It is So Cold out there...

Happy Valentine's Day

Little Backyard Cemetery - very common around here

It is mid-day, the sun in shining, and it has warmed up to about 12 degrees!  It was 7 degrees when we got up this morning, the wind was blowing, the roads were icy - after the Bishop drove to the church from his home about 8 am he decided to cancel church services for today.  So we are having a quiet day, listening to the wind howl while we are warm and cozy in our little apartment.  We can read and study and eat left-overs from the ward activity last night.  We have been pretty busy lately, so it's good to relax a bit.

Instead of using Monday for chores and getting organized for the week, we decided to drive to Winchester to a MALL and to COSTCO!  What fun!  Wayne needed some new shoes and we had a good time shopping and picking up some staples at Costco.  We even treated ourselves to a nice dinner at a Ruby Tuesday restaurant.  When we got back in to Petersburg I dropped Wayne off at the nursing home to visit his friend Dave and I came home to try and find places to stash our purchases,  it's nice to be stocked up but difficult to find anywhere to put things, there is no storage room in our temporary home...

Tuesday was Zone Conference in Berryville, about 70 miles from here.  It's always a treat to be instructed by our mission president and his wonderful wife, and our stake president.  Good and dedicated people.  And great to be around the other missionaries and hear their suggestions and miracles.  On the way home we visited Deb F. in Wardensville and the Alexanders in Moorefield.

What a nice surprise Wednesday - a lovely Valentine's Day bouquet!  Wayne tried to pretend they were from him until I read the card.  Thanks Devin and Amie - they are lovely.  So nice to have fresh flowers in February!  We had District Meeting Wednesday morning.  Wayne has a cute story to share from that.  He is so creative and the Elders just love him.  In the afternoon I met Wanda at the church to do some more work on her genealogy.  She sells Avon and brought gifts of lotion and after-shave for Wayne and I - that's a first!  We had fun and she plans to start attending on Sundays soon.  Thursday - more genealogy work, this time with Sheila.  More visits, we went to a very shabby trailer court to try (again) to find a lost member, James. Successful this time and he shared his story of just getting out of prison and trying to get a job.  He is trying to provide shelter and food for his wife and sons, knowing that he could get quick, easy money going back to selling drugs.  He is determined to stay away from that though - we prayed with him.  Hope he is successful.  Service at the nursing home in the evening.

Friday we found another missing member.  Cute little lady, mother-in-law of another lady we are working with.  We had a nice visit and she says she wants to come back...  We visited some other members, then drove to Moorefield for dinner with Dwayne, Katya, their four children, and the Elders.  Katya had wanted to fix German schnitzel for us.  It was very good.  After dinner Wayne entertained the kids while the Elders and I had a lesson with Dwayne and Katya. It went pretty well I think.

Saturday was hectic as Wayne helped prepare for the ward activity and I filled in at the nursing home,
helping some of the residents play "Flip".  No, we weren't doing flips.  We were turning cards over when the listed category was called.  Boring, I think, but they are pretty excited when they win a game and receive a nickel!  Later in the day, the weather didn't cooperate with our activity.  The temperature dropped, the wind started blowing, and it started snowing.  Still we had a pretty decent attendance and everyone who did come had a good time and managed to get home safely afterward.  Our special little family (who we had dinner with on Friday) came, so did the cute little lady JoAnn that we found.  Harold, a man the Elders are teaching and who is scheduled for baptism the end of the month came and had a great time.  I think there were seven less-actives and eight non-members of the total attendance of 50 or so.  We had a great dinner of ham, beans, fried potatoes, and cornbread.  Members brought an abundance of desserts.  Live music was provided by Wayne and his friends - they are pretty popular.  It was a good evening. 

Robin, Traci, and Oscar

Erik

Mandalyn, Calli, and Cadence

Audrey, John, Elder Orton, Johnny

Busy week coming up as we get to take four Elders to the Washington DC temple and also go with ward members on Saturday.  Wayne is playing music at the nursing home twice.  And of course meetings, visits, and lessons to teach.  Hopefully the weather will be better next week and the roads will be good.

Today we are missing our family back home - looking at cute pictures of the Poyfairs and Thuesons having fun together in Utah!

 SHOE POLISH

In our district meeting last week I (Elder Orton) noticed how all of the Elder’s shoes were not polished and looking kind of shabby.  At the end of the meeting I went to the chalk board, drew a circle and wrote “shoe polish” in the circle.  I asked them if they were familiar with this term.  They looked at me like they thought I was a bit “touched” and then I asked them if they knew what shoe polish was for.  They each hesitated a bit as they thought, “Is he for real?”.

I didn’t let up.  With seriousness, I asked for their answers one by one.  “So our shoes will look nice?”  No, that is not the reason.  “So we better represent the Savior when we meet people?”  No, that is not the reason.  “To preserve our shoes and they will last longer?”  No, that is not it either.  “So we won’t look grubby?”  Wrong again! 

By now they were starting to look flustered so I told them I was going to let them know the real reason for missionaries to keep their shoes polished.  They were ready to learn at this point.

Notice the shape of a shoe.  See how most shoes are tapered to a point more or less?  Part of the reason is because it is formed around a foot but the real reason has to do with aerodynamics which is primarily concerned with the forces of drag and lift, which are caused by air passing over and around solid bodies. 

Now consider the polish.  It is a waxy substance that when buffed out leaves a shiny, very smooth surface.  We wear shoes on our feet as we walk.  As we walk, we are moving our feet forward.  Air passes over the surface of our shoes.  When our shoes are not polished, the air passing over them finds resistance, thus lowering the drag coefficient.  This means it takes more of our energy to walk.  When our shoes are polished and we walk forward, the drag coefficient is increased which results in less resistance to the air passing over them and there is less energy required to walk.  That my young elders is the real reason we polish our shoes.  Never forget it.

As missionaries we need all the energy we can find to go forth and hasten the work.  As wise stewards and servants, shouldn’t we do all we can to be efficient?

Sister Orton, why are they looking at me this way?  I hope they got it.

Next time I saw the elders, their shoes were . . . . . . . still not polished except one!  I tried.

First week in February - 2015

Beautiful West Virginia Sunset

What a great day!  I think we had our largest attendance at church since we've been here - 103!  Several investigators, several non-members, six returning less-active members.  We had a great sacrament meeting, strong spirit, and our brand-new ward choir sang (small in number, but sounded good).  Best of all, Craig - who was baptized yesterday - was confirmed.  So it was a great morning, then our Bishop's wife Lucy invited us over for chicken & dumplings and baked ham & cheese sandwiches,  very good.  We enjoyed the meal and enjoyed visiting with them for quite a while after eating.

Our weather has been very up and down this week,  cold and windy, then nice, then cold again.  Today was beautiful with the temperature almost up to 70 degrees.  The recent storms have missed us,  we had a lot of rain one evening and a few snow flurries one day, but not bad.  Tuesday we drove up to Romney for our District Meeting.  We got to see our friend Woneda in the nursing home while we were there.  She is not doing well. Wayne read to her from the Book of Mormon.  When we got home we made a couple of visits. Wednesday we made a long drive (oops, I think out of our mission) to Morgantown to visit our friend Dave who was in the hospital there.  He was in pretty bad shape from the flu and lung problems a couple weeks ago, was put on a ventilator here in the Petersburg hospital, then transported by helicopter or ambulance 100 miles to a better hospital in Morgantown, associated with the university there.  Anyway, he is finally getting better and was anxious to get back home - he didn't realize how ill he was, he was sedated for quite a while. So we got to spend a little time with him.  He got to come back to Petersburg on Fridy and is at the nursing home here for physical therapy as he gets his strength back.  I think of him as an old man, but he is only one year older than I am,  quite a bit younger than Wayne.  He has had a rough life, we are glad he is doing better now.

Thursday we did service at the nursing home, then Wayne and friends practiced music while a friend and I worked on genealogy.  Friday was special,  Wanda came to the church, I got her registered with Family Search, and we started work on her genealogy (for several hours).  Wanda used to come to church but quit coming several years ago.  We had gotten to know her, several of her sisters, and her mother Helen in our visiting.  Helen passed away recently and we have encouraged Wanda to come back - this is a first step. I really like her, we worked well together, and had fun.  I have found more information since that she will be excited about,  I know I had divine assistance in figuring out a few problems we were having.  We are getting together again this week.  Our ward Family History Director, Ashley, and I are also meeting with Sheila again this week, she is a returning member who has been at church three or four Sundays in a row and is also very excited to work on her genealogy.  We are doing missionary work for the living and for the dead...
While I was working with Wanda on Friday, Wayne drove to Moorefield.  He picked up his dry cleaning, visited quite a while with George and Bonita at their store, drove our dirty van through the car wash, and picked up a few groceries at Wal-Mart.  He just barely got home in time to grab his karaoke machine and get up to the nursing home to sing for the residents for an hour.  They love him and he seems to enjoy singing for them as well.

So yesterday was the baptism of Craig.  His wife was inactive when the missionaries found them.  They and their two children have been coming regularly for a couple months.  He is so happy and excited.  Our Ward Mission Leader, Oscar  (from Puerto Rico, who was baptized just before we got here), baptized him yesterday, and confirmed him today.  There was good ward support at the baptism and Bishop gave him the responsibility to close the chapel doors during the sacrament time each Sunday,  he took it very seriously today.

Elder Aubrey, Oscar, Craig, Sallie, Elder Briggs

Craig & Sallie with Elder & Sister Orton (or Pap & Maw, as he calls us)

Craig & Sallie's daughter, Cassie

Craig with Oscar

After the wonderful baptismal service we drove to Moorefield to visit with Dwayne and Katja and their four cute kids again.  Dwayne is an inactive member, Katja and the kids don't know anything about the church. They came for the first time several weeks ago, then haven't been back.  We had a nice visit - and they all came to church today!  Katja is German, she invited us to come to dinner Friday night for schnitzel!   Our friend Vada (who gave me the beautiful Christmas cactus) was at church today, for the first time since we have been here and she brought her non-member son!  Exciting day.  Busy week next week as we travel to Berryville for a Zone Conference and prepare for the ward's 2nd Annual Hoedown on Saturday.  Last year's was a great success,  Wayne's blue grass band is a big hit, and an awesome ward member is fixing ham, beans, fried potatoes, and corn bread again.  It's going to be another great week.  Hope yours is good too.   I loved the Ezra Taft Benson lesson today on Freedom of Choice,  especially the part about lessons learned on the farm.  "He learned that the law of the harvest -- "whatsover a man soweth, that shall he also reap"  (Galatians 6:7) -- applies to spiritual pursuits as well as physical labor."  We talked a lot about how decisions determine our destiny...

To Wayne's siblings, thanks for the invitation but regrettably we won't be able to make it to the Orton Sibling Reunion in Ogden again this May.  Maybe next year...   And you may be interested to hear that our son Darin in Warden just let us know that Lola Roylance Cole recently passed away.  He said she was the matriarch of the ward and related to just about everyone there, she was in her 90's I think.  Wayne remembers the Roylance name.

Another little white country church 

Creepy old deserted house right by the road

Another view of the creepy old deserted house

Tiny country church

Wayne's favorite little valley, winter view

WV University football stadium in Morgantown,
right across the street from the huge hospital complex we visited
(and got lost in a couple times)

Glad to leave January behind...

Another week has flown by, and here we are at the first of February!  Last week our youngest grandbaby turned one without us, fortunately Julie sent a short video of her eating her birthday cake!  We got a little snow last week and had some very cold temperatures, but were spared the huge storm that hit to the north and east of us.  Today again we are on storm watch, but again it looks like we will just be on the edge - we'll see.  Last week's storm really iced up the trees and it was so beautiful,  Wayne took some lovely pictures.

Monday Wayne spent most of the day in Moorefield getting brake work done on the van.  While it was being worked on he was able to borrow a car and go out to Johnny's to practice music for an upcoming ward activity.  Tuesday we had District Meeting in the morning, then in the afternoon we made several visits and worked at the nursing home.  We picked up some groceries for a family that is in crisis, they were very appreciative.   One of the visits was to an older widow, Irene, a special friend of ours.  Outside her living room window she has a bird feeder and we had fun watching the birds while we visited.  Especially loved seeing the bright cardinals (quite striking against the snow).

Wednesday Wayne took off with Baxter and drove far out to our High Priest Group Leader Paul's home.

Wayne said he saw a pretty little church on his drive way out in the country,
but only managed to take a picture of this beautiful (?) snow-covered truck!

They had a presidency meeting, then tried to make a couple visits in the area, but both homes were up lanes that were too snowy and icy to drive up.  But on the way home Wayne and Baxter were able to make a good visit with a man who has drifted away from the church and needed some fellowship and encouragement.  I worked on genealogy,  even helped someone (not a member) who came to the church to wait for a ward member for some kind of a meeting.  I found the visitor some information on ancestry.com that she was thrilled with about her grandmother and gave her my phone number so we could get together again...   Thursday I spent the morning helping Sheila with her genealogy,  Sheila has just returned to activity and is very excited with family history.  She is the one who just reunited with her sister over genealogy.  In the afternoon Wayne and I did a lot of driving around, trying to make contact with elusive members who sadly were not home.

Friday after our meeting with our ward mission leader we drove to Moorefield and had a good visit with George and Bonita at their new second-hand/auction store.  Interesting place and they are very excited about their new business.  Then we drove quite a ways to visit our friend Jane, who has battled MRSA for months and has been pretty isolated.  She looks forward to our visits.  Then way out in the woods to see Joy and Forest - he is pretty sickly and their car is not reliable so they haven't ventured out for two weeks. We enjoyed seeing them, they were happy for the company.  (And gave us some delicious pumpkin roll!) On the way back through Moorefield we stopped at our favorite Mexican restaurant and had a good meal. Saturday - lots of visits and we drove up to Smoke Hole to check out a cute log cabin resort where our daughter Angie and her family might stay when they come to visit us in April.  It looked like a fun place, the trout pond is amazing!  And yes, there are golden trout in it.  We are really looking forward to the Acor visit!

Today we had wonderful meetings and lessons. Ashley and I started a new family history class, including Sonja our recent convert from Germany.  Should be fun.  The Elders had a new investigator at church, Harold, who we first met when we were trying to find someone else.  We visited with him instead, talked to him a little about the church, then sent the Elders to find and teach him.  He is really progressing.  And I am so excited - one of the daughters of the woman who recently passed away is meeting me this week to work on genealogy.  She hasn't been to church for years,  hopefully coming to the family history room will be a first step toward returning to activity.

Next week should be awesome - we get to go up to Romney for District Meeting and will see our friend Woneda who is in the nursing home there.  I have several appointments to help people with genealogy and we have a baptism scheduled for Saturday!  Plus numerous other fun things...

Happy 8th Birthday tomorrow to our cute, sunshiney, best-hug-giver granddaughter Krista!  And on Friday Happy 11th Birthday to the lovely, talented, way-smarter-than-me Miss Ellie Rose.  We sure miss you.

“No, God does not need us to love Him.
But oh, how we need to love God.
For what we love determines what we seek.
What we seek determines what we think and do.
What we think and do determines who we are –
and who we will become.”
– Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Irene gave me this African violet over a year ago,
I am so glad it is thriving.  It's beautiful.

Keeping busy...

Elder Briggs & Elder Aubrey helping James & Audrey at the Food Pantry

Our week began with a funeral, instead of a Preparation Day.  Well, we did have half a prep day, so we got

our cleaning and laundry done.  Helen's funeral was in the afternoon.  Wayne and I both participated in the service, then we went with the family to the cemetery and Wayne dedicated the grave.  It was nice and we hope that it motivates some of the family members to come back to church. I (Janie) started feeling a cold coming on that evening and by Tuesday morning was not feeling well at all - so I stayed home from our Zone Meeting.  Wayne took Elder Briggs and Elder Aubrey to the meeting in Front Royal.  It lasted most of the day (with 1 1/2 hour travel time each way).  When he got home I was feeling well enough to go up to the nursing home for our service hour (Bingo!).

Wednesday was our day to work at the community Food Pantry.  We enjoy that a lot,  it's a great service to

be involved in.  I greet clients and help them get their paper work in order, Wayne and the other missionaries (and sometimes ward members) do the real work of filling the food boxes based on number of people in the family and helping them get the boxes to their cars - or strapped onto an old stroller, as one couple did, since they didn't have a car...  After our shift there we visited Goldie, who is 90 years old,  then stopped in to see Charlie and Ann, and their daughter, Marie.  We have been visiting them for over a year, they really want to get back into the church  - but just can't seem to get up and ready by 9 am on Sundays; they really want to quit smoking, too, but it's just so difficult.   Anyway, we love them. And have recently been working on genealogy with Ann's sister, that has gotten them excited about it too. Maybe that will be the key.  Ann and her sister have not been on speaking terms for quite a while, but last week they got together to talk about their family history - so at least that was a success.  And Ann's sister Sheila has come back to church, she's been three weeks in a row, another success!!

Thursday was our big monthly home teaching/visiting teaching loop, out to the furthest edge of the ward.  My VT companion Janet went with us, for a change.  And Wayne's HT companion met us at one of the homes, then they went off in another direction for more visits.  After I dropped Janet off, I stopped at four more places on my way home, to check up on ward members, then ended up at the church to work on genealogy and have the Family History room open for an hour or more. Theresa came in and indexed.  Another high mileage day for the trusty van.

We met with our ward mission leader Friday morning, then worked at the Food Pantry again, made a visit to John and Audrey's, and did a few errands.  Saturday we had planned to go to the DC Temple,  but snow and ice was forecast,  and our passengers backed out because of weather and illness,  so the trip was cancelled.  We spent the day working on talks and lessons,  making phone calls, catching up on book work and journal, etc.  Possibly a nap, too...   For dinner we went to the local Chinese Buffet - it's very small and not all that great, but when we talked to Matt and Kaleb on their joint birthday Wednesday that's where they were in Boise and I'd been hungry for Chinese food ever since!

Today - you know, the Sabbath, our day of Worship and Rest!  We began with Ward Council at 8 am, then our 3-hour church block.  Late last week a member of our Bishopric asked us if we would be back-up speakers for Sacrament Meeting today.  The assigned speakers had just let him know that they would be at a wrestling match for one of their kids on Saturday and didn't know if they would be able to get back Saturday evening.  So we prepared, not knowing if we would be needed.  But we did get to speak today, and it was good for us.  Then I helped with the family history Sunday school class, then taught Relief Society. Wayne taught the High Priest' class too.  You'd think the ward members would be tired of us speaking and teaching so much, but they are just so happy not to have to do it themselves all the time that they put up with us, and even encourage and compliment us!  After church I helped Sonja get started on her genealogy (interesting, she is from Germany), while Wayne went to choir practice.  After a nice dinner he left to go home teaching with his friend Johnny who can't get his companion to go.  Johnny's wife was sick today and he came to church on his own this morning (about a 15-mile drive for him), that's huge for him,  we are very proud of his efforts.  It's been a good Sunday,  a good week.  Not too interesting for you to read about, I'm sure.  But we feel useful, and very involved in the lives of the members here in Petersburg.  We feel the Spirit's guidance in our planning and preparing, and I especially feel His influence as I help with genealogy and we prepare names for the temple, helping those on the other side to progress.  It's good to tire ourselves out in service to the Lord.

Congratulations to our beautiful granddaughter Katelyn on her acceptance to the college of her choice, BYU-Idaho - yes, I know, it's hard to believe that she is a senior this year!   Happy Birthday tomorrow to our youngest granddaughter, Klarese - she turns one on January 26th, we look forward to meeting her in six months....   And Happy Birthday to lovely Sara this Saturday.  We love you.

Happy Birthday Elder Orton!

Happy Birthday today to Elder Orton!  A Spiritual Giant,
spending his birthday home teaching and serving!

Ready for car inspections

Kind of a strange week - too much drama and not enough sleep for us old folks.  But we made it through, now on to a new week.... Last Sunday evening, our four Petersburg Elders told us the news for the upcoming transfer day: Elder Lyon will be moving to a new assignment and a brand-new Elder will be coming to our area with Elder Barzee as his trainer.  I'm excited - we've not had a new Elder in our area yet. Monday morning the Elders brought their cars over for Wayne to do inspections.  Different plan - the new Elder was ill and had to go home from the MTC,  Elder Lyon is still leaving, Elder Barzee will move in with the other two Elders and the second apartment will be closed. Well, I don't

like threesomes (too much rowdiness and silliness) but not my call, so okay.  Later in the day they were told that another Elder had to go home, Elder Barzee will be moving to another area to take his place and we will be down to just the one missionary apartment with two Elders in it.  Elder Barzee and Elder Lyon had to work very hard to get the apartment cleaned plus getting packed to leave by Wednesday morning.

Tuesday we had District Meeting here in Petersburg.  The two Romney Elders came,  one of them, Elder Farr who

Elder Farr, Aubrey, Vanderveur, Barzee, Lyon, & Briggs

served in Petersburg before going to Romney, is being sent to another area also. So, sadly, from our area three Elders are moving on, we had to have a party right? Actually I skipped the District Meeting because I was helping someone with genealogy, then went home to fix lunch.  After the meeting, Wayne and the six Elders came over to our apartment for lunch.  Also our ward mission leader who lives nearby stopped in too.  It was fun. 

So we got up very early Wednesday morning, loaded Elder Barzee's stuff in our van and picked up Elder Aubrey and Elder Briggs.  Elder Lyon and Elder Barzee drove the mission car with Elder Lyon's stuff and the two bikes.  Three hour drive to the Columbia Stake Center.  It was a great transfer meeting and the usual chaos when the meeting was over as luggage, bikes, and missionaries were transferred.  We drove home to Petersburg, dropped off our passengers then went to the Bishop's home for dinner.  Bishop and his wife Lucy are wonderful, their home is lovely, their two handicapped daughters are pretty fun too.  Wayne stayed there after dinner to help with a youth activity while I went to the church to work on genealogy.  I try to be there every Wednesday night, to either index or work with ward members.  Finally Wayne got back and we went home together, pretty tired from a long day.  We went to bed about 11 but after midnight the phone rang.  It was from the hospital where a ward member had just passed away and the family had asked for us to come up. So of course we did, we knew the woman who passed away quite well, she was 80 years old and had recently been in the nursing home for rehab from a broken arm. We also knew several of her daughters (inactive), it was sweet that they wanted us to be with them in their time of grief.  We talked to them for quite a while, prayed with them, talked on the phone with another sister that couldn't be there, and they gave us the phone number of an estranged sister and asked us to contact her with the news.  It was after 2 am when we got back home.  But a special time we shared with them.  We are going to Helen's viewing tonight and her funeral tomorrow.  

David, on his birthday/baptism day - 17 Jan 2015

Charles, Ashley & David

The rest of the week has been busy as well.  Good visits and service opportunities.  Another cute 8-year-old from the ward was baptized yesterday. Last night a family in the ward invited us, the two Elders, and the Ward Mission Leader to dinner.  They turned their house into a diner (Momma's Place), the kids were waiters and bus boys, they had printed menus, and other fun effects.  We enjoyed it and so did they.  The ward members are so good to us here - how could we be so lucky as to be sent to this lovely place with such good people?  We see little miracles daily and are over-whelmed at His tender mercies. 



 Loved the poem from our RS lesson today:
    I know not by what methods rare, But this I know, God answers prayer.
    I know that He has given His Word, Which tells me prayer is always heard,
    And will be answered, soon or late.  And so I pray and calmly wait.
    I know not if the blessing sought  Will come in just the way I thought;
    But leave my prayers with Him alone, Whose will is wiser than my own,
    Assured that He will grant my quest, Or send some answer far more blest. 



   

Br-r-r-r-r-r !

My winter garden, Paper Whites (Narcissus), blooming already - so fun!

So cold all week.  Windy and snowy some days too.  Our District Meeting scheduled for Tuesday was postponed due to weather, the mission cars were grounded for part of the day and the Elders got their exercise shoveling snow. Wayne was not feeling well most of the week too, so we got off to a slow start.  He wasn't feeling the greatest by Wednesday either and the weather

President & Sister Richards with granddaughter, Lucy,
who is visiting with her family

was cold (about 10 degrees and windy) but he wanted to go to the scheduled senior couple get-together at the Mission Home in Ellicott City, near Baltimore (about 3 hours away), so - over my objections - we went. It was very nice, but sad, as we bid farewell to three great couples who are going home:  the Larsens, from Astoria, Oregon, who have been serving in the office; the Dittmans from Alaska, who were MLS (Member Leader Support) in a small ward like us; and the Mills from Sandy, Utah, who worked with the Young Single Adults in the Baltimore area.  Our

Mission President's wife fixed a lovely dinner for us and we had a nice

evening.  We met two new couples to the mission, the Smiths from Utah who will be working in the mission office and the Howards, who are local and will be working for FamilySearch in records preservation.  It is interesting to hear what other couples are doing and learn about the variety of ways available to serve.  President Richards also told us about the newly called Mission President who will be replacing him July 1st. Long drive home, but safe.  

Senior couples who are coming to the end of their missions:
the Mills, Larsens, and Dittmans

Had to get up early the next morning (Thursday) to take our four Petersburg Elders to Romney for interviews with President Richards followed by our District Meeting.  After the meeting we inspected the living quarters and car of the Romney Elders, then I went to the local nursing home to visit our friend Woneda. She is doing okay and sent me on an errand to the store to get her some raisins.  I wouldn't let Wayne go in the nursing home, he was still a little sickly.  When we got home to Petersburg we had an hour for a little rest, then took Elder Briggs and Elder Aubrey south of town about 15 miles, to the Upper Tract area, for dinner with members and great friends, Sandy and Baxter. Sandy fixed us a wonderful meal and even gave us leftovers for the other Elders. Wayne and Baxter entertained us with guitar and banjo pickin' before our message and prayer.  Fun day.

It was Friday already and time to get back to actual missionary work.  I left Wayne at home and went up to our nursing home to visit Helen - she thinks she may get to go home soon after rehab for a broken arm.  I also checked in on Robin and Traci.  Picked up Wayne and we tried unsuccessfully to see a few people, then drove to Moorefield for a nice, long visit with our new family, Dwayne, Katja, and kids.  Good to see them, they talked for a long time about their recent trials.  Hope they all get healthy soon and continue with the missionary lessons.  They are awesome.

Weren't we lucky to find this treasure on our way up to visit Jack & Debby?

Saturday we made several good visits.  Encouraging folks to come to church, checking up on struggling members, and just being friends.  It was a very good day and we made a few return appointments for next week. Nice Sabbath Day today and now Wayne is off to Stake Priesthood Meeting in Winchester with a full van load of four missionaries and two other ward members. Glad he is feeling better.  Have a great week, we plan to. 

Winter shot of Wayne's favorite little valley
(By the way,  guess who is turning 72 next Sunday?)

Our real treasures - these pictures keep us going....

Happy Anniversary and Happy New Year - 2015!!

Monday, December 29th, was our 44th Wedding Anniversary!  How blessed we are to have had 44 years together, to have six wonderful children who each married an amazing spouse in the temple and gave us 24 amazing grandchildren, and now to share this adventure in West Virginia!  After 16 months here (together 24/7) we still enjoy each other's company, work well together, and laugh a lot.  To celebrate we -- went to Wal-Mart...   And we went out to dinner, but found that the restaurants in Petersburg  (that would be 3) are closed on Mondays, so we ended up at a little pizza & pasta hole-in-the-wall place, but it was okay.  We know how to party....

Tuesday we had District Meeting, made a few visits, and helped out at the nursing home.  Wednesday and Thursday  missionaries were not supposed to go out proselyting.  Wayne practiced music and I worked on genealogy.  I also made a big bowl of applesauce and my first ever attempt at Brunswick Stew - so good.
The Elders were told to be in their apartments by 8 pm Wednesday night.  We did get to have a little more fun than they did, we went to a party at our Bishop's home.  It was great - good food, games, visiting, etc. (However I will not play "Curses" again - what a silly game!)  We got to see a few fireworks that the city sets off too.

Thursday - the first day of 2015.  It's going to be a great year, isn't it?!  It was a little chilly here, but we went for a hike.  Drove several miles out of town, then a couple miles up Smoke Hole Road, to the trail head of the Landis Trail.  Supposedly a great view at the top of the mountain, but all we saw was lots of trees that blocked any view.  The trail was rocky, slick with leaves in some places, and while not steep it was a good climb.  Very good exercise for us, and there were a few sore muscles the next few days.  We enjoyed relaxing and watching football and basketball on TV the rest of the day.

Friday we had our weekly meeting with our ward mission leader, then had some very good visits.  In the evening Wayne sang at the nursing home.  Saturday we had freezing rain in the night.  When we went out for our walk at 6:30 am the van was coated with a layer of ice.  The sidewalk was slick too, but the pavement was okay, so we ventured on.  When we got up the hill to the park we realized that we were foolish to be out,  and slid back down the hill to our cozy apartment.  Fortunately it warmed up by noon and we were able to set out on our planned visits to the far reaches of the ward - to visit Vada D., out past Mathias; Larry and Deb F. and Dan C. in Wardensville;  Jane H. on the way back to Moorefield,  and our new family in Moorefield.  The new family we are working with and like so well have been having challenges this past week.  The father Dwayne is in the hospital with divirticulitis,  the mom and kids are worried about him. We were able to console, calm, and encourage them and after we had prayer with them, the 11-year-old Lisa asked us why she felt like crying during the prayer.  Sweet opportunity to explain the Spirit. Our Elders arranged for a blessing to be given to Dwayne in the VA hospital in Martinsburg,  we hear that he appreciated that a lot.   All the visits went well and we can see how being here for so long has allowed us to build special relationships with these people some of whom have no other contact with the church.  They all said they enjoy our visits and for us to come back soon.  We feel like crying from the influence of the Spirit sometimes too.

Wonderful Fast & Testimony Meeting this morning.  Hope yours was good.   I get to do White Handbook Training this week in our District Meeting, and since we are doing apartment inspections this week too I think I will use Doctrine & Covenants 90:18:  "Set in order your houses; keep slothfulness and uncleanness far from you" and the section on Housing.  Can't help being a mother!  Thanks for the box of goodies and the bulbs, Judy.  Thanks for the wonderful, encouraging letter, Ferrin!  We love to hear from family and friends, it keeps us going.   Happy New Year!

Now that the leaves are off the trees, we spot many dreys like this.
What is a DREY?  Look it up.

We are trying to capture some of the beautiful sunrises we enjoy on our early morning walks.
We will keep trying.

New Year's Day hike.

Yes, my wife insisted we wear our bright yellow vests,
too many crazy deer, bear, and squirrel hunters in the woods around here...

Bulbs that my sister Judy sent me, growing a couple inches a day,
so fun to watch.