To where oh where is our time flying? It's going way too fast. When August arrived I started to feel the crunch tof all that needed to be done--the things we still wanted to do, the packing, the information to be found here. Robert had started telling me back in early July that we would run out of time, we needed to do this and this and this. He's always one to do things way ahead and my natural tendency is to take a day at a time and leave things until later. Luckily, I've mostly learned to do things, at least partially, his way, and it's always a good thing. He started wanting to go through things weeks ago, which I felt was way too soon. But now, anything that's already been done, is a good thing.
Sunday the 31st was the fifth Sunday and President Klopfer gave an excellent lesson about the miracle at the temple when the signers of the Declaration appeared to Pres. Woodruff. He gave us a 2-page handout and then gave us scriptures and more information to go with it. It was excellent. I could have listened another couple of hours. We got a handout for Owen. He would have loved it too.
We had the young elders for dinner and had round steak and gravy, homemade mashed potatoes, red Jello salad with pineapple and cherries and pineapple upside down cake. If I do say so myself, it was great! Guess it was all things I was hungry for. The elders were very appreciative and said, "You've really outdone yourselves!" We sent them home with extra cake for them and their roommates.
Monday, the first, Caleb and Celine Gentry came in. They had asked if they could stay here and we were glad to have them. She will be teaching somewhere between here and Provo and Caleb is planning to transfer to Provo I think. They have an apartment there, but can't get in til the 4th and she had meetings on the 1st. We enjoyed visiting with them. They're sweet kids.
At one point we were supposed to go to Bev and Paul's cabin on the 2nd, but Paul had hernia surgery, so it's been postponed until the 16th. We decided we'd better use the 2nd to do some of the "need to do's" before we leave. We had borrowed a Parkin book from Jim Parkin a couple of months ago, took it apart and scanned it, then realized when we went to copy it that the pages weren't in order. I wanted to get the book back to Jim, so Robert wrote down the first few words on each page, we returned the book, but still hadn't put it in order. So we went to the library and finished copying it, which was a big, slow job. Sister Hunter had called and asked me if I could help with a VIP group that Jason had coming in. I hadn't done one since the problem with the printer card, but I told her I would. It was a Navy chaplain and his family coming in on Wed. afternoon, but I needed to meet with Jason about it before that. I also decided we hadn't made any headway in a year on the Ruggles line, so I wanted to meet with one of the staff professionals and see if they could help us. So lots to do at the library. We got our shopping done and went there. It was crazy trying to dove tail it all. I met with Jason and the couple had sent some family information that they found and Jason had done some more work on the lines and asked me to take the wife and he would work with the husband. I tried to familiarize myself with it. Robert worked on copying the Parkin book and I copied more of the Turner findagrave pages. Then I went to B1 to meet with the guy who's good on Canada and northern U.S. (I was told). He asked if we had a birth town in New Brunswick and I told him no, but we have her on census records in Maine, and he just kept telling me how I needed to find this and that and whatever and do this and that, but never sat down with me, never gave me suggestions as to how to find it, did say GenWeb might be helpful. I kept telling his what we DO know and he kept telling me what I need to find. I know what I need to find, that's why I came to him, for help! I was quite aggravated and went back to the second floor and asked for someone familiar with Maine. A guy came down and again kind of told us what to find. I didn't find either of them very helpful. We're so used to sitting down and working with people one on one and that's what I was expecting. Tim, on staff, had done that before, and that's what I was hoping for. I did find two new collections on Maine cemeteries that were new in 2016 in familysearch and checked those out, but no luck. Guess we're shelving it again for awhile.
When we went in Wednesday, I waited with Jason for the Navy chaplain. The wife and two daughters came, but he had to be elsewhere. That had to have been disappointing for Jason, after all the work he'd done, but he talked to them for a bit, gave the background on the library, the vault and some of his family work to show what can be done in FS, then we took them into the lab and I worked with the wife and he worked with the daughters. I think it all went fine. The wife said she could stay all night, and Jason helped the girls find some great stuff.
Sunday was our last fast Sunday in the branch and I should have thought about bearing my testimony, but I hadn't. Brenda came to be there, I'm sure because she thought we would speak, but neither of us did. A lady from another country (I don't think a missionary, I think a visitor) told of an experience she had with a friend who was not a member, but was interested in the church. The friend died and this lady wanted to do her work. She asked the daughter, who said no. She waited awhile, then prayed and told her friend that she'd have to go to her daughter and get her to change her mind if she wanted her work done. About a week later, she called the daughter and asked and the daughter told her that her mom had come to her about three days before and opened the drawer by the bed and got the book out and threw it across the room. It was the Hindu book the girl had been studying! And she told the girl to give her friend permission. Quite the story! I only got about 3 or 4 words of it because of her accent, but Brenda told me the story on our way home.
The Olivers are leaving when we are and they bore their testimonies, which was very sweet. Pres. Richards (LeGrand's grandson, in our stake presidency) told us, "Woe, woe, woe to you if you aren't writing down the things you're hearing and the experiences you're having." Made me glad I've been trying to keep track of the wonderful experiences we've had. He said, "The Hebrew language doesn't have superlatives, so one woe is bad, two woes you're in trouble, and three woes is serious."
Monday at the devotional, zone leaders from the history library and from the Canada zone in our library both spoke and they were really good. I was surprised how funny the Browns were--from the Canada Zone. I really don't know them.
Yesterday I got up early and started sorting my clothes--what to pack now and what to leave out to pack just before we go. Then I went through the computer desk and then filed more paper into the manila folders I got. I just can hardly part with a piece of paper--I'm so bad about wanting to save everything. Robert went in and packed my stack of stuff into suitcases and we called LeeAnne to see if they are really thinking about coming. She said no, so we stripped the spare bed and washed the sheets. Robert took the pictures off the walls and packed them, so there are several areas done.
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| Ruggles Bed and Breakfast is closed |
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| Wish the beautiful colors showed up better |
We went for late lunch on the way back, put off grocery shopping, and came home and changed to go to the temple to do sealings.That uphill walk is still hard for me. I would think I'd be a little better at it, but I'm not. We took 10 sealings to do and several others had probably that many. There were only 4 men, so we did a lot of kneeling, and Robert and I both have a hard time with much of that. We got them done, and were glad for that.
A funny thing happened the other day. I had mailed off about 30 cards to Reba for baptisms to be done. She had called to tell me they were done and she mailed them back. When I got the envelope, there was ONE card in there and it looked like the envelope had been opened. I called her and she said no, she had mailed a stack and sealed it herself and sent them. A day or two later, about 10 cards, no envelope, appeared in our mailbox and had obviously gone through the post office. They must have come out of the envelope and they found these and delivered them because this address was on the cards. It's not all of them, but at least some of them came back. I'll have to re-print the others.
We need to go shopping today and then I want to go to the library early. I found the Turner info I brought with me that Patricia Turner Ritchie had sent me a couple of years ago. She has info that I've been looking for recently and mentioned a book that's online that I need to find today. The DNA test Jim did just came back, so I want to talk to Joni about that.
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