We've been in the Maryland Baltimore Mission 7 months -- and we finally got to see Baltimore!!

What a wonderful weekend we have had, watching General Conference!  Amazing, inspiring talks, beautiful music,  outpouring of the Spirit - how lucky we are!  We watched Conference at our nearby ward meetinghouse with the four other (young) missionaries assigned here and a few other people.  Most ward members watched it at home on their TVs or on their computers.  John and Audrey Parks came to Petersburg today to watch at the church and had lunch with us between sessions.  John also went to priesthood meeting with Wayne last night (8-10 pm) while Audrey hung out here with me at the apartment. General Conference, of course, has been the highlight of our week, but wait 'til you see the pictures of our other highlight...

We worked at the local food pantry Monday and Wednesday, and helped at the nursing home Tuesday night.  We also managed to make several visits, including Robin & Traci, Goldie George, and Woneda.  To understand the rest of our week,  I need to mention a phone call I got a couple weeks ago.  In our mission we have two senior couples who work in the Mission Office. One of them called me and suggested that since there was an activity for Senior Couples to visit the Naval Academy at Annapolis on the 4th, why didn't Elder Orton and I come to Baltimore a couple days early to see the some of the sights and we could stay at a vacant but furnished mission apartment in the area.  They thought that since we live way over in West Virginia, but were coming to the activity anyway, why not spend a little extra time in the area. Sounded good to us, so after we worked at the food pantry Wednesday afternoon we drove to the mission office (3 hours) to pick up the apartment key and arrived at the apartment in the evening.  We spent Thursday seeing some awesome sights in Baltimore, mostly in the Inner Harbor area, and Friday at the senior couple activity ending with dinner at the mission home with our mission president and the other eleven senior couples in the mission - we were welcoming a new couple, the Bringhursts from Delta, Utah, who will be living in Cumberland, Virginia, and copying archive records for FamilySearch. It was very interesting and a fun break.

We began with a 1 1/2 hour trolley tour of Baltimore
 

Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and funny, and wore different hats along the way

 

After the trolley tour we had lunch at Bubba Gumps' - delicious crab soup!

 

Next we went in this building, the World Trade Center, to the Top of the World observation area on the 27th floor.

Melted steel girders from 9/11, on display in front of the Baltimore World Trade Center

View from the top,  our van is in the parking lot at the bottom left, near the yellow truck!

Another view from the top, looking onto the harbor & the USS Constellation

Final picture from the Top of the World,  the Phillips Restaurant in the
center of the picture is where we ate dinner,  delicious seafood - Wayne even had swordfish!

Dragon paddleboats for rent in the harbor

Next we rode the free city bus out to Fort McHenry,  where Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the Star-Spangled Banner during the War of 1812.  There was an interesting visitor's center and we could also walk around the Fort.  We loved it and learned so much, picked up cool pamphlets to send to some of our grandsons, if they are interested...

The actual Fort McHenry, strategic position to defend Baltimore, on the tip of the inner harbor of the Chesapeake Bay

Back to the Inner Harbor, some interesting ships, a submarine, and Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse that was in operation for a hundred years, then recently taken out of use and moved to the pier, another interesting tour.

Friday we joined the other senior couples in our mission for a tour of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, where one of our senior couples is assigned.  I cannot begin to describe the feeling of being there.  The historic old buildings (pictures cannot do it justice), the midshipmen (4500) scurrying from place to place, the history, patriotism, honor, and dedication the academy stands for and portrays in so many ways.  I've never seen anything like it.  It was AWESOME.

 

Tomb of naval hero, John Paul Jones

 

Torpedo on display in the hall of classroom building.
I think Wayne took a dozen pictures of torpedoes, jet engines, and such.  He was fascinated

This picture is for Darin - here is what their labs look like!

Memorial Hall

Our tour guide for part of the day, Sgt. John Kadz, an LDS Naval Academy graduate
who is an instructor there now.  Great young man.  Served a mission in Korea midway
through his academy education.

Academy marina where the mids get experience in different types of sailing & rowing

One of the highlights of the day was our visit with Rabbi Josh Sherman, who is one of the naval chaplains assigned to the Annapolis Naval Academy.  One of his responsibilities is to oversee the smaller faith-based groups, of which the LDS group is one, so he works closely with our senior couple, the Hilliards, and they have become friends.  He agreed to show us the Jewish chapel (synagogue) which was built in 2005.  He explained what different features are, how they worship,  opened their sacred ark and actually unrolled one of their Torahs for us to see and answered questions about his role and beliefs.  It was fascinating.  He also demonstrated some of his chants.  He was so gracious and fun.  What an experience. 

 

After this great tour, we drove to the mission home, had a fun dinner with the Mission President and his wife and the other senior couples, then we drove home (making a brief stop at Costco in Frederick, Maryland). We enjoyed the trip, enjoyed Conference, and are ready now to get back to work.  We have another baptism coming up next week that we are very excited about, Wayne has a lot of month-end reports to get to, and I have a Relief Society lesson to prepare.  Hope to make many visits, teach another lesson to Traci, District Meeting in Romney, etc, etc.  We count our blessings and they are many.  Love to family and friends - we miss you.  

Tired and Homesick...

Do Senior Missionaries get homesick?  Definitely - especially when the pull to join with family in a time of grief is strong, as it has been this past week.  The Jensen/Orton families lost a good and talented man when Don Jensen (husband of Wayne's sister Rosala) passed away on Tuesday.  Our thoughts were sure with family and friends as they gathered yesterday to honor his life - such a great life of service and goodness.  He will be missed.  And we missed being there.

Do Senior Missionaries get tired?  Oh, yes.  We have had some long days recently, unexpected opportunities to serve, plans that changed at the last minute, and experiences to test patience and flexibility (not my strongest attributes, I'm the first to admit).

And in spite of being tired and homesick (or maybe because of it), this past week has been pretty special...

Monday we did household chores, watched the movie "The Saratov Approach" again, this time with the four Petersburg Elders, then made a quick trip to the Wal-Mart in Moorefield.  Tuesday we had District Meeting in Romney, about 40 miles away.  Wayne did car inspection for the Sister Missionaries we have in Romney (of course it was cold, windy, and snowy as they checked tire pressure, fluid levels, blinkers, brakes, and such).  I did apartment inspection with them.  They are much better housekeepers than the Elders, and needed a few miscellaneous supplies that we can furnish.  Our District Meeting was great, very helpful instruction and a great spirit.  These young people are so wise and obedient and dedicated.  We are learning so much from them all the time.  When we got back to Moorefield the Elders went their separate ways, and so did Wayne and I.  I dropped him off at Johnny Keplinger's and they did some visiting.  Then Johnny took him home to Petersburg in time to help with Bingo at the nursing home.  I headed to the furthest edge of our ward to do my visiting teaching -- my partner is ill, again, I had the appointments set up already, and the month is almost over, so I just went by myself.  Had a wonderful time, sometimes the one-on-one visits are pretty special.  One of the visits I made was to Woneda Kenney's apartment, but found out from her granddaughter that she had just been taken to the hospital in Petersburg.  Called Wayne and Johnny for them to check on her.  It was a long afternoon.  I got back to Petersburg just in time to pick Wayne up from the nursing home - good thing, because it was snowing.  We had a quick dinner, then Wayne went up to the hospital to pick up Woneda Kenney's son and give him a ride home to Moorefield.  Woneda will have to go back in to the nursing home in Baker,  her family just cannot give her the care she needs.  She sure did appreciate the pictures from Kyle, Cache, and Naomi. Anyone who wants to color, draw, or write a letter for her, just send them to me,  I'll deliver them to her and it will make her day,  she is lonely and discouraged.

Wednesday we taught another lesson to Traci Johnson, Robin Martin's friend.  Made a few other visits, worked on genealogy at the church and Wayne caught up our area book.  Thursday we did some planning and scheduling, then I worked on genealogy at the church - that's where I can get on ancestry.com for free and spread out stuff that I am working on.  Audrey Parks sent me a lot of information on her family that I needed to organize, research, and put on familysearch.  It's pretty fun.  Wayne worked at home on a talk he was preparing and also on the computer, trying to find correct addresses of people on our ward directory that we haven't been able to locate.  Is that a never-ending job?  Later in the day we visited Woneda in the hospital,  helped out at the nursing home again, then made an evening visit to a neat couple, the Haslackers, who have suffered multiple challenges in their lives lately recently and needed a little encouragement.

Audrey and John Parks at the temple visitors center

Friday - we had a plan, but it was changed at the last minute when Traci needed a ride to the hospital in Winchester for some blood tests and counselling for some health issues.  Oh, well.  It was fun to visit with her and get to know her better.  And she loved watching "Ephraim's Rescue" on our van TV.  Long drive. Saturday Wayne took the Elders and Johnny K. about an hour away to a member's home to split and stack wood for the morning.  They stopped at the Baker nursing home to visit Woneda on their way home.  I did chores, prepared ahead Sunday dinner for guests,  and worked more on Audrey's genealogy.  I was called at the last minute to help with an activity at the nursing home for an hour.  The rest of our Saturday was the most AWESOME part of our week.  First we sat in on a lesson the Elders had with our friend Sonja - and she accepted the baptism date of April 12th!  She was so ready and anxious to get on with it. She started coming to Relief Society activities with her friend Janet Keplinger in the fall, then started coming to church, then

Janet Keplinger, Audry Parks, Sister Orton, Sonja Morton

taking the lessons and reading the Book of Mormon.  It has been fun to get to know her and see her testimony grow and the changes she is making in her life.  She thought drinking coffee would be a stumbling block,  but she decided on her own recently to quit and is so proud of herself and feels so much better now. Her 14-year-old son Joseph and her 20-something daughter Kristie come to church with her some times too and seem to be interested.  We are very excited for her.

After Sonja's lesson we then had the baptism of our good friend Audrey Parks.  We have spent a lot of time with Audrey and her husband John. John was able to baptize Audrey,  Wayne has worked a lot with him to help him prepare.  Wayne gave a talk on baptism and at the last minute had to play the piano for the service.  He was not prepared for that, but did his best. Today Audrey

Elder Orton, Johnny Keplinger, John Parks

was confirmed in church and she and John both bore their testimonies. Very humble, sweet people. As has become our routine, after church they came to dinner at our apartment, then Audrey and I went back to the church to work on her genealogy while Wayne and John made a visit to a less active man.  So --  great couple of days.  At Audrey's baptism was also Lou Black, an neat lady we visited with Elder Bell and Elder Mordecai.  She has set a baptism date of April 29.  We had a great attendance of non-members and less-active members at church today, but not such a good attendance of regulars,  there was fog and snow in some of our ward areas and the members who live a ways from Petersburg in the bad weather areas couldn't make it in.  Crazy weather here in West

Elder Orton, John & Audrey Parks, Sister Orton - Mar 29

Virginia - snow today, forecast of 70 degrees for tomorrow!

(Someone gave me the book "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" last week.  I am loving it.  I highly recommend it to everyone.)   

 Our love to all who are reading this blog  (and we still would like to know who that is??).  And even though we are tired and homesick occasionally, we are so happy to be here and to be busy and useful.  We feel the Spirit testify to us of the importance of the Work of Salvation and feel privileged to be missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ at this time in this place.  

Elder Farr (from Salem, Oregon), Audrey & John Parks, Elder Plumb (from Arizona)
I believe I said last week that Elder Farr was from Ogden, wrong - sorry.

Another week flies by...

What a fun, tiring week that just seemed to fly by.  We are so blessed with good health and energy, and the resources to be having the wonderful experience of this mission.  We appreciate the prayers and encouragement of our family and friends.  Know that we are working hard, learning so much, and feeling the Spirit of this great work!

We enjoyed watching the new movie "The Saratov Approach" on Monday.  The four Petersburg Elders got permission from the Mission President to watch it tomorrow also, so "Party at the Ortons' Apartment", probably pizza and snacks as well, if Elder Orton has anything to say about it. It's an interesting movie.
Monday evening we had a fun dinner with Elder Bell and Elder Mordecai at the home of  our new friend Tracy Johnson.  Wayne and I are teaching her.  She moved in to an apartment next to Robin Martin and they became friends.  Robin and Tracy worked together to make us a nice spaghetti dinner and were so excited and pleased to do it.  They are both trying hard to get their lives in order (and quit smoking) and come to church regularly. It was nice to get to know them better and they were so happy to do something for us.

Our District - Elders Mordecai, Plumb, Goodell, & Bell
Elder & Sister Orton, Sisters Hendrix & Gates

Tuesday we had our Zone Training in Woodstock, about 70 miles from here.  We took two Elders with us, the other two had to drive their mission car, then go from there on to Berryville to switch companions. Our Elder Goodell from Wyoming was transferred unexpectedly and we received a new missionary, Elder Farr from Ogden, Utah.  We will miss Elder G., but Elder Farr is great, so missionary life goes on.  I try not to get attached, but these young men are just awesome and we love them.  We also spend a lot of time with them and get to know them quite well, their fun side and their spiritual side.    

Elder Plumb & Elder Goodell,  Elder G's last day here.

Off to new adventures!

On Wednesday we drove Elder Plumb and Elder Farr to some visits that are a ways out,  saving their mission car miles and fun for us to go visiting and teaching with them.  One visit was to Dan Cassell in

Elder Plumb, geared up.

Wardensville (45 miles),  Dan is former CIA and is very concerned about our country and the way it is headed. I think he would be considered a Libertarian, prepared for civil war and financial chaos coming soon, he thinks.  Our Arizona Elder Plumb is fascinated with his predictions and preparations - was thrilled to get to try on some of his tactical gear.  We wish we could get Dan to be as concerned about his spiritual preparations....  Visited Kelly Kipp in Lost City,  then to Mathias for a wonderful lesson with Connie Stever. It was a great day.  Also treated the Elders to dinner at a little restaurant in Wardensville that was surprisingly good and very inexpensive  (a nice combination).

Thursday it was time for missionary car and apartment inspections again.  Also made a few good visits to less active ward members.  More visits Friday, also cleaned the church with the Elders, printed the ward bulletin for Sunday, and Wayne sang at the Nursing Home.  When we visited the home of Dave and Elaine Vanmeter they had a surprise for us.  Dave and Elaine are not active, we visit them often and really like them. We recently had talked about missing having a garden and admired their little starts of tomatoes and peppers.  Well, they bought a big pot, planted one of their tomato starts in it and gave it to us!  It's so cute and they said it was doing better than any of their other starts.  So nice of them.  (Even better - Elaine came to church today, the first time since we have been here...)

Elder Farr, Audrey & John Parks, Elder Plumb

Yesterday (Saturday) was another awesome day.  Fortunately good weather as we made another trip to the Washington, DC, Temple.  It's about a 2 1/2 - 3 hour drive.  This time we took Elders Plumb and Farr, and John and Audrey Parks.  John is a returning less active member and his wife Audrey is going to be baptized next Saturday, the 29th.  Audrey has been working on genealogy with me and we wanted them to set their sights on preparing to go to the temple in a year, to be sealed and to do family temple work.  Wayne was helping with ward youth temple baptisms while the Elders and I took the Parks to the visitor's center and walked around the temple grounds.  They loved seeing the temple and learning about what goes on in temples and how to prepare.  We are excited to

John and Audrey outside the Temple Visitor's Center

think that we could possibly go to the temple with them before the end of our mission.

Something fun happened at the Temple.  When we got there we all went in to the lobby of the temple to wait as the ward youth and leaders assembled. As we were quietly visiting, someone came up and tapped Wayne on the shoulder and said, "Hi, Brother Orton!"   We were so surprised to see a good high school friend of our son Darin,  Kirk Huntsman, and his lovely wife Tina.  Tina evidently knew Darin's wife Laura at BYU, too. Kirk is with the military and they live in Virginia.  They looked so good and we had a nice little visit with them. His parents, David and Betty Huntsman, are also on a mission - in Siberia, I believe.  What a chance meeting - so unexpected and nice.  

Kirk and Tina Huntsman

So today was our ward conference.  I showed up for the wrong meeting at 8 am,  went to pick up a couple that had indicated they wanted to come to church this morning - but didn't answer the door when I got there, I missed a meeting I was supposed to go to after church,  and had to sing with the missionaries in sacrament meeting - not a comfortable thing for me.  Whew!  Sounds like a bad day, doesn't it?  But actually it was a great day in spite of a few bumps in the road.  We had a wonderful ward conference with lots of stake visitors and a very good attendance of ward members, including several returning less actives and five non-members.  Sonja, who will be our next baptism, brought her daughter Kristie again and Kristie (who is in her 20's) took a Book of Mormon and committed to start reading it.  We had a fantastic ward potluck after church, to feed the stake visitors who have to come so far to our little ward.  Good food and fellowship. Then Audrey and I worked on her genealogy again and Wayne had priesthood training with John. Now Wayne is taking a well-deserved nap - I can hear him!

Just one more thing - March Madness is upon us and our favorite teams, BYU and Duke were quickly eliminated.  Still have hopes for Gonzaga?  But in our stake March Madness means something else.  The Young Men and their leaders have been challenged to read the entire Book of Mormon during the month.  They have cute March Madness calendar/reading schedules and are working hard.  Also other ward members that want to - Wayne has taken the challenge, too.  What a great idea!

Our love to you all.  We are here in West Virginia - helping to Hasten the Work of Salvation.
(Loved the quote that  appeared on someone's facebook page last week:
  "Drama doesn't just walk into your life out of nowhere,  you either create it, invite it,
   or associate with people that bring it..." )

Is "Studliest" even a word?

This has been one of those weeks that we have to remind ourselves that missionary work is more than knocking on doors!  We have been very, very busy,  just not out visiting a lot.

We did visit an elderly, vision-impaired single sister, Irene Kesner, outside of Maysville one day.  She had given me a little African violet plant last Fall and it is blooming so beautifully that Wayne took a picture of it on his IPad to show her.  She was very impressed at how well it is doing and that I successfully repotted it recently.  She likes us and gave us Honey Tangerines this visit.

On Monday Wayne spent the afternoon taking an older gentleman to the doctor in Winchester (oops, the guy is younger than Wayne, just in very poor health).  I did household chores, a little laundry, walked to the library, and did check up on a neighbor/member.  

Tuesday we had District Meeting here in Petersburg.  On the chalkboard, in the graph where our District Leader writes the weekly statistics, for Wayne and I he had written "The Ortons - the Studliest Couple in the Mission!!"  We are assuming (hoping) that is a compliment.  Fun meeting.  After the meeting we went to Robin Martin's neighbor, Tracy Johnson, where we reviewed the lesson we taught her last week, then taught about the Book of Mormon.  She is pretty fun and very interested.  We then met Elder Bell and Elder Mordecai at the home of one of their investigators and sat in on their lesson with her. She is a widow named Lou Black,  very nice lady and seems quite sincere.  We visited a couple more members in the area and drove 12 miles to Moorefield to see our dear friend Woneda who is out of the nursing home and back in her apartment with family tending her.  She was thrilled with Kyle's hummingbird picture, we are hoping there are more pictures coming for her.  We had a good but short visit because  we got a phone call from an inactive member needing help.  It was complicated, but the Grandmother was in the hospital in Morgantown with four-year-old Clarissa again, and needed a car seat from their home in Wardensville taken to Keyser, where the people who were giving them a ride home from the hospital Wednesday needed it.  Grandma Sheila said her son Will could meet us in Moorefield with the seat if we would take it on to Keyser (30 miles) for them. Actually we had been wanting to go to Keyser and it worked out fine for us.  It was a nice afternoon and a lovely drive.  We delivered the car seat, looked around the town,  found a Denny's and had a really good dinner, then drove the 40 miles back home.  No Bingo at the nursing home - they are quarantined due to a flu outbreak.  We had a fun visit with our granddaughter Cassidy who was turning twelve!

The rest of the week just flew by with a few visits, getting the van serviced (again), Relief Society night meeting and guys' jam session,  Wayne taking a couple of men home teaching, etc.  This weekend was our Winchester Stake Conference. We took our four elders to Winchester Saturday night for the Adult meeting - it was great, the theme was Hastening the Work of Salvation, are you all following that theme for your stake conferences this year?  My favorite quote was  "If you share yourself, your faith will follow."  It's true,  I have seen it again and again the past several months. For the intermediate hymn we sang "Hark All Ye Nations", with the full-time missionaries singing the first verse,  then joined by the youth for the 2nd verse, then with the whole congregation for the third verse.  Tried to show the power when everyone works together (and shows how puny the effort of just the missionaries alone...). Today the session was broadcast to our building and it was a regional broadcast from Salt Lake.  Very good with Bruce Carlson, Jean Stevens, Paul Johnson, and L. Tom Perry speaking.  After the meeting, John and Audrey Parks came to our apartment for dinner again, then John went visiting with Wayne while Audrey and I worked on genealogy at the church.  Five investigators at church today - they are enthusiastic and just soaking everything up. We hope to take John and Audrey Parks to the Washington DC Temple visitor's center next Saturday,  they are pretty excited about that.  But we will have to wait and see what the weather is like - because it is SNOWING today.
Again.

Our love to each of you.  We are excited to be a small part of this amazing work.  You are in our prayers, please pray for us.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and thanks to my maternal grandfather Closson Scott's ancestors who originally came from Ireland.  Here are my Irish sayings for the day:
"If you're lucky enough to be Irish, you're lucky enough!"
"May you have the hindsight to know where you've been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far."
"May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks. May your heart be as light as a song.
 May each day bring you bright, happy hours that stay with you all the year long."