September celebrations!

 A new grandson, Benjamin Liam, was born on September 17, to Lauren and Dan.




A few days later, on Sept. 21, we celebrated sweet granddaughter Kyla's 10th birthday, by walking from the Joseph Smith Log home to the Hill Cumorah (4 miles) .  Sept. 21 is the day the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith in this room in the log home, instructing him and telling him of the ancient record that was hidden in the Hill Cumorah.

A group of 40 missionaries made the hike. Our new mission president, President Francis is on the far left.
 (He is 6'7", almost as tall as the monument in back of him!)

 

 

The following day, Sept. 22, was another very special celebration -- the 2nd birthday of our precious miracle granddaughter, Dahlia!

             


 Last Tues., we celebrated a beautiful autumn day by going to the Palmyra Temple with our Brockport sister missionaries. We learned that the angel Moroni statue that tops the temple had just been replaced with a new one.  The old one got hit by lightning.
                   

 

This is Brother and Sister Wallgren.  Brother Wallgren travels the world, restoring these statues.

On the way home from the temple, we treated the missionaries to lunch.  Sister Butters loves "Happy Meals" and the toys that come with them.

  
Last night, the women in our stake gathered to hear the Women's General Conference broadcast from Salt Lake. Here are Lorraine (a special friend and member of our Brockport Ward) and I at the dinner provided beforehand. Lorraine has been recently battling  cancer. She has finished radiation and chemo and is now cancer free. A big reason to celebrate! It's going to be hard leaving behind friends like this when it's time to go home.

Where did August go? Hello September and Andy and KayLynn!

Wow! August has been pretty busy.  Along with finding the last of the 4 new apartments needed in the mission, we had two weeks of zone conferences.  Carl and I do a little presentation on missionary housing after zone conference lunches. Carl's presentation is on the serious side, while mine is silly.  It's fun giving out award certificates for 100% apartments (we give them a score each month when we inspect their apartments). We have a drawing -- all apartments scoring 95 and above for the quarter -- are entered.  The missionaries in the winning apartment get  McDonald's gift cards. The silly part is the little housecleaning "tutorial" I give. This month, they all learned how to dust (and even got a free microfiber dust cloth).

                                      Here are the props I used this month.

 Many missionary apartments have this

                                      warning sign by their front door.

 

 

In the morning of all the zone conferences, Carl is busy with Elder Willyerd (the mission "car czar"), helping inspect the mission autos, and select the cleanest car, which earns the "golden plates".

 

For the remainder of the month, we had a grand total of 40 apartments to check, which is 11 more than usual, since the senior missionary couple who checks those went home. Their replacement just arrived, thank goodness!  We have 7 other senior couples helping to check apartments. Our mission covers a huge geographical area.

 

It was so sweet for one pair of our  Elders to do this for us.

(of course, they got a 100!)

 

When September rolled around, Andy and KayLynn visited us for a few days. They couldn't have come at a better time. It was a very badly needed break, and filled our hearts with joy.

KayLynn looked so cute pregnant with our little grandbaby# 14, who is due in January.

Here's a peek at the places we took them to.

 

After visiting all the historic Church sites in Palmyra, we ended up in Fayette, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, at the Peter Whitmer Farm.

 

 

It was labor day, so we relaxed on the shores of Lake Seneca, which is close to Fayette

.

 

 

The next day, we went to the Palmyra Temple. Nothing beats being in the temple with family.

 

 

 

Wednesday was a perfect day to visit Niagara Falls. Here we are at the place where the force of the water coming down from the Falls and entering the Niagara River, has created a Gorge.

 

 

When we were at Niagara Falls, waiting in line to get on the Maid of the Mist, who should we meet, but DEXTER -- look closely at his name tag! (I haven't a clue who Dexter is, but I guess he's an infamous T.V. character). Dexter was so excited to see his newfound friend, Andy, that we sort of got V.I.P. treatment.

I think I prefer the real Dexter to the T.V. Dexter (based on Andy's T shirt).

 

The Maid of the Mist was an awesome boat ride. Boy, did we get drenched.

In case you're wondering who the weirdo is --it's me!

 

It was good to get out of those blue plastic rain ponchos. (It was an electrifying experience for Andy!)

 

 

 

 

The final day, we took in some of the tourist spots in nearby Rochester. (And had a yummy lunch at the Cheesecake Factory) ----

 

We were part of a group, with a grand total of 6, including us, on a cruise of the Eerie Canal on a replica of an original packet boat, the "Sam Patch". During the summer, this canal boat is packed.

Our tour guide has done documentaries on T.V. about the Eerie Canal.

 

 

Rochester is the home of the once thriving Eastman Kodak Company. We really enjoying seeing the mansion of the founder, George Eastman. Here is Carl in the Museum of Photography, which is an extension of the mansion.  There were all kinds of old, historical cameras, and photo exhibits.

 

 

This is our favorite room in the mansion, where George Eastman liked to eat breakfast, while listening to his own private organ recital. The organ, shipped in from Europe, is hidden behind some plants (on the right). 

 

The mansion is surrounded by magnificent gardens

 

 

Then it was on to "High Falls", right in the middle of the city of  Rochester.

 

 

We finished up the day at Lake Ontario, which is close to the town of  Brockport, where we live.

Thanks for coming to visit us Andy and KayLynn! We had so much fun.  Now it's back to work.

 

We are in the final weeks of our mission, with slightly more than 8 weeks to go. Our replacement couple gets here the end of Oct. After training them and probably  attending our last zone conferences in November, we're good to go -- a bit earlier than the projected Dec. 16 release date. Hard to believe. The time has literally flown by.