Called to Serve: Happy Easter!

Sweet picture of Kelsie at the Washington DC Temple Visitors Center

Happy Easter! We couldn't have had a better day! Watching General Conference and hearing uplifting, inspiring talks from prophets and leaders of our church and getting together with family and friends. It's been a great day. And a good week. We started the week out with a shopping trip. I hate to shop, but really needed some Spring clothes and we needed to go to Costco for supplies for the Acors and for our Easter dinner. So we went to Winchester, Virginia - to the Apple Blossom Mall. We had a nice day, found some bargains, stocked up on food, and even had a nice dinner at Olive Garden. On the way home we made three visits in Moorefield to check up on members and an investigator, inviting them all to our ward Easter Egg Hunt. Tuesday instead of going to our District Meeting in Woodstock we made a lot of good, much-needed visits including seeing Dave V. who was back in the hospital again. We definitely had something to write in our missionary journal about too, we were attacked by a big dog (half Saint Bernard, half German shepherd). No serious injuries though, but scary. Wayne has a pretty good scratch on his leg and a bite bruise somewhere else that we won't mention. The owner was very apologetic and we had a good visit after the dog was caught and restrained....

Wednesday we inspected the Elders' apartment, saw our new friend JoAnn, and drove up into the Smoke Hole Mountains to the cute, rustic cabin of Burlin, Belinda, and Pam. We had a nice visit and they said we could take a picture of their Easter Egg tree in front of the cabin. In the evening we had a great ward activity - hunting Easter Eggs and making ice cream sundaes. Good attendance, our investigator and her family came, our recent convert Sonja brought her daughters and grandchildren. It was a nice evening.

Thursday was a busy day, instead of going for a walk we took our turn at cleaning the church, then we drove to Moorefield for a quick trip to Wal-Mart, then visited Patricia R. at the Misty Terrace Trailer Park, also met an older couple that the Elders are working with. We rushed back to Petersburg in time for me to meet Wanda W. at the church to work on her genealogy. Wayne met Jimmy H. and they drove to Winchester (over an hour away) to meet with our Stake President. When I was finished at the church I walked up to the nursing home to help with Bingo. Whew! We finally made it to the day we had been waiting so long for - Friday! The day we met the Acors at the Washington DC Temple and they came to Petersburg for a visit. We have been having a great time these past few days. We had a lovely day at the temple Friday, followed by dinner at Golden Corral. They are staying at a cute cabin in a beautiful place just a few miles from our apartment. There was a big Easter event right where they are staying yesterday, with hay rides, egg coloring, egg hunt, etc. Then we went through the Smoke Hole caverns and also a little hiking at Seneca Rocks. Last night while the guys went to priesthood meeting, Kadyn & Cassidy did laundry here in our apartment complex laundry and we played Racko while waiting for the wash and dry cycles. Fun. Today we watched General Conference and between seasons we had a nice Easter dinner here in our little apartment with us, seven Acors, two young missionaries, and a neighbor, Oscar. (I'm thankful for Costco spiral ham, rolls, and apple pie - delicious!) After Conference we went up to their cabin, took a nice walk, looked at the fish and beautiful scenery, and played more Racko. We don't want them to leave. It's been so good to see them, the kids have grown so much, and are as sweet and good as can be. We are driving up to the Hershey factory in Pennsylvania with them tomorrow, then maybe through some Amish country. Then they will head to their motel by the airport that they fly out of on Tuesday morning. What a treat this has been for us. Now we will head in to our last few months, refreshed by their visit and by General Conference. We can do this.

Thanks to Devin's wife Amie for checking in early this week. And good luck to the Poyfairs as they set out on an adventure - a cruise to sunny Mexico. Have fun. Happy Easter.

Kelsie & Corinne at the Visitors Center

Fun activities at the Visitors Center while they hung out with Grandma

Rainy day at the Temple

Kadyn, Dakota, Cassidy after doing temple baptisms with Grandpa Orton

Kelsie & Corinne explore Smoke Hole Resort

Admiring West Virginia's famous Golden Trout

The Easter Egg hunt was fun, but ...

Finding a frog was even more fun!

Deep in the Smoke Hole Caverns

The Caverns were used by Indians to smoke their meat,
by Confederate soldiers to protect their wounded,
and more recently as a place to make moonshine!