Called to Serve: Last week of May

Roadside wildflowers

Our morning walk, up the hill

Our walking path, around Fort Mulligan

Misty morning view from Fort Mulligan

A few words about our morning walks... We get up at 6:30 am and try to be out the door

soon thereafter (but it takes us old folks a while just to get our shoes and socks on!). We walk past lovely wildflowers by the side of the road, up a hill, past the hospital, a little further up the hill, to Fort Mulligan, a small Civil War park. We are treated to a beautiful view of the town of Petersburg and the surrounding hills. There's a nice walking path around the park that is about 1/2

mile. We go four times around, then return to our apartment. This past week we have past

by some baby groundhogs on our way up the hill. They are so cute and not very afraid, we can get quite close. We never have the camera at the right time though. There is an adult groundhog that lives in the park, he has a good tunnel system but we see him sticking his head up watching us occasionally. In "our" park besides the groundhog we have seen deer, rabbits, a skunk, a turtle, and lots of birds (our favorites are the blue jays and the cardinals). Thursday we did see something a little unusual though. As we came around the first bend we came upon a man lying in the leaves and bushes right beside our path. He was face down, breathing heavily, and unresponsive when we spoke to him. Wayne ran down the hill to the hospital to get help, I stayed close. Soon there were EMT's from the hospital, the sound of sirens, then two ambulances, and the police. We directed them to the body, then stayed out of the way. We watched them rouse him and get him on the gurney. That's all we know. Our walks are usually more peaceful than that.

Monday on our P-Day we got to pick strawberries in a friend's garden. In the afternoon we helped with Bingo at the nursing home, we usually don't go in on Mondays, but they needed the help. In the evening we went to our Home Evening group where I taught the lesson and provided Chocolate Lush for dessert. Then visited a ward member in the hospital.

Tuesday I got up at 4:45 am to get ready so we could pick up the Elders at 6 am and drive 1 1/2 hours to our zone conference that lasted from 8 am to 4 pm in Berryville, Virginia. The Elders had neglected to set their alarms so we had to wait for them to get ready! It was a good conference, our last with President Richards who will be released June 30th. We helped Sister Richards fix lunch. We made it home just in time for our service at the nursing home. Then back up to the hospital to visit Ann again.

Fishing with Ron

We finally got some visits in Wednesday and taught a temple preparation lesson to Sonja. Thursday- more visits, then Wayne went fishing with his friend Ron. They didn't catch anything but he said it was peaceful and beautiful. I walked to the nursing home to help with Bingo, then to some apartments by the hospital to see some ward members there. Friday I spent most of the day at the church working on genealogy. Wayne worked on home teaching reports and other paper work. I think he practiced music too.

Saturday was a fun day, we drove 50 miles to Lost River State Park for Carter's 1st Birthday Party. I visit teach his mom and grandmother. He is a real cutie and his family had gone all out with Thomas the Train decorations and a barbecue lunch for the guests. The park is beautiful. Fortunately they had reserved a picnic shelter because it poured rain part of the time. After that we got lost in the mountains taking a back way to our next party. We finally made it to Jack and Deb's home for a graduation party for their niece Trisha. We seem to be honorary members of their family, they are good to us and to the Elders. We love them and sure wish we could get them coming back to church...

Wonderful meetings this Sabbath day. During Sunday School time we taught temple prep to Mariah, a college student who will be married the end of July. Busy day, picking up people and taking them home. Wayne is home teaching now. We need a day off, so we are going to get out of town tomorrow, I think up into Amish country in Pennsylvania. Should be interesting. Tuesday we have a Senior Couples Dinner to say good-bye to the Richards, at the mission home in Ellicott City. We are healthy, happy and very busy.

Our thoughts are with our beautiful granddaughter Katelyn who graduated from high school last Thursday. We are so proud of her. Now she is off to Disneyland with some friends!