Discoveries

Brother Baxter, an archaeologist, and his wife visited our staff meeting this week to give a very interesting presentation. In the 1982, the LDS Church Historical Department joined forces with BYU's Religious Studies Center to do an archaeological dig on the Joseph Smith log home site. Brother Baxter, who was working on his Masters degree, was part of that team. He related how they were able to pin point the site of the original log home . The original log home had deteriorated over time, so it was burned to the ground about the time of the Civil War . The  site was plowed over and used for farming until 1982. Today, an exact replica of the log home stands on the original site, and is visited by tens of thousands of people each year. When you stand in the upper bedroom where Joseph Smith slept, you are in the exact air space where the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith on Sept. 21, 1823.

In the process of doing the archaeological work, lots of artifacts were found in the root cellar that was under the Smith's kitchen. Items found were broken dishware from the period, glass, buttons, a gold bead, brass straight pins that Lucy would have used in her textile work, a military button of the period, knives, forks, spoons, and fragments of brick from the fireplace and chimney. These artifacts are in Salt Lake in safe storage. Brother Baxter brought out a few of them to show us.

It was neat to hold these discoveries in my hand

Another exciting discovery was to see the weekly progress in setting up for the Hill Cumorah Pageant. It is exciting to find opportunities to invite people we come into contact with to Pageant. A furniture salesman we deal with is excited to go. We try to give out as many Pageant pass along cards as we can. This year is the 75th anniversary of Pageant, and some extra things will be added to the already spectacular event.


The towers for lights, etc., have been put into place, and all the flowers are in full bloom.

We  had a discovery of another kind, a reminder that there is opposition in all things.  We discovered the source of one of our missionary sister's extensive bites on her legs.  A nest of infamous bed bugs was found by Elder Ellis within the box springs of her mattress! The apartment management was great and responded immediately. We spent 7 hours in that apartment on Friday preparing it for the exterminator, while the sisters bagged up every single item of clothing and linens and hauled them off to the laundromat to very washed and dried at very high temperatures. The beds and sofa were discarded in a special garbage dumpster. Our wonderful Assistants to the President hauled off the furniture. I'm sure they felt itchy for days after. We do, every time we think of it.

Here we are, the next day. Our wonderful zone leaders, Elder Stoker and Worsham, are loading their truck with new bedding and sofa for the apartment, which was thoroughly sprayed earlier that day. (The sister missionaries stayed at the mission home two nights.)


To make sure the mattresses are secure in the truck, Elder Ellis (former Scout Master) is reviewing Boy Scout knots with Elder Worsham.  We can see how Scouting helps young men prepare for missions.

Elder Worsham re-learning the sheet bend knot!

Hopefully, there won't be too many more unpleasant discoveries, as we inspect missionary apartments! (and we thought dirty toilets were the worst)
 P.S.: a word of caution to friends and family staying in hotels as they vacation this summer -- check the Internet to see what you can do to protect yourselves against this nasty bug.

To end on a more positive note, we also discovered that our son, Mark, was in the MTC with and served in the same mission (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania), as the young actor whom Elder Ellis met at the Chill and Grill last week in Palmyra --the one who portrays Jesus Christ in the new church Bible videos which can be seen on www.lds.org. It's a small world in the Church!

getting ready for pageant

The afternoon sun made a pretty reflection on the outside windows of the celestial room of the Palmyra Temple. Every time we attend the temple, our spiritual batteries get recharged.

While at the temple, we like to head over to the nearby Sacred Grove or the Hill Cumorah. At the Hill, we found preparations have begun for the physical set-up for the Hill Cumorah Pageant which starts July 13.

A collection of older Pageant costumes was on display at the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center.


Donny Osmond wore this one back in 1987.

Even before Pageant starts, tourists are starting to pour into Palmyra to visit the historic and sacred sites. Glenn Beck was here last week. Elder Ellis got to visit with the young man who plays the part of Jesus in the Church's new Bible video series.  He was here last week touring with his family before going back to Utah, to film 35 more segments. Elder Ellis was treating our two Elders to ice creams at the" Chill and Grill" before our Stake Priesthood Meeting, which was held at the Hill Cumorah, when he visited with this young man, who was there with his family. He recognized him from the day before, when we saw him leaving the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center, and  a sister missionary pointed him out to us. Elder Ellis was impressed with how very kind and loving he is. We have a wonderful picture of him with his arm around Elder Ellis. He doesn't want pictures of him or his name posted on blogs. But you can check him out on the home page of www.lds.org, where you can see the latest film.

A favorite place to catch a bite to eat is the "Chill and Grill", a modest roadside stand on Palmyra Road, that serves bigger than Texas size ice cream cones. Here we are, enjoying our "kiddie"size ice cream cones (mine is half of a kiddie size). A "small" ice cream cone has 4 scoops! "Chill and Grill" was a favorite of Donny Osmond.

Another great happening this week, was grandson Aiden's 8th birthday (that means he'll be getting baptized).  On the way home from district meeting, our Elders wished Aiden "happy birthday" and sang him a very original birthday song. Aiden, here are Elders Garcia and Schow when they were talking to you.

And here are these sweet Elders (they live close by, in our apartment complex),  on Father's Day, when they came over to wish Elder Ellis "happy Father's Day". They presented him with a card, as well as a present. Each of them gave him one of their ties, autographed with their names on the back.

Cares of the world

Unlike the younger missionaries, senior missionaries can't lay aside all the cares of the world, like paying bills and fixing cars.  The auto shop wanted over $600 to put on new brake pads, so Elder Ellis did it himself  for only  $50. 

Elder Ellis did the work in Mendon, in a garage that is on the property that was once owned by Brigham Young's father, John Young.

While he worked, I sat under a tree, enjoying the cool breezes and catching up on my journal.
When the work was done, we enjoyed eating our little lunch  on the porch of the John Young home, where Elder and Sister Servoss reside.

On the road back and forth to Mendon, we ran into a bit of traffic, due to the LPGA ladies golf tournament.

horse used for traffic control

Our main mission assignment for the week was setting up the apartment we had recently found for an incoming senior missionary couple (moving in the furniture, putting up curtains, etc.) It was a lovely 2 hour drive to Wellsville, which is way down in the southern tier of the mission, right on the Pennsylvania border.

We didn't get home til after midnight, but here's the result.

The apartment is on the second floor of this old New York house

My favorite is this fancy chair we got for only $29 (originally over $200) at the furniture clearnance center of the store we have a partnership with. Some of the bedroom furniture (dresser and night stand)  didn't make it in on time, so we"ll be back in a week.

Memorial Day week

After we came home from a Memorial Day run, we had breakfast with the two missionaries who now live in our apartment complex.  I had planned to cook breakfast for them, but they beat me to it, by preparing waffles and scrambled eggs (from scratch!).

Elder Garcia from Arizona and Elder Schow from Canada.

Besides making good scambled eggs, Elder Garcia also loves to draw and is quite the artist.

Our Ward had a Memorial Day picnic in the park. Brother and Sister Zollweg are stalwarts. In spite of health problems (cancer), they are in church every Sunday.  Sister Zollweg plays the piano in Relief Society, after having had a stroke which left her partially blind and in a wheelchair. 

After the picnic, Elder Ellis and I headed to the Palmyra Temple, where President Christianson and his wife met with the mission office staff and took us for a hike along an ancient Indian trail which winds around the outside of the temple grounds.

President Christianson always has the most interesting things to share with us about these historical places.

The trail also follows the boundary of the Joseph Smith farm. On a large part of the hike, we walked beside the very well preserved stone fence built by Joseph Smith, his brothers, and his father.

After the hike, the mission president changed clothes and gave a presentation to the temple missionary couples, while we headed off to a "home evening" with several senior missionary couples at the Martin Harris house, where two of the couples live.  After such a busy holiday we felt like "senior" missionaries when we got home late that night.  But it was so much fun!

The rest of the week was busy, including moving furnishings into this house in Penn Yan.  It took a lot of effort and definitely the help of the Lord in finding this bottom floor apartment. This rural town is quite small, with almost no decent places to rent. We were so happy to have found this place and get everything moved into it except the senior couple, who will be arriving from Utah next week.

This apartment also has central heat and air which is a rarity for an old house in New York.

old Victorian style fireplace in front entry room

Cute little kitchen and quaint dining area

It's been interesting, traveling from one end of upper New York State to the other, on our housing assignments, either finding them, or checking them. It's been interesting talking with real estate agents and property owners.  We've met some very nice people, and have had prayers answered in our search for apartments for our wonderful senior couples, as well as  younger missionaries.