Where did the week go?

I can't believe it's Sunday evening already!  Where did the week go?  It has been a pretty good week, but it sure went by fast.
Tuesday we had a District Meeting in Romney, about 40 miles away.  We took our four Elders and met the two Romney Elders at the meetinghouse there.  Had a good meeting, then drove about 5 miles further to the Elders little house for lunch and House and Car inspections.  I did much better on the apartment inspections this time - I gave them all a checklist the week before and spelled out very clearly my expectations and consequences.  They actually took me seriously and all did well.  After I complimented one pair on their clean kitchen, one Elder exclaimed,  "But Sister Orton, you didn't even look in the microwave and I worked hard cleaning it!"  So I had to examine it and praise his good work...  After returning to Petersburg and inspecting the cars and apartments here, we fixed a quick meal, then picked up the two Elders assigned to Hardy County and took them to a couple of evening appointments outside of Mathias, a little town about 40 miles away.  One was Connie Stever, a single lady about 50 years old,  been away from the church for years but now wants to return and asked the missionaries to come re-teach her.  She is great and has a good understanding of the gospel, fun to visit with.  Being single, the Elders couldn't go in without us being with them.  Then we accompanied them to Chris and Ariann's home, a young couple, she's a member, he isn't.  I am her visiting teacher and on my last visit I asked Chris if he would like to learn more about our church.  He agreed and I set this appointment up.  The Elders did a good job teaching and it was neat for us to be there and assist a little.  As we traveled back to Petersburg, it was beginning to rain a little.  Lots of freezing rain later in the night, it was so pretty the next morning - to see the trees and shrubs covered in ice.  The mission cars were grounded, but Wayne and I made a few visits.  We had dinner Wednesday evening with two of the Elders at the Whetzel home - we love them.  She fixed us a great dinner, then the Elders taught a Word of Wisdom lesson.  Walter is 74 and has smoked and chewed tobacco since he was young.  Doris has been to the temple, but is waiting on him so they can be sealed.  Good lesson and he expressed a desire to quit, but he said it would be very, very difficult.  We will encourage and pray.  Doris had crocheted me a lovely scarf.

Thursday we made a very productive early morning visit, had a long coordinating meeting with the Elders going over the ward roster, Wayne had a practice session with his buddies rehearsing for the ward activity,  then in the evening we had a meeting with the Ward Mission Leader, the Bishopric, and the Elders, discussing missionary work in the ward.    Oh, and the mission office senior missionary stopped by delivering a new bookcase (very large) and we finally cleaned and rearranged our study room.  We had had boxes of supplies around on the floor, so we can now set them out in the bookshelf.  We rearranged the desks, too, and it looks very nice and is more convenient.  I got frames for a couple pictures we had tacked to the walls, too.  Good project.

The nursing home where we volunteer several times a week is closed to visitors and volunteers for a while because of a flu outbreak.  We miss being able to go there.  And Wayne was supposed to sing there Friday night.  He is disappointed.  But it's just as well, he is coming down with a cold and needs to rest.  I made several visits by myself Saturday while he napped, then also saw a lady in the hospital.  Made numerous phone calls, and typed and printed the ward bulletin.

Good thing he rested up, because today (Sunday) was a very long day for us old folks.  Wayne had PEC at 8 am, then we had our regular three-hour block.  I taught Relief Society, it went very well, good participation.  We had a pretty good turnout at church,  only one of our three investigators showed up, but we had several less-actives attend.  After church we had the four Elders over to our apartment for dinner (chicken enchiladas - they loved them), then we took Elders Mordecai and Plumb on visits.  We took dinner to the Parks (less active husband John who is singing with Wayne for the ward activity this Friday,  wife Audrey is taking the discussions and close to baptism),  visited an older single lady Helen Mongold in Moorefield, then taught a third or fourth lesson to investigator Sonja who hopefully will be baptized in March.  We drove out in the country to Jane Halterman's.  She had called me earlier in the week, saying that she was going to have surgery next Wednesday and could we come out and bring the sacrament and give her a blessing.  It was a good visit, the Elders did well, and Jane appreciated it very much.  Next we visited Woneda Kenney in the Baker Nursing Home,  she is doing much better and also appreciated the visit.  She get very lonely.  Then way, way out in the country past Mathias for another lesson with Connie Stever.  She is awesome.  Fun to chat with and is making great progress in her gospel study.  So almost an hour to drive back home and we were tired.  Wayne is feeling pretty good, but still stuffed up.  Looking forward to our P-Day tomorrow, but will have to work a bit at the Food Pantry.

Transfers are Wednesday and one of our Elders (Hartwig) will be leaving.  He is the last one that was here when we arrived in September.  It will be a busy week, District Meeting on Tuesday, working at the Food Pantry a couple days, driving three hours to Transfers on Wednesday, Blood Drive Thursday,  and our big ward activity on Friday.  We have encouraged more ward activities, so we hope this is well attended and goes well.  Hopefully we will find time for some more visits and missionary work as well.  It's good to keep busy, isn't it?  I keep reminding myself of the phrase:  It's better to wear out than rust out!   Also heard in testimony meeting last week my new words to live by:   There is no Growth in your Comfort Zone and no Comfort in your Growth Zone.

Thanks for the email Karli (and Dustin) and thanks Devin and family for the call.  Good to see you all - and for the songs by Naomi and Gage.  If anyone is reading this blog, please make a little comment, we'd love to hear from you, and know who is there and what you think....    Our love to all.

Back to snow...

Out our front door, looking towards the church.

We had two days - Saturday and Sunday - with sunshine and temperatures in the 60's.  So nice to get the snow and ice melted off.  We are glad that we got some country visiting done and meals taken to our invalid.  Because today ---  a snow storm, with more to follow, it sounds like.  Schools are closed in the county and the missionaries are grounded.  Except that a member of the RS presidency just called and asked me to make a hospital visit with her.  I used great restraint and didn't say that it was my day off and I didn't want to have to put a dress on!  I said, "Sure, I'd love to."

View from our upper level..  Aren't the trees pretty?

Opportunities to Serve

So if a BYU basketball game in Provo begins at 9 pm - how late does Wayne (in West Virginia, Eastern Time Zone) have to stay up to watch the entire game??  Well, evidently it was worth it.  I watched the first few minutes, saw 4 BYU turnovers, numerous missed shots, and they were behind so quickly by 8 points. So I went to bed.  Missed a great game, I hear,  but don't worry, we have it recorded...  We have finally had some warm weather here, I think it got up to 60 today so our snow and ice is almost all melted, but more snow is predicted this coming week.  Pretty good attendance at church today, with three non-members.  We get to go with the Elders to teach one or two of them this week.  Also will do the dreaded apartment and car inspections for our Petersburg Elders too, since transfer day is the 12th and we are supposed to do our inspections the week before transfers.  I've given the Elders a pretty detailed list of what I want done this time, we'll see if they comply.

We did have a pretty nice week.  Lots of opportunities to serve and that makes us feel useful and happy. We have had three ward members in the hospital and we visited them daily.  Our apartment is very close to the hospital and all the bishopric, priesthood, and Relief Society leaders live 10 to 50 miles away, so it works out well for us to do the hospital visits.  Wayne also drove one older gentleman home from the hospital and was involved in a ward clean-up project at his home yesterday.  Another day he gathered a couple guys together to practice music for the upcoming ward activity.  One evening he met our High Priest group leader out in Lost City to assist in giving a blessing.  I helped with Bingo at the Nursing Home one afternoon, gathered information for and printed the ward Sunday program/bulletin, and yesterday made a casserole for one of my visiting teaching women who recently had surgery.  After church today we collected meals from several RS sisters and delivered them  about 20 miles out in the country to this recovering woman.  We had a nice visit and she greatly appreciated the food and the attention.

We had a great zone meeting in Woodstock (70 miles away) Tuesday with lunch all together at Wendy's afterward.  We took the four Petersburg Elders in our van, and because I am really working on "Patience", I tried not to murmur when our district leader told us that he needed to be there for a meeting at 9 am, when the main meeting that the rest of us had to be there for didn't start until 10:30.  We made the best of it and made a quick trip to the Woodstock Wal-Mart, then had a good visit with our friends, the Kunz', who are assigned over in that area.

We had some special visits last week, with people we are slowly building relationships with.  They seem happy to have us return and we enjoy our time with them.  George and Mary Demand, a working couple who are very difficult to catch at home, actually made an appointment with us for Saturday and had fixed a nice lunch of soup and chicken sandwiches for us.  She is an inactive member, he is not a member.  He is friendlier each time we meet with them.  We had a good visit and left a message, scripture reading assignment, and an invitation for the ward activity with them.  They raise chickens and sent us home with a couple dozen fresh eggs - Wayne was very happy that I made deviled eggs for him last night.  

Friday night we went out to eat at a local Chinese restaurant.  After we had been there a while, a couple came in and were seated right across from us.  There weren't very many people in the restaurant and they asked us if we were driving the van with the Idaho license plates.  They drive truck across the country and were curious as to where we lived.  That led to a conversation that eventually led to the church.  Come to find out he was the son of a sweet widow member lady that we visit monthly, he lives right above her and we have tried to catch him at home a couple times.  Now we are friends and they said to be sure and stop by sometime ...   Coincidence or missionary tender mercy?!

Happy Birthday #7 today to Krista.  And to Miss Ellie Rose on Thursday, when she turns 10!  Official name finally released for our new granddaughter - Klarese Faith Thueson.

We had a  note from Darin that some of our Orton kin might be interested in:
"Our ward (Warden, Washington) was visited today by a sweet old lady who has family in the ward.  One of her great-grandchildren was blessed (a baby) today.  The old lady's name is Marylou Cox and whenever she visits she makes a point to talk to me and tell me how highly she regarded my grandparents.  She knew them when they lived in Warden all those years ago.  When I saw her today I approached her to greet her and shake her hand.  When she saw me she smiled and said that I looked like my grandfather.  That made my day.  I am thankful for him and the life he led.  It inspires me to be better."    Thanks for sharing that, Darin.

Take care all.
 

Wonderful News from Home...

Just as we got home from church today we got such wonderful news from Boise - our second daughter Julie and her husband Matt had their baby girl!  She is a week-and-a-half early and the birth was pretty fast.  Julie said, "She is so small" but I said, "no, she's just normal size, not 11 pounds like your last one."  Baby girl weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces and was born at 10:06 this morning.  What a blessing, and we were able to see Julie, Matt, and baby on Skype or FaceTime or something just a few hours later.  Congratulations to the beautiful Thueson family.


So that is our big news.  We also realized what a miracle our flat tire Monday morning was.  We had heard a few odd noises as we went to Moorefield, then beyond with a couple of our missionaries for a dinner appointment and other visit Sunday evening.  Evidently the tire had serious problems and could have gone flat while we were going 70 mph down the freeway or on an isolated country road with the freezing wind and snow swirling around.  So it was a miracle that it held together and didn't go flat until it was parked in front of our apartment.  We did have to get two new tires and have them all aligned or something, but we are grateful it was as easy as it was to fix.  (Easy for me,  I just watched from the warm apartment...

Tuesday we were hit by another snow storm.  Our zone meeting in Woodstock was cancelled, as were a couple of lessons we were going to go to with the Elders.  It has been so cold since that we have lots of ice and frozen snow, making it difficult to get in and out of steep driveways and we have to be careful where we go.  We did stay in enough that I was able to get my cross-stitch picture completed for the new baby,  I thought I was early...  Now I just need to add name, date, and weight.  One highlight of our week was a Mission Conference in Frederick, Maryland, with a visiting Church authority, Gifford Nielsen.  He used to be a quarterback for BYU, then for the Houston Oilers.  What a great motivational speaker and fun guy.  We enjoyed the meetings very much.  We took the four Petersburg missionaries with us, then made a couple visits on the way home. Took the sacrament to our friend Woneda Kenney in the Baker nursing home and also to Jane Halterman, out in the country.  As we were approaching Moorefield on our way home to Petersburg about 7 pm, Wayne asked the Elders if we could take them to dinner at the Ponderosa Steak House buffet - oh, were they excited about that.  What fun to watch four hungry 19 and 20 year olds attack a buffet.  They loved it and we loved watching them.

This morning was windy, snowy, and cold - not a very good turn-out at church.  But those who came went in with a smile because this snowman was there to greet them.  

We took some more pictures of our meetinghouse to use on the cover of our ward bulletin.  I'll try to add them here too.

In our studies this week we are supposed to be studying the Christlike Attribute of Patience.  "Patience is the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition, or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated, or anxious.  It is the ability to do God's will and accept His timing.When you are patient, you hold up under pressure and are able to face adversity calmly and hopefully. President Monson said, 'Life is full of difficulties, some minor and others of a more serious nature.  There seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all.  Our problem is that we often expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required.'"  Okay, this topic was just for me,  I'm working on it. You can tell I'm not doing too well, as I express my frustration at the weather and plans that don't work out as "I" expected.  I'm sure I'll get much more practice at working on this attribute.

Happy Birthday last week to Matt and Kaleb Thueson.  And next Friday to Sara.  Thanks to the Acors for the card you sent Dad and for the great little adhesive calendar for my van.  It was perfect.  Please remember Uncle Don Jensen in your prayers this week.  We love you all.

The Best Laid Plans....

Funny week.  We planned very well, and some things worked out really well.  Other things worked out well, just not liked we had planned.  We were able to do a Family Home Evening last Monday night for a family that doesn't come to church.  It went very well.  We know the mom and three kids pretty well, but the dad has been pretty evasive.  Well, this time he came in for home evening and participated, was even quite friendly and chatted afterward.  Wanted us to have some deer bologna that he and his father had just made. It was a nice evening.

Tuesday we had District Meeting,  dinner with a nice couple, then met a pair of our missionaries in Moorefield and drove them to an appointment way out of town. It was with a single woman, so they couldn't go without us, and we have met her before and were glad to go with them to see her again.  She joined the church many years ago, was active for a year or so, then had personal problems and drifted away.  She contacted the church recently and wants to be taught again and reconnect.  Nice lady,  good visit. Wednesday Wayne and the Elders here had a service project so I got to catch up on paperwork, genealogy, journal, etc.  In the evening I worked on genealogy at the church and Wayne made a hospital visit.

Thursday I had such a great plan in place for Visiting Teaching.  Worked with my companion and one of the women we visit who is very difficult to catch.  It was all going to work perfectly.  At the last minute my companion couldn't go and Wayne had already committed to something else.  My route is long, over a hundred miles.  But I went anyway by myself.  Didn't know they had a little snow and some ice on the roads. But I did fine.  Had good personal visits with four women who are a little isolated and really appreciated the contact.  At one home I also visited with the nonmember boyfriend and asked him if he would like to begin the missionary discussions, he agreed and we set a time to begin teaching him!  (We have one missionary here who would do a high 5 and yell "Score!" at that news.)  I had a good chat with a member friend in a nursing home and drove a windy narrow icy road and steep driveway to another.  On the way home I stopped in Moorefield at the home of Sonya, who we took to see the lights and visitor's center at the DC temple in December and is now taking the missionary lessons, and invited her to come to Petersburg to our Relief Society night meeting.  She came with me and we arrived at our church just in time for the 6:30 pm meeting (I left at noon for my VT visits).  Sonya had a good time and another lady offered to take her home. Nice, since I was pretty tired.  While the women had their RS meeting, Wayne had gathered a few musicians together in another room at the church to play guitar, banjo, mandolin, & harmonicas, and sing in preparation for a ward activity he is putting together for Valentine's Day.  Two of the participants have been less active, it's a good fellowshipping and fun activity for them.  It was a good day.

Friday we made a hospital visit and also visited a few ward members who need encouragement.  Wayne set up home teaching visits with a less active man who needs to get out and do something.  From 6 to 7 Wayne sang at the nursing home, then we picked up a pizza, got a few groceries, and headed home.  The groceries included a couple nice steaks that we intended to broil for Wayne's birthday dinner on Saturday.  But --- we had a nice lunch with the Bishop and his wife Saturday (Bishop Kimble even made a pineapple-upside-down birthday cake for Wayne), then headed out expecting to make about four visits before going home for a little birthday celebration.  As we left the Bishop's house we got a phone call from an inactive man in Wardensville, about 40 miles away,  that his daughter was sick and he didn't have transportation,  could we come get him and his little girl and take them to the hospital in Petersburg.  So, of course, we did.  He is the huge black ex-football player for the NFL Ravens.  His daughter Clarissa is adorable, one of our favorites. She has blood problems and picks up serious blood infections quite easily.  We had a good visit with Will on the drive, then waited at the hospital for hours with them while the doctors did tests and consulted with other doctors.  Our hospital is quite small and they finally decided to send Clarissa and her dad by ambulance to a large pediatric hospital in Morgantown,  about three hours away.  Then we went home and had leftover pizza.  Wayne appreciated all the cards, emails, other messages,  grandkid letters, phone calls, and skypes he received.  He would have loved to join the Boise group as they celebrated December and January birthdays at Toucano's.  The Skype from the restaurant only made his mouth water and wasn't too satisfying. But thanks.

We couldn't have our birthday steaks Sunday because we had agreed to take a couple of our Elders to a dinner appointment at some members' home that is quite a ways out.  It was nice- good, generous family - and we made a visit to a good friend of ours after that, she enjoyed meeting the Elders.  We have visited her often since we got here and she came to church last week for the first time in years.

So anyway,  we hope to have Wayne's belated birthday dinner tonight,  but we had other good plans for today too, but found that our trusty van had a flat tire this morning and Wayne has spent the morning figuring out how to get the flat off, the spare on, and taking it to a repair place.  We need to get the van serviced, again too, we are really putting the miles on it here, and a few dents (bad road caused one,  a tree ran in to us another time....)  We have many good plans for the coming week,  we'll see what better plans come up. We are excited to have a mission conference on Friday with Gifford Nielson!  Love his enthusiasm.
In answer to your concerns,  we were not in the part of the state that had the water problems recently.  Nor did we get the frigid weather and storms, although it is expected to get pretty cold here later this week.  We kept forgetting to take our camera with us last week so no pictures - not of the house on stilts that we saw down by the river or the deer by our apartments or of sweet Clarissa or of her daddy's humongous Super Bowl ring.  Sorry.   Wayne had a good phone conversation last night with friends from La Grande, Lonnie and Pat Shurtleff, who just got their mission call to the Wichita Kansas Mission.  Congratulations, you'll love it.   Our love to all.  We are good here,  happy, busy, having great experiences and a few challenges.  Love news from home.

It's Been a Good Week

Nothing really exciting or different to report.  We have mostly escaped the "Polar Vortex" here in our little corner of West Virginia.  We've had a few cold days and one morning we started out on our walk, found our sidewalk and parking lot covered in ice from freezing rain, so we turned right around and went back in our apartment!  We are too old to try walking on ice...  One morning we headed out walking in a light mist, but before we finished our favorite walking route it was pouring and we were soaked.  But we keep going.
One exciting thing, I guess, is that we went to our friends, the Keplingers, Monday night with two of our missionaries for dinner and they fixed us biscuits with squirrel gravy.  Yep,  we ate our first squirrel.  Pretty good, too.  Then Wayne and Johnny K.  sang and played guitar for a while.  Wayne is putting together some music for a High Priest's social in February and is having fun planning and practicing (and fellowshipping).  Also practiced Wednesday and Friday nights.  And had a fellow picking on a banjo Friday afternoon.  We made some fun visits last week and had some long days, travelling to Romney for interviews and meetings, and to Wardensville and surrounding countryside for visits.  We had an interview with our Mission President on Thursday, he was very appreciative of our efforts and encouraging.  We needed that, sometimes we don't feel like we are doing enough or the right things.  Also got set apart by our Bishop this morning for my Relief Society teaching calling and in his blessing he said that I am influencing people in ways that I don't even realize and that I am an example and strength to the women in this ward.  I needed to hear that, too.

Church this morning was awesome again. Three non-members, two of whom are taking the discussions.  Wayne and I got to sit in and even participate with the Elders as they taught the first discussion to Sonya (who we took to the DC Temple to see the Christmas lights and tour the visitor's center).  Also Audrey has had a couple of discussions this past week,  her husband was less-active.  He is playing music with Wayne and we have been to their house a couple times during the week, once for dinner, once just to visit and play music.  Also had seven less-active members at church today - so excited to have Margarite Kindrick, a widow we have been visiting often, come for the first time in years.  And a teenager whose family we visit often, such a fun young man. Anyway,  nice to see so many beginning to come back and our numbers at sacrament meeting increasing.  Wayne played the organ in sacrament meeting again today and I taught Relief Society.  (I guess Wayne taught High Priests too, since the teacher didn't show up). We visited a few homes this afternoon.

We must get our van washed tomorrow, it is pretty muddy from traveling on back roads after the rain.  Also need to prepare a Home Evening lesson to give with an inactive family tomorrow night. We are keeping busy and enjoying this missionary life.  Our love to all our family and friends, thank you for your support and prayers. Thanks, Karli and Pat for the wonderful Orton Family Newsletter you put together last week and for so many of our family and extended family that wrote to it.  Thanks, Pat, for the technical assistance with the blog.  We sure appreciate you and wish you luck with the job search.    

Happy New Year - 2014!

What a great day to be a missionary in Petersburg, West Virginia!  We had 7 less active members and 3 non-member/investigators at church today!  Yeah!  And there were 3 other less actives that we had expected to be there as well,  one I know was sick. One lady even asked me for a ride yesterday and she stayed for the whole block.  The people that we took to the temple last week came today, and the couple that Wayne played music with last week (husband less active,  wife not a member) were there.  Good day.  Wayne taught Priesthood, and played the organ for sacrament meeting!  Well, he learned how to push the buttons and it did all the work, but it was pretty impressive and one more skill. 

It was a pretty quiet week.  The Elders and their mission cars were grounded some of the time because of snow and ice, but really we have been pretty lucky and have been just on the outskirts of the big storms.  Some roads and driveways are still pretty icy and slick though, and I am very wary.  Wayne, not so much.
We did have some good visits this week, did some service at the nursing home and Wayne sang there Friday evening, we had a District Meeting and apartment and car inspections with our Elders, after the meeting we had the six Elders to our apartment for lunch. Our big day was Wednesday - Transfer Day.

Lunch for the Elders after District Meeting on Tuesday

We found out Sunday that Elder Salazar and Elder Ashby were being transferred.  I had intended to go with Wayne, taking the two elders, their possessions and bikes, on the three hour drive to Ellicott City where they hold the transfer meeting.  At the last minute (6:30 am Wednesday morning) the other two Elders decided that they wanted to go too, so I stayed home to give them enough room.  (I love my husband, but sometimes a few hours alone is okay, too)  I worked on genealogy and indexing,  typed my journal pages, did some household chores, and cross-stitching.  It was very cold in the morning but by mid-afternoon it was quite pleasant so I was able to go for a long walk, and stopped in to visit a member on the way.  Wayne got home about 4 pm, with our new Elders:  Elder Mordecai from Sacramento and Elder Plumb from Arizona.  They seem nice, but we miss the ones who left, they had helped us out a lot with our adjustments here, and we spent a lot of time with them.  Guess that's just how it goes... 


Elder Asbhy, on to new adventures.



As we reflected and reminisced on our Anniversary and on New Year's Eve,  we realize it's been a very eventful year for us and it has gone by so fast.  Can't wait to see what the new year brings.  We wish good health and happiness for each of our family and friends.

PS.  I just had to peel off my little adhesive calendar for 2013 in my van that I used so much.  If anyone comes across a business giving away little stick-on calendars, grab me one, please.