quality of life changes etc.  During our first visit, we had a great docent, but not enough time.  He helped me realize that you can only give snippets of what it was like at a certain period.  For example, when the planned-mill concept was first envisioned, they built the mills and decided to invite single women to leave the farms and come and work at the factories, thinking people would stay a year to five years and leave.  And at first they were able to pay well as they were technologically more advanced than any other fabric mills.  However, part of their plan was to sell equipment to others and soon, they created competition which drove down prices and they cut pay.  Thus the first period is different than 20 years later and then different than later years when the mills were filled with migrant workers who came to America and were willing to work cheaply to get a start.  Today when you look at the history, it will be interpreted with the background of poor wages.  At times this was true.  However during many periods of time, people were starving on their farms or in Europe or somewhere else in the world and the jobs were a God-send.  Eventually Lowell's mills lost the technological advantage when people began to use steam power rather than water power and could move mills first to the south where labor was cheaper and more abundant and at the same time build more efficient mills.  Eventually the cotton cloth industry moved overseas for the same reasons.  Thus another chapter of Lowell was its time as an empty city without industry and the only export was children who left to find jobs.  I love history, but realize that it is way too complex for today's world that wants a 30 second explanation to make a snap judgment so we can move on.  Regardless, I am grateful that the National Parks system has provided us with this view into he past.

Interesting, I was researching the cost of money in 1805 and the amount paid for labor and ran across an article about women wages in New England and the impact these mills had on the over-all wages for women in New England.  Since many women went to the mills the supply of woman to do house-hold work dropped, while the demand remained the same causing the wages to rise.  Again, it becomes so difficult to interpret history.  One can talk about wages and working conditions at a certain time in Lowell and not see the impact the factories had on all of New England lifting wages for everyone.

The National Park is spread around town with several fun sites and places for pictures that bring you back to the past.  I did not do a great job of taking pictures.  Took nothing at the boarding house.  To encourage families to send their daughters they would put them in boarding houses (for which they paid rent) and insure they went to church on Sunday.  We toured one restored boarding house which was part of a block house.  We did a tour of a restored mill building.  As well as just going around the town.  There are like 7 miles of canals in Lowell which were used for transportation, but mostly to supply water power to the mills.  At one time they built locomotives in Lowell.  The middle picture is of a canal with a lock in the background.  The statue is of men building the canals.  Then we have the church built for these women as well as models of the mill.  I should have a dozen more pictures, but I do not.

22-June-2023-Thursday

Another fine day.  Wonderful weather, but I asked to stay home so I could work on the review instead of going out.  This is probably way selfish of me and so I need to find a way to work on the review without cutting into time when we could be exploring or doing things Dede would enjoy.  If I would just get my lazy self out of bed earlier, I could solve this problem.  The spirit is willing, but the pillow tends to be overpowering.  Regardless, sunny days are a premium and I should go out with Dede on nice days and stay and work when it is rainy.

We had a slower day today, but still had 10 people.  We had grandparents who are driving their granddaughter across the nation to see historic sites, both church and secular.  They wanted a short tour.  We then had a family from Ogden who also wanted a short tour as they were headed to Maine.  However, sometimes the site just works on folks.  They stayed longer than they first indicated and did enjoy going down below on the golf cart and seeing behinds the scenes of all the trees that one experiences as one goes through the New England area.  I was glad I could  take them.  Then right before 6 pm, two young people came in.  They just wanted to know about Joseph Smith.  I also believe from their questions that they wanted to know about the FLDS church and polygamy and people who do not allow their children to go to the doctor etc.  We told them about Joseph and about the church.  We tried to be factual and nonjudgmental.  They appeared to have no concept of spirituality or religion and so it was hard to connect with them.  I am not sure they believed there was a difference between our church and the FLDS, especially since we were not aggressively protesting against them or against the play Book of Mormon.  They claimed the church was dumb not to protest any misinformation going out against us.   That seems to be the trend today.  If you have a belief, then defend it as the one and only way regardless of the cost.  I think they were disappointed in the visit as we were not combative and we just tried to patently answer questions.  I do not think they would have appreciated President Nelson's last conference address about being peace makers.  And so the day ended but not without  pictures to post.  Danielle's family gave me two new ties for Father's Day so I wore one today and I love the gleam on the monument and how it came across in the photo.

23-June-20230-Friday

A truly busy day.  We had the first shift today, but I actually got up early enough to work on my review this morning.  I need to do this more as morning is when I am the most alert and I felt like I accomplished more in that hour than I often do in several.  We were slow at the site for the first hour or so and then we had a wonderful stream of people come in.  Mostly smaller groups.  The first two couples had made the site their destination for the day and so it was fun to show them everything possible.  One of those couples were still talking to us at 2 pm when we had shift change.  Before they arrived I filled up the golf cart with gas and actually was able to walk a bit which I have not done lately due to heat and the number of people who have come in.  

At the end of our shift, we had the Buswells and Ewers for a few minutes so we enjoyed those minutes, but had to leave at 2:30 and get ourselves home.  Dede had reserved tickets for an sunset boat tour of three lighthouses near Portsmouth out of Rye Beach.  It was fun, especially since it was a beautiful day and we hit the last two lighthouses near sunset.  Our narrator has written books about lighthouses in New England and is thus a great enthusiast of them.  He was very informative about their histories as well as their present state.  Even though all three lighthouses are used by the Coast Guard, much of the repair work have fallen to groups such as his who raise money and do repairs.  It was also interesting to note that many of the light houses have been damaged by huge storms.  It would be hard to fathom waves breaking over the tops of these light houses, but apparently it happens.  The life of a light house keeper would have been hard.  At our last light house, he said the keepers who came in 1942 had been keeping other light houses for many years, but this was the first light house with electricity.  Not exactly a posh job.

Naturally we need pictures and I took so many and I do not have Dede's pictures so I will use only mine.  Good news you get her pretty face and not mine.

24-June-2023-Saturday

Rather hard to awaken this morning, as I went to bed about 12:30 last night.  But what fun Dede and I had and what beautiful sites as witnessed by the pictures above.  We had traded the Buswells and thus had the morning shift and we had three groups come in very early and then we had an hour break.  We had such a good time with the 10 people and when it started to rain we thought it was over for the day.  Then the fun began as people began coming in and at 1:45 Dede was leading a group of 23 from a single family consisting of five siblings.  I had a group of three non members who had many questions about polygamy which I answered.  The Buswells showed up and she was leading another large family of 15 people.  These were not tours with buses, so the parking lot was full.  I felt bad because there was the kindest couple that just got lost in all the other people.  They had been to the site before and were heading for their third mission.  So sorry.  I was allowed to work with Dede's group toward the end and we talked them into walking below (with all of the kids riding in the golf cart) to see the foundations etc.  They were so fun.  We finally left the site an 90 minutes late, but it would be hard to imagine having more fun.  Serving can be so delightful.

We close another week.  Dede has run into Lebanon to shop and I am writing and will edit this blog as well as last week's blog so we can get both out.  The large family had an institute teacher from Pocatello that knew President Campbell, who seems to know everyone.  The instructor and another in the group spoke of a tradition of dipping you head in the water when you crossed a stream.  Not my idea of fun, but the family enjoyed it.