Happy Birthday in the Mission Field

The beautiful Thueson family sending Grandma birthday love

Lovely cake made by the Elders!

Someone knows I love flowers

Cards, flowers, cakes, phone calls, Skypes - what a nice birthday for Sister Orton, I feel very loved and spoiled!  But more on that later...

Devin's amazing wife Amie made us a picture calendar for Christmas,  it's a treat to flip over each new month and see the cute pictures and inspirational thoughts on the next page.  On May's page there are darling pictures of Naomi and Krista playing with our miniature horses (Krista is in her pink princess dress, Naomi has bright galoshes on her feet) - so cute -  and the quote of the month is by Hans Christian Anderson:
 "The whole world is a series of miracles but we're so used to seeing them that we call them ordinary things."
Believe it.  We are trying to recognize the miracles in our daily lives, and there are many.  We have had a lot of rain lately, and it contributes to the natural beauty of West Virginia.  We are loving the tree-covered hillsides as the different shades of green appear, with the occasional red bud and dogwood blossoms for contrast.

Red buds line the road as we approach Wardensville

Dogwoods in the forest

Prettiest little valley, near Baker (West Virginia)

Small section of freeway, called Corridor H (we thought for the longest time that people
were saying Quarter H?), we travel this road between Moorefield & Wardensville
often, nice change from the narrow, curvy roads we usually are on.

About our week - it was busy.  We had District Meeting on Tuesday, then went visiting. My visiting teaching partner was out of town again, this time Wayne was a good sport and filled in.  We visited Jane, Woneda at the Baker nursing home, and finally way out to Carol L.'s beautiful home on a hill in the woods.  From her huge front window we watched the birds and squirrels play, it's such a lovely setting.  Then we drove to Wardensville to check in on Sheila H and finally managed to catch another family at their home and had a nice chat getting to know them.  Larry is not a member, but he is a car restorer and racer, so he and Wayne had a good visit.  Wednesday I took my neighbor girl to the hospital,  taught another lesson to our friend Traci (she is a regular at church on Sundays now, loved her first Relief Society night meeting a couple weeks ago, and even brought a friend to church with her yesterday), then worked with neighbor Becky H. on genealogy at the church in the evening.  JerriLee, who recently moved into the apartment next to us, had her baby about midnight,  darling little girl - Corinna Skye.  Thursday morning we got a call from Sheila H. needing a ride from Wardensville (about 45 miles away) to Moorefield. We spent most of the afternoon driving her around, but she was very entertaining and really appreciated our help.  We did get done in time to help with Bingo at the nursing home. Friday we had another lesson with John & Audrey out past Moorefield,  then drove south of Petersburg on the 220 to see Dave & Elaine V. and  Dave gave me a few strawberry plants for my little patio garden.  Wayne sang at the nursing home in the evening.

That brings us to SATURDAY!  My (Janie's) birthday.  So nice to be remembered with cards, flowers, chocolate, pictures, and good wishes - thanks so much.  After our regular 9 am meeting with the Elders and our Ward Mission Leader, Wayne and I drove to Moorefield (12 miles) and explored a cemetery that we had been curious about.  It was a beautiful place for a walk, interesting to read about the Civil War battle that took place there, see the graves of both Confederate and Union soldiers plus a section for slaves and their descendants.  Then we went to a nearby plant nursery where I picked out cheery pansies, petunias, and snap dragons to replace the weeds in the tiny flowerbeds on either side of our front door.  We came home, had a special lunch (shrimp, yum!), then the doorbell rang - two of our Elders (young missionaries) with a cake

they had made for me!  The other two came later with a cute picture of the four of them (and to share cake). Nice notes from each of them also, sweet.  I then went to a baby shower for a young woman in our ward and spent the rest of my birthday reading and talking to my kids and grandkids. Lovely day.

Sunday - very long day.  We don't have early meetings on Fast Sundays, but Wayne's friend Johnny K. said he wasn't coming to church because he didn't have the gas to drive to Petersburg from Moorefield, so Wayne left at 7:45 am to pick him up and bring him to church.  We had great meetings, then afterward had a ward potluck. After the potluck we picked up two of the Elders, took Johnny home, then drove to Jane H.'s for a sweet visit and the Elders blessed and shared the sacrament with her.  She struggles with health challenges and is pretty isolated so she very much appreciates our visits.  We then drove on down the road to the Baker nursing home to see Woneda and share the sacrament with her also.  She is very lonely and so loves her missionary visits.  Another half hour of driving past the little town of Mathias for a nice visit with Connie S. and up a mountain to meet Vada D., someone on the directory list that we have been trying to find. She is another lonely older lady with health problems, happy to have someone interested in her.  And we were happy to finally find her.  Her brother Baxter, whom she rarely sees, is a good friend of ours, we are having dinner with Baxter and his wife Sandy tomorrow night, so will convey her love to him (Wayne managed to take a picture of her with his IPad to show Baxter too).  An hour's drive from Vada's back to our home. Got home tired about 8 pm,  but had fun Skype visits with Acors and Thuesons to end the day.   Today I am running my neighbor and her new baby around to doctor appointments, WIC meeting, and grocery shopping and hope to get my flowers planted....    What fun.   Look for the miracles.  We are doing great and just wonder where the time is going? Our love to you all.  

  

This is Wayne now:  We were talking with each other the other day about how the Lord's tender mercies weave themselves into so many of the things we do or are called upon to do.  When we were driving across the U.S on our way to the Maryland, Baltimore Mission, we could see in our mind's eye tall buildings, lots of pavement, many busy people going to and fro, bright lights and so forth.  Then we received the call not to go to Baltimore but straight to Petersburg, West Virginia.  Totally different than what we had imagined.  And totally much better! 

What a tender mercy to come here.  It hasn't stopped there but continues and we are continually grateful.

We look back on the experiences we have had in our life, the things we have learned, the skills we have developed and can see how helpful they are now in "hastening the work".  Our skills and talents are really quite limited but we have experiences so often where we can use them.  We have helped with gardening, fixed a lawnmower, made house repairs, helped with family history, played music, helped with budgeting and many other things that have helped us appreciate experiences we have had in the past.  We are so grateful to do anything we can to invite someone to come closer the Christ.  It is just important to learn all that you can because it will be useful.  You may not think that it is important for you but it will be important to someone else later.

Visits, Service, Genealogy, and the Spring Mountain Festival

The heading kind of sums up our week.  We didn't make as many visits as we thought we should, but we'd

make a plan and something else would come up...   I took our neighbor to her doctor appointment one afternoon and will again tomorrow.  I spent a lot of time on genealogy this week.  A couple of the women I have been helping really needed their information, pictures, certificates, and documents organized, so I have been creating binders with sections for different items; mounting, labeling, and protecting pictures and papers; and just trying to make sense of their pile of precious information.  They are very happy with the results and we have names ready for our temple trip.  Wayne took his friend Johnny K. fishing and then up to John Parks' to make music one afternoon (fellowshipping, he calls it).  Then one morning he roto-tilled a garden space for Dave Vanmetter, who is in poor health.  I think they are planning a fishing trip also. He was called on to go with the Elders to give a blessing one evening.  We gave blood at the Red Cross Blood Drive and helped out with Bingo two evenings at the nursing home.  

Beautiful bright yellow finches at the Burr home

We did manage to teach another lesson to Traci and her friend Kitty and visit some of our favorites that we like to check in on regularly (Margarite Kindrick, Irene Kesner, George Burrs, the Vanmeters, the Bishop and his wife).  We also worked a little on our directory "Finding" list - those people no one knows.  We have sent out a couple dozen letters to people listed with only PO boxes or incomplete addresses, hoping the post office will help us find them, or that they will get the letter and respond.  Not too much luck there.  But Wayne has been using an internet address-finding program and that has given us a few more leads.  Friday we did find two of the lost.  We had a very nice visit with one lady, who is thinking about coming back to church and invited us to return to her home. The other one we found is definitely not interested and does not want us to come back!

Part of the menagerie at the Burr farm.

So it was a very busy week, we even managed to attend the local Spring Mountain Festival here in Petersburg on Saturday. After an early meeting with the other missionaries and our Ward Mission Leader we went to the small parade, then out to a park to a small Civil War encampment and watched a mock attack on a train.  We went out to the fair grounds where they had craft booths, a flea market, food booths, various entertainment, and we finally got to watch a little of a corn hole tournament (big thing here - just looks like a bean bag toss to me...).   Next week is already looking busy with appointments and lessons already scheduled, apartment inspections, and such.  Time flies when you keep busy.

Happy Birthday on Friday to Taivan (turning 11!).  We love you.
Thanks to Klora, Kendra, Kyle, and Krista for the wonderful letters and pictures you sent us.  We loved them (and love you too).
Here are some pictures of the Spring Mountain Festival :

Pageants are real popular here, so in the parade there were lots of floats, cars, and trucks
with royalty from toddlers to teens with their crowns and banners from various pageants.

Lots of trucks and  tractors

My favorite - Spring Horses:a bumblebee, a ladybug, and a bunny

Civil War encampment

Union soldiers on the train, firing back across the river

Fallen Colonel

Firing the cannon

Another casualty

Left the Civil War and back to real life - a rousing Corn Hole Tournament at the Fair Grounds.

Have a great week.

Spring in West Virginia - Redbuds and Rabbits

Lovely tree at our church that froze the day after Wayne took this picture

Pretty blossom on the tree before it froze

Yes, some days it does seems like Spring is coming to our corner of West Virginia,  then we have a couple

days of cool temperatures and snow flurries!  But lots of daffodils have opened up and a beautiful tree called Redbud is blooming, so we see patches of color here and there to keep our spirits up.  We have tried all week to get a few good pictures of the Redbud trees, but we can't do them justice.  I will post a couple attempts though.  Other nature highlights - a bald eagle flew over us while we were on our walk one day,  we see rabbits on

our walking path daily and Tuesday morning at 6:30 am as we headed out on our walk there were three rabbits on our front sidewalk!  One morning we scared up three deer, another morning there was a turtle on our path...  We also drove by an interesting herd of long-horn cattle yesterday afternoon.  Fun pictures.

To quickly recap our week - Tuesday we had Zone Training in Woodstock, followed by lunch together at a Mexican restaurant, we made it back to Petersburg just in time for a scheduled lesson with Traci, then helped with Bingo at the nursing home. One of the zone leaders came back from Woodstock with us for a couple days of exchange.  His name is Elder Mitch Hall and he went to school with our grandson Dallin.  He and Elder Farr asked if we would go with them visiting Wednesday.  They had a long ways to go and some single sisters to see, so they needed us to drive them.  It was a great day, really good visits.  Pizza for dinner at the Lists.  We ended with a very spiritual lesson with Connie Stever, who lives way out in the woods near Mathias.  She committed to come to church today - and she did, her first time in years!  We were pretty excited to see her there.  More visits Thursday, a lesson on financial management with the Parks,  a fun visit with Ella Sue Kimble and her sons in Moorefield and she was so pleased that I complimented her on her Easter egg tree and took a picture of it!  More Bingo, then Wayne practiced music at the church.  Friday after an afternoon of visiting Wayne sang at the nursing home and I made waffles for dinner.

Saturday Wayne helped his friend Johnny Keplinger plow up his garden space,  I guess his tiller/plow is
unique so we had to have a picture of it.  Then we drove way out to Seneca Rocks to visit a family, the Teters, there.  On the way back we went up into a mountain area called Smoke Holes to visit the shy Shirks. Wayne took a picture of their cabin,  I bought a little cardinal carving that Pam makes and sells.  It was a nice visit, they are getting used to us and said to come back!  That's progress.

Shirk's Cabin

Pam Shirk's Cardinal picture

Today - Happy Easter!  My day began way too early as our neighbor, a 21-year-old tattooed pregnant

Audrey & John Parks and Elder Bell

unmarried (LDS) young woman, Jerri Lee called me at 3 am, saying she thought she was in labor and could I take her to the hospital - which I was happy to do, in spite of the early hour.  She is due to have her baby in a couple weeks, but the pains she was experiencing were from a gall bladder attack and not labor.  I stayed with her about an hour, until they settled her in a room for the night, and determined the diagnosis. Back to bed for a couple hours more, then up to prepare for ward council meeting before 9 am church.  Lovely sacrament meeting, lots of people in our little ward.  Wonderful spirit as we worshipped our Savior on this special day.  After church we had  people over to our apartment

Traci, Sister Orton, Elder Mordecai, and Ron Holmes

for Easter dinner:  John & Audrey Parks, Traci Johnson, our ward mission leader Ron Holmes, Elder Bell, and Elder Mordecai (the other two Elders had dinner plans with ward members).  It was very nice and they all appreciated the meal and the company. Afterward Audrey and I worked on genealogy for a bit before Wayne and I needed to drive to Moorefield to help Elder Plumb and Elder Farr teach a lesson to our newest convert, Sonja.  I need to meet with her soon to work on her family history (German!), in preparation for a temple trip we are taking May 10th where she and the Parks hope to do baptism work for family names - how exciting is that!

We have had a very busy week, also enjoyed talking to Karli on her birthday Monday and today skyped with Kelsie on her 5th birthday.  So cute.  Have a great week and remember we love you.  Thanks Karli, Amie, and Julie for the emails, and thanks Darin & kids for the great letters & pictures - we sure love to find mail in our box...  And we enjoyed the Orton Family Newsletter - thanks Karli & Pat.

Fishing on the North Fork of the Potomac River,
Wayne is anxious to give it a try soon.

Easter Message

For a special Easter message  watch the youtube video "Because of Him" or find it on mormon.org

Pretty Awesome Week

It was an awesome week for us old folks,  and now we are pretty tired...  The temperature is in the mid-80's today, the grass is green, there are many daffodils in bloom, and the trees are beginning to leaf out!  Yeah! I even have a garden!  Some thoughtful ward members that we have become friends with and are trying to get to come back to church (and Wayne assures me that going fishing with Dave will further this quest...) started us a tomato plant, and I started zucchini and cucumbers from seeds.  We have been babying them along, last night was the first night I let them stay out on the patio all night.  Hope they survive.

Our garden!

 Tuesday we had District Meeting in Romney, it was good.  They we drove up to Parks' home and taught them a lesson using the Family Guidebook, about Family Prayer, Family Scripture Study, and Family Home Evening.  They just want to learn all they can and do everything they can to strengthen their marriage and be good.  We visited our friend Margarite Kindrick and she gave me a bouquet of daffodils, they look so pretty in a vase in our living room.  We also stopped by Traci's apartment to set up a time for our next lesson with her.  Then we had a funny experience.  We have been enjoying doing volunteer work at a nearby nursing home, helping with Bingo twice a week and other activities occasionally, and Wayne has been singing there twice a month. They had a volunteer appreciation dinner Tuesday night and had a big crowd, we saw people that we know and work with, also made new friends with six people at our table.  Had a really good dinner and a nice program. Then they gave out some awards - imagine our surprise when they gave Wayne and I lovely personally engraved trophies for being "Volunteers of the Year"!  (we haven't even been here a year...) Very embarrassing, but very nice.

Grant County Nursing Home Volunteers of the Year!

Wednesday we made a lot of visits, and I worked in the Family History Room while Wayne did computing in the clerk's office in the evening.  Thursday we taught another lesson to Traci,  then I took her to our Relief Society evening meeting.  Wayne met a few of his buddies there and they played music & sang.  Our RS Easter activity was well attended, well-planned, and fun. Friday Wayne took his friend Johnny Keplinger with him as he traveled a long distance to do some visiting & home teaching.  They had a good time.  Johnny showed Wayne the little church where he and Janet were married.  They later went to the temple.  They have had some difficulties with their marriage and their church activity recently, but have been doing very well lately. We are hoping to get them back to the temple while we are here.

Little white church in the woods.

That brings us to our busy Saturday.  We spent the morning working at the community mobile food pantry.

There is a local food pantry that gives food to local families in need weekly, we work there every six weeks or so.  But twice a year there is a huge mobile food give-away, where a big semi brings 12,000 pounds of food, volunteers unload & organize it & fill boxes.  Two hundred pre-approved families come and pick up wonderful boxes of frozen meat, vegetables, fruit, dairy products & eggs, and bread & pastries donated by big food chains.  It's held in the Petersburg fire station and is pretty fun to be a part of.  

The Elders provide a lot of muscle for this event, setting up tables, unloading pallets, carrying boxes to cars for participants, etc.  They are such good workers.  Wayne and I tried to help out wherever we were needed and made new friends.  

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But the real highlight of our day yesterday was Sonja Morton's baptism.  She is just awesome.  She started coming to Relief Society evening meetings last fall with a member friend, Janet Keplinger.  We have gotten to help with her lessons and have come to know her well and love her.  She is German, spent her childhood there.  She has three daughters in their 20's and a son Joseph who is 14.  It's been fun to see her growth and her gradual acceptance of gospel principles.  She didn't want to be pushed, she wanted to learn and understand, and make up her own mind.  As she came to accept and live each principle she just became stronger and stronger, and when she was ready to be baptized she was solid.  She wanted Wayne to baptize and confirm her - what a privilege.  I spoke at the baptism.  It was AWESOME.  She bore her testimony at the baptism and also in church today.  She is amazing.  

Sonja Morton & her son Joseph, with Elder Farr and Elder Plumb

Today, Sunday, has been  lovely day.  Wayne taught the Priesthood lesson and I taught Relief Society.  The Parks, John and Audrey, came over to our apartment for dinner, then Audrey and I went back to the church to work on genealogy while John and Wayne went visiting with the missionaries.  We look forward to hearing from our kids this evening and for updates on our grandchildren who we miss so much.  Would love to hear from anyone else who happens to be reading our blog.  I am not a great writer, I know, but please understand that we love being here in West Virginia and we love the wonderful people here.  Especially we love our Savior Jesus Christ and are blessed to be serving this mission for Him.  Happy Klarese Blessing Day to the Thuesons, Happy Birthday to our amazing oldest daughter Karli tomorrow.  And Happy Easter to you all!