Thursday, August 18th 2022

Three Weeks Condensed

The weeks go by and I think nothing of interest has happened but we do have some lovely days along the way. In the past three weeks we had a delightful dinner with our dear friends the Coffmans in Burlington, Iowa. We toured Quincy, Illinois which is the city that saved the saints from becoming extinct. We hosted a group of temple missionaries for our monthly "break the fast" meal. I made a curry dish that they even had seconds and Dave's bread is always a hit! My brother Robert, wife Tami and a few of their children dropped by. We loved seeing them and spending that time with them while we went to the Sweet Corn Festival in Iowa. They cook up hundreds of ears of corn and they're free to eat as many as you want. We went to Kolona, Iowa and had a delicious home cooked meal with 10 other temple missionary couples in a New Order Amish home. New Order means they have modern conveniences, but still dress and live in a traditional way. 

Our temple presidency is changing at the first of September so we are having a farewell reception for them in a couple of weeks. I was put in charge of a musical number with a small group of missionaries singing "So Long, Farewell" from Sound of Music. I changed the words to be more meaningful for us. I've done some of the same movements as the song and I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out. 

There’s a sad sort of chiming in the clock on the wall

and the bell in the tower too

And down in the break room we all speak of the place,

that we all love, the place Nauvoo.

Nauvoo Nauvoo 

Regretfully they tell us but firmly they compel us to say 

goodbye to you

So long farewell, we think of our first day.

You said, be still, and learn the Nauvoo way.

So long, farewell, we send you off with care,

and how we’ve loved the things that we all shared.

So long, farewell, we send you on your way.

Dear Lord, please bless and keep them, this we pray.

We folded towels and they were not a few,

We didn’t mind, we loved what we could do.

Some times, were slow, that mattered in the least,

for us, with you, was truly a great feast.

For you, the time, is done in old Nauvoo,

thank you, for love, and counsel to be true.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Today was rather exciting. We were asked to bring 20 bake potatoes to our Thursday night shift potluck in the temple and I put them in the oven and was going to go take a shower. Dave had gone out on an errand.  I was heading to the bathroom when I saw a light in the oven. I thought "why is the oven light on?" I went over to turn it off and it didn't do anything, the light was still very bright so when I went to open the door of the oven to see why, the oven coil was on fire!! Yikes! I started hopping around not sure what to do...I ran to the door and yelled, FIRE!!! of course no one heard me and I ran back to the oven which was still on fire! My mind was racing about what to do... I remembered about throwing flour or baking soda on it to smother it so I opened the cupboard where the baking soda was and of course it was on a high shelf so I was stretching and jumping trying to reach it. I thought I should turn the oven off too. I finally got the soda and threw it on the flames which were about two inches high and moving along the oven coil and popping up. I called Dave and happily he answered cause he was driving. As we were talking the fire stopped and all was well... I did need to cry a little as I was taking my shower out of fear and gratitude because if I hadn't noticed the light before I showered it would have had 15 minutes to burn and I could have come out with the kitchen in flames! Perhaps...or it would have just burned itself out with the door being closed... but the potatoes would not have cooked! We have some really sweet upstairs neighbors that I was able to take the potatoes to and she baked them and even took them to the temple for me.  Whew! I don't think I like that kind of excitement though!

Dinner on the Mississippi with the Coffmans. 

That is a triple layer ice cream dessert!

Break the Fast dinner. We rotate who hosts and who we have dinner with. Next to Dave and I are the temple President and his wife, the Andersons, then the Christensens and the Evansons. 

Very nice group of people. 

 Filling our faces with yummy corn! 

Dave, Rob, Me, Alex, Alexa, Nash and Tami in the back.

Me and my littlest brother Robert. Love him so much!

We took a walk to Horton's Lake which is 

very close to our apartment.

a feather I found along the way.

Us on the trail to the lake

This is in the gardens at Governor Wood's mansion in Quincy. 

He is the man who rallied the people in Illinois to help the saints.

Governor Woods mansion 

I always hug big huge trees at historic places cause 

they might have been alive at important times.

A sign we saw on our drive to Quincy

I got tons of chigger bites on our hike up to the lake. 

They really are pretty miserable things!

our first practice of the Farewell song. Brother Werrett, Brother Williams, Sister Miller, Sister Ward, Sister Petersen and me. 

We got to do yard work instead of our shift on Tuesday. We worked for 3 hours. While we worked I felt strong and energetic but as soon as we were done, I couldn't move my muscles. I truly feel like The Lord infuses us with strength and energy while we are serving and then we get done and our bodies go back to normal, aches, pains and weariness. Pretty amazing! 

Dave edged all the temple parking lot and temple grounds! Then we both used the leaf blower to clean it all up. It looked pretty nice if we do say so ourselves. There is only one grounds keeper employee now, two quit a few months ago so she is doing it all by herself.  

Burnt out oven. It was like those snake things we used to have except the flame was much higher and scarier to have in a house. They (temple engineering) actually already put a new range in when we got back from the temple tonight! Oh and Dave was put on another engineer shift for the next few months. So now he does engineering on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays.