Snow and More Snow!

Well, last Sunday and Monday we were snowed in.  We had the bulletin printed and our lessons prepared. Then church was cancelled.  Monday we had a couple of appointments scheduled that had to be postponed. Tuesday, the roads were clear, we were able to resume our regular schedules.   We did service at the nursing home and visited several people. Wednesday Wayne sang at a birthday party at the nursing home, then we went out an visited our friend Irene.  After our visit to her last month I had sent her a letter with some pictures - of the birds we saw at her bird feeder and of the African violet she gave me a year ago, blooming brilliantly.  Irene mentioned how much she enjoyed the letter and pictures, said she usually just gets bills in the mail!  We stopped in to check on our friends Robin and Traci, then got a call from our Bishop inviting us to have dinner with he and his wife Lucy and our two Elders.  So we drove to his lovely home and had a delicious enchilada dinner. Fun and unexpected.  Went back to the church to have the Family History Center room open for research and indexing.

Fortunately the weather Thursday was okay - cold but clear.  The roads were good and we were able to take our two missionaries and two assigned to the Romney Branch to the Washington DC Temple.  It's about a 3-hour drive, but of course well worth it!  The young Elders and Sister missionaries are permitted to go every six months in our mission (the Maryland Baltimore Mission), so it's a real treat that they look forward to.  It was cold and windy around the temple but warm inside as we performed sacred ordinances and enjoyed the peace, quiet, and special spirit there.  We went in to the nearby Visitor's Center to see the new cut-away temple model that is just amazing.  On the way home we had to stop at Elder Orton's favorite Golden Corral restaurant - always fun to see how much the young men can eat...

Elders Welch, Briggs, Aubrey, and Vandeveur

Cut-away model of the Washington DC Temple 

Enjoying a late lunch at Golden Corral

Friday we had a meeting with our Ward Mission Leader, then drove Elder Briggs and Elder Aubrey to a couple of visits on the far edge of our mission, close to the Virginia border, about 50 miles from Petersburg.

We were privileged to sit in on their second lesson with Roger A., a young man with a big smile who is reading the Book of Mormon, studying the pamphlets, loved his first church service, and is scheduled for baptism in March.  Wayne and I have visited Roger's mother Vada (a less-active member) several times, she is the thoughtful woman who gave me the lovely Christmas Cactus).  Super lesson,  great guy, and he even had pizza for us, he is thoughtful like his mother.  We are excited for him. After meeting with Roger we drove down the road a bit and stopped in at Paul and Crystal's.  Wayne and I needed to do our home and visiting teaching there and the Elders were pleased to see where they live and visit with them.  They asked for blessings, as they have some health issues.  We were able to get the Elders back to Moorefield in time for their evening appointments and Wayne to the nursing home to sing, again.

We had planned to go back to the Temple on Saturday, with ward members.  But a big storm was forecast and sadly we had to cancel.  It was a good thing we did, because we did get the big storm with lots of wind and snow.  The roads would have been terrible.  So we stayed home, studied, prepared the ward bulletin for Sunday and lessons we were assigned to teach. Wayne shoveled a few times, but his efforts didn't do much good while it was still snowing....   The Elder's cars were grounded too.  In the late afternoon we got the news that the Bishop had cancelled church for Sunday again this week.  Few of our members live close to the church, most have to travel, and he didn't                                                                                                               want people out on the

bad roads.  The Elders are still grounded, but Wayne went out with his friend Ron (who has 4-wheel drive) to check on some people, maybe do a little home teaching too.  Finally this afternoon we are getting a little sunshine, but I think it's going to be below zero tonight. Wishing for Spring...    







To my Family:  pay special attention to page 73 of the February issue of the Ensign magazine:
"Six ways to Strengthen Family Love"
1. Learn together
2. Pray together
3. Hold Family Home Evening
4. Make Wise Media choices
5. Serve together
6. Express Love daily

We love you.  Can't wait to see you.  Take care of each other....