Hegsted's Mission - Week 90

  14-April-2024-Sunday

We missed our good friends in the Rutland Branch with the general conference, stake conference, and a snow day.  Thus, it was a pleasure to return to Sacrament Meeting. Many members were absent today. Some are sick, and others traveling. They sustained three men to become Elders today. One is a young man preparing for a mission, while the other two are older gentlemen who came into the Church late in life. I was very moved when the three men were sustained and felt God's presence shining into the room. I am so impressed with the growth of that Branch. Now, if they could just quit losing people. We had a fast and testimony meeting due to the general conference last Sunday; it was a great meeting.  For Primary, Dede was the chorister, so singing was fun.

We arrived at the site. President Neilson had already given several tours and gave us two young ladies. They naturally split apart, and I took one and Dede the other. Mine had been a member, and I think she missed the Spirit and hoped to feel it again. She walked out with pamphlets to read and enjoyed learning. Her partner was less excited to learn. She was going to a concert in Canada. The performer had grown up in nearby Stratford. I could tell her some history and things to look for as they swung by before heading north to the concert. God prepared us to know Stratford just for this sister.

We had time to edit last week's blog and then had a steady, if small, stream of people for the remainder of the day. It is beautiful when we are busy. Even if we have couples who want to visit for a long time, it is time well spent.

The food smells good. I am excited to eat dinner.  

15-April-2024-Monday

It was nice not to have rain. It improves one's attitude. Our meetings were great. We came home for a shorter time than usual and then returned to be interviewed by President Neilson. What an honor to have him as our president. On our way home, we were stopped for 20 minutes for tree-cutting along VT-14. That was different, so we went home another way.

Technically, we did not have any visitors during our shift. However, Hoopes had a family when we arrived; they stayed with us for two hours. I walked down to the foundations with them and shared stories about the Macks and Smiths. They were a group that loved details, so it was fun. They ate lunch while we visited and then finished the tour. It was nice to be busy with people.

16-April-2024-Tuesday

To say today had swings of emotions would be an understatement. As I awoke, Dede asked when the money for taxes should have been pulled from the bank. We had set it up for the 13th, and then I forgot about it. After prayers, somewhat superficial, I ran to the computer. Turbo Tax wanted to update, then it decided to do it again as I nervously watched while shaving and taking medicines.  Then, horrors of horror, my taxes were not found on the computer. I looked everywhere, or so I thought. Finally, Dede came down and said, you probably did them in my area, which I had. Once I switched to her area, I found my taxes and realized I had entered the account number wrong, and thus, no withdrawal had occurred.  A call to Turbo Tax let me know it could not be changed on Turbo Tax, but I could make a direct payment to the IRS and state governments.  It will be interesting to see if I get fined for being late. Honest mistake, but it was my mistake. The issue is resolved, and who knows? It could mean a 5% late fee if they choose to do so.

The rest of the morning was more mundane, with ironing shirts and preparing for work. Both shirts were long-sleeved. I prefer ironing short-sleeved shirts. We arrived, visited with the Neilsons, and waited for 12 people from Seminaries and Institutes to come in. I saw one of our visitors sitting at the flagpole and visited with him first and then with the others as they came up from the foundations.  They will bring in several tours. On June 25th, Dede and I will do our last tour, led by Dave and Shawna, Institute directors in New England and two people we love.  If this happens as planned, it will be a great way to finish our mission. We will be fully packed and leave for home when we bid the visitors and the Neilsons farewell after our tour. 

We had the Church group for about an hour. The Spirit was very strong as we spoke with them and especially as Dede bore witness to their great work with the youth of the Church. We ate lunch and then had a family of three come in.  The parents from Shelley, ID, and their daughter, who will marry in the Pocatello Temple in early June before moving to Virginia for her husband's schooling.  We gave them the first half of the tour and turned them over to Neilsons to finish. When we arrived this morning, Dede was told that Neilson's son's mother-in-law had passed away and that it was hard to be here and not at home to support them. 

We had planned another section of waterfalls to visit. However, Dede suggested we hike Patriarch Hill instead. She did not need to twist my arm; I was delighted. We climbed the hill, and then Dede left me to hike Old Sharon Road from the foundations to Town Farm Road for the last time. This is a misnomer. The road no longer exists. I bush-whacked my way out. It would not have been bad if the fallen timber had not been so thick, but I was forced to back-track and go around obstacles.  This made it hard to stay on course. Near the end, I followed a stone wall I knew was not in the right direction. I compensated for it but came out 150 years east of the road, which I could see across the field. Ultimately, I came out in the right spot. I had made this trek earlier and wanted to do it again. I did a little better the first time and found the rock walls from the road sooner, but I still felt successful and fulfilled I had made the trek again.  You may say, wow, you are too dull to be fulfilled for a hike you performed poorly.  And you may be correct.  

I will supply pictures from the day. I love the reflection on the monument. Further pictures include rock walls along Sharon Road, Patriarch Tree, and a waterfall I named after Dede.  I had to show my lovely wife. Finally, the monument is from  Patriarch Hill.

 

17-April-2024-Wednesday.  PDAY

It is hard to believe we had a great PDAY and are home in time to write about it.  I think we arrived at the temple earlier than ever. We drove into the parking lot at 9:14.  Had we left 30 minutes earlier, we could have been in the 9 am sealing session.  However, we arrived at 9:35 last week and would have been late. The joy of going to a significant city temple! One never knows how long it will take. I understand the need to provide large cities with multiple temples. Two hours from a temple might be a few miles. We enjoyed an endowment session followed by an Initiatory session.  

We had packed a lunch, so we left the temple and headed north. As we got close to Manchester, I asked Dede if we should stop at Puritan Ice Cream.  (We went there last week with McDowells.) She countered with Granite Candy Shop in Bow. McDowells had told us about it last week. It was a great choice. Good ice cream and Easter Candy was 75% off. Pictures of the temple through a Magnolia bush and the candy store.  

Continuing northward, we stopped in Enfield and walked the Northern Rail Trail along Lake Mascoma. It was a wonderful hike, and since it is an old railroad bed, it is flat. After hiking yesterday, flat walking was a relief. I did not take pictures from the hike. One section of the trail was blasted through a granite hill. There were numerous name carvings.  At one end, they looked professional, and we wondered if these were the original workers.

We ate at a nice restaurant before buying gas and heading home. Gas is very expensive in VT, about 35 cents more than BJ's in New Hampshire. This is more than the difference in taxes between the two states, which is normally about 10 cents.

18-June-2024-Thursday

My weather app makes me laugh. We were told we would see 0.1 inches of rain today. It rained steadily from about 11 p.m. until 4 p.m. Still, my weather app said no rain had fallen, and at the same time, light rain would end within 30 minutes.  Apparently, there is no feedback loop in real-time.  I would guess we had a solid 0.5 inches of rain, but the weather equipment is not monitored to provide feedback unless the feedback was already expected.   

I was able to get work done on the monument workers.  I am getting close, and that is good.  Anna is coming in mid-May, and we will focus on "playing."  I hope to get the work done on the spreadsheet and in Family Search and then copy and paste everything into a Google Doc, so it could be available if they do a moment workers' reunion this year.  

Due to rain and Hoopes's lack of visitors, I expected the site to be slow. However, we had three groups: four women, three women, and a couple. It was actually a great day. We enjoyed the first two groups, and I, supposing they would be the last, started researching. Unfortunately, I was not only surprised but slightly chagrined when I heard my wife greeting visitors at 4:50.  We gave them a nice tour, including all the major points of a tour. But, I was aware that my heart had moved to my research and not to provide the experience these people came to expect. A loving Father allowed me to read the following in my quote from Elder Maxwell in my scripture study.  "A stumbling block appears when we serve God generously with time and checkbooks but still withhold portions of our inner selves, signifying that we are not yet fully His!" This described my attitude exactly. Giving my time but holding back.  I am grateful for the Savior's grace that can change my hardened heart, which would do its own will instead of the Father's.  

19-June-2024-Friday

Friday morning is one of my two days to contribute. I iron white shirts. I know our dear readers are in awe that I do something to help my wife, but notice that I keep it limited to Tuesday and Friday.  

We were both ready to go 15 minutes early and said, why not leave? We can always get steps in at the site. We arrived to see a group already viewing the monument. We tell people that God needed the Smiths in Palmyra and prepared a way to convince them to move toward that goal.  I am grateful to see the same Spirit moving us in our lives. This is a tiny example, but God moved us to change our pattern slightly to help this group. The group included two sister missionaries from Burlington, a member who drove, and a wonderful young woman investigating the Church.  It was a delightful tour. Our other visitor was a man who lives near Topsfield, MA.  He wanted to see where Joseph Smith was born.  We visited for several minutes, but I could not convince him to stop and have a tour.

I spent the afternoon working on my project. I have used Google Sheets to store the information, but it is a poor way to present the data, so I am converting it to Google Docs. The stake and site may host an event inviting people whose relatives worked on the monument to a lunch. If so, they could use these documents and provide them to visitors.  Regardless, I think it would be nice to have the records.

20-July-2024-Saturday

I began the day working on my project, but I received a phone call to come to the site and take two men from the Historic Department around the site. One is the product manager for online content, and the other is a historian/archeologist.  The Church's historical website is outdated, and its vision for the next-generation website will be outstanding until it, too, becomes obsolete. It was fun visiting them and telling them what we thought was outdated.  The highlight for me was showing them the foundations near the Solomon Mack Home. The archeologist thought the foundations were from a dairy complex. I thought there was a spring for watering animals; he thought it was a spring house to cool cheese. With his PhD in archeology, I am betting on his interpretation. With permission from Gary, I told him I would make my document available to him. He thought it would be fun to dig there to date the site. I was glad to show him what I knew, share my small knowledge, and receive his insight. I also promised the web designer that I would share my photos of the site with him.  He did have some sunshine, but it is not the prettiest season, and I have many images he could use to develop his web page.  

We had a productive shift with many people. We knew a group of young adults were coming. The entire day was filled with visitors. What a blessing. We had a couple show up at 4:55 again. My attitude was so much better with this couple than last Sunday. I was grateful for the chance to repent so quickly.

Sometimes, I feel like I am directed by the Spirit. As a couple came in, she was taking pictures, and I asked if she was enjoying our music. She said her grandfather had worked on the S. Royalton building and told her to listen to the music. Later, a sister came in who had been in Benson, VT, looking at cemeteries.  I asked about the stone church and her relationship with the Carter brothers from Benson. I was so delighted that God had led us to Benson so I could make her experience personal. God is so good.