Week 64 - Hegsted's Mission

  15-October-2023-Sunday

I look forward to a Sunday, when I do not wake up wishing I could go back to sleep.  However, we had a great day.  The ride to Rutland was nice and not as heavy with traffic as last week.  I expect the number of people coming to Vermont has slowed down.  Did okay playing the organ and for primary.  We are ready for the program next week.

We ate on the way back and were at the site by 1 pm.  The bus had come and gone and the Hoopes had everything under control, so we did not take over until 3 pm.  We stayed busy until 5:30 and then it died off.  Meanwhile Buswell's had several friends over for dinner and it was nice to be able to cover for them so they did not need to worry.

There were times when the theatre had 25 people in it as we would give the monument portion to numerous groups together and then split them back up.  Had a cute family of 6.  The little 5-year old gave most of the leg story.  That was tender.  Love parents who give their kids the opportunity to learn about the scriptures and church history through church videos.  

Sister Buswell thinks this week will continue busy.  I am not sure.  I would guess half of what we had this week, but this week was huge.  We will see.  Better for her to be right.

Had wonderful left-overs for dinner.  Life is as good as it gets.

16-October-2023-Monday

What a wonderful start to the day.  Before leaving, we were able to FaceTime with the Larsen's and watch Hailey open presents on her 16th birthday.  I do not know how she got so old!  She is such a beautiful young lady.  I am so proud of her and especially proud of her mom and dad for raising such a beautiful girl.  She does remind me of Danielle.

Good meetings this morning.  I had told Dede I would go mow lawns at camp Joseph as I had told Elder Arbon I would do so.  We got home and got a call that our new dryer was ready to be delivered, but they could not find us.  I went and found them and by 10:30 we had our new dryer installed.  Amazing!  We had just walked in the door from our meeting and I was still around.  Sometimes the Lord blesses us with the best tender mercies.  It changes my life when I can see the tender mercies of God in my life.  I am so grateful.

The first tour I did today was for a Spanish group.  One man, born in the USA, was bilingual.  He seemed to have both a Spanish and English accent and was amazing.  I would give a line and he would repeat to the member of his branch and family.  He said they have 80 members and need 120 attending to become a ward.  His wife and two brothers with their wives were there as well as a nonmember.  The members had all joined the church in South America and had heard of church history, but had never visited a history site.  Good for him and great for them.  I am envisioning Spanish speaking branches across the USA in this generation as many wonderful people join the church.  They will learn English and become members of English speaking wards, but with the ability to continue to gather in these Spanish speaking people who are humble enough to join the church.  Maybe I am wrong, but it is so easy to envision it when I work with Spanish and Portuguese speaking folks.  

We had a tour bus at 4:30.  They were late, but not panicked and we had a great tour with them.  This will be our last tour for 2023.  There is one Wednesday, but we will be at the temple.  It was a busy day, but a little slower than last Monday if you take out the tour bus. With the falling of the leaves, things will change.  Yes we have light season ahead of us and that is fun, but when it is over, we will be near the end of the Buswell's mission.  Just 3-4 more months before they go home and we will both feel like we have lost good friends.  God bless them for enriching our lives.

Dede sent a text to Shon Hopkins who took us to Israel to see how his friends in Israel are doing.  He was hoping to go to Israel at the end of December.  To his knowledge his friends, some of whom we met are doing okay.  Such a mess.  Yes it is all foretold, but when you can picture people you met and buildings you entered affected by the conflict, it becomes very real and extremely sad.

17-October-2023-Tuesday

We were not overwhelmed this morning at the site, but we were busy, not allowing us to sit down nor to work together, but for the most part just doing one or two small groups at a time.  I think I am sensing an end, but it will probably be next week.  With that in mind, I will need to be sure that I have things to do next week.  I have a few easy places I need to find to get GPS coordinates.  I can also work on the document.  Then next Tuesday if it is not raining, I need to spend an afternoon walking one last area of the Solomon Mack boundaries so I can finish writing that section.

This morning in prayer, it occurred to me, rather than express disappointment in the lack of vibrant colors to tell people that this year the colors are muted with many more browns and yellows.  I told that to a group and the woman looked at me and said, yes I think I prefer that.  

Tomorrow we go to the temple.  Perhaps there will be some color in that region for us to see.

18-October-2023-Wednesday. PDAY

The last few miles to the temple were incredible.  Google Maps kept trying to find a way amidst crashes and other slowdowns.  We made it, but I must admit I am glad I do not live in Boston and need to fight the traffic daily.  The session had almost a full compliment of women.  President and Sister LaPierre, the temple president and matron were in attendance.  We have taken them through the visitors' center twice and they are just delightful.  We had 8 people in the sealing session.  We had a new (for us) sealer and really enjoyed the Spirit he brought.

We had hoped to take a 2.5 hour freedom trail tour, however I blew it.  Thought I could sign up this morning, but that was not allowed.  So instead we decided to come home through Gilsum NH where Lucy Mack (Smith) was born and her father and brother are buried.  The Smith family had done some work there putting in a sign about Lucy's birthplace.  Also the Solomon Mack Jr headstone has been fixed.  However the Solomon Mack headstone was gone.  Hopefully they are working on that.  In front of the vault, they had put in three stone benches.  This is in back of the Mack graves.  Will need to go back once more to see it when the Solomon Mack head stone is finished.  You can see pictures from the cemetery below.  The first shows the missing Solomon Mack headstone, the second the benches in front of the vault and the third the repaired Solomon Mack Jr headstone.  Last time we were there, the top of this headstone was laying on the ground and they have put steel along the sides to repair the stone.

The fall colors in Mass were peaking out and Dede got some nice pictures.  The further north we went, the more past peak they were.  Around Sharon, for the most part, they turned brown and fell.  We had few reds and almost no orange colors.  I do not think it rained as much down south and so they got better colors.  It can be absolutely amazing.  However, the muted colors around here are also nice.  The first three pictures are from a pond near Gilsum.  There was not any wind and the reflections are wonderful.  The other are taken from the car.  There is also a picture of the sign in the Gilsum Cemetery (actually called Centennial) talking about Lucy's birthplace which would have been across the road from the cemetery on private land.

19-October-2023-Thursday

Today we went to VINs Nature Center in Quechee VT.  I feel dumb that we have not gone to VIN earlier.  It was a delightful place to visit.  Wendi in the branch told Dede she should go.  In the last few weeks I spoke to several groups who had been there and loved it.  Wendi suggested we get the year pass which we did, so we can back for the rest of the time we are here.  It is open year round.  They specialize in birds of prey, but we also watched a demonstration on turtles.  They have a tree walk, which is an elevated platform built using yellow pine telephone poles out into the canopy of trees.  At the highest point one is 100 feet high among the trees.  It was interesting as the leaves are falling so the view is better.  It will be interesting to see it during stick season and then again in the spring with the leaves back.  

They had a raptor show.  They brought out a sparrow talk and a barn owl.  Barn owls are beautiful.  They then had a Cooper's hawk fly just above the crowd.  We had an elementary school group and they were impressed.  I was taking pictures with my camera held up in front of me and the hawk flew over so close that she hit my camera with her wing.  Since I was taking a live shot you can see her fly basically right into the lens of the camera.  Good fun.  Glad she did not take my camera!

VINs is only 17 minutes away from our apartment, so we should be able to return numerous times when we need a short break.  There are trails and other exhibits.  It will be fun to explore further and just take time to watch.

We had a nice steady afternoon with about 25 people total.  They had a few more this morning.  We are still seeing good numbers, but we are tailing off.  One family was fun.  Their 20 year daughter wanted to go to Salem and was wearing the witches' hat she had bought there.  They were kind people from AZ.  We had two couples, also from AZ, who just enjoyed everything we had to say.  They were older and very kind.  Finally an interesting couple.  She a member and he not and they are not married.  He grew up in New England and was enjoying everything local here.  No interest in the church, but he loves history.  This seems to be a common theme.

By 6 pm it was dark.  We will change to 5 pm (Google already has this time) this Sunday.  The fall season is winding up.  

Pictures from VINs and of the day.  Check out the third picture of the hawk that hit my camera.

20-October-2023-Friday

We got home very late last night and so I am writing the next afternoon.  However what a fun day to describe.  We worked the morning shift and were steady all morning.  Enjoyed the day with the people who came in.  It was nice to have the time with people and to have the opportunity to serve them.  I do not remember any specific people.

After our shift, we went with the Buswell's to hike in Barre, specifically to hike the Grand Lookout Trail.  It had been rainy all day, but the rain nearly stopped by the time we started to hike.  It was amazing how beautiful it was there.  The colors have been muted this year, but it was better than expected.  The trail up is nice and steady and when we got to the top, the color was spectacular.  It was fun to show Buswell's the Marr and Gordon Quarry where 4 of the 5 parts of the monument pieces were extracted.  Such fun to think that the parts of the monument had gone right down the trail (former railroad tracks) to be taken down to the granite sheds.  I will include pictures from our trek.

After hiking we ate at the Firehouse Restaurant.  We had been there before.  They converted an old Fire Station into a restaurant.  For Halloween, they added a number of Halloween figures.  The food was okay and we enjoyed the atmosphere.  

We were very full, but there was a concert at the opera house and we decided to attend.  It was a Gaelic woman vocalist with a small band.  I have never been to a Gaelic concert.  Did not understand the words, with the exception of one song which she sang (in English) for the Disney movie Brave.  Regardless, I thought the performance was great.  The musicians did very well.  She played three or four different tin whistles and her encore number included her playing bagpipes.  

21-October-2023-Saturday

We had the morning shift.  Very unusual, but Hoope's have a son visiting and Buswell's had an appointment this morning so we switched.  The first visitor just wanted to look.  He had been a member.  Makes one wonder what brought him to the site.  Surely God had a purpose and I hope that purpose was fulfilled.  At one point Dede had 15 in a group, so we stayed busy.  Still getting families as it is fall break in Utah.  Her group of 15 were 1/2 children under 8.  She does so well with such groups and they asked so many questions. 

After our shift, we went to Siloway Farms where they do maple syrup and sell creamees.  They will close down their creamees soon and we wanted to get one before the year ended.  I am still stuffed.  It is a great visit.  The people are all so friendly and want to share their knowledge.  The piles of wood are amazing in size.  They are one of the larger producers who still use wood.  Last year we watched the daughter running the ovens which includes stoking the fires.  She is single and drop-dead pretty.  She also appeared to be very strong, but very kind.  It was fun to make the visit.  I love watching grandma.  The grandkids are all running around and she just lets them be with her while she share treats with them.  They work hard, but they seem very close as a family.