November Missionary Moments...

We love the Liberty Jail and almost always enjoy this part of our regular rounds.  There is such a hallowed and special spirit surrounding the replica of the jail which was reconstructed on the original floor and with the original exterior stones.

Here is Steve blowing leaves off from the encased cornerstones of the Far West Temple Site.  This is another one of the regular sites one of us checks and maintains at least three times a week.

Down the road from the Richmond Cemetery, another of our regular sites, is a Mennonite Bakery.  This bakery, unlike the Amish one, is clean, well maintained and filled with bulk foods and bakery items.  We always enjoy our stop here. 

One day we were talking with the senior missionaries at the Liberty Jail.  They said that they had found a really good restaurant in Lawson named Catricks that served "haystack fries" and if we ever got a chance to go there, we should.  We were on rounds that day and discovered that we would pass near there on our way to Far West.  The temptation to check it out was high so we did.

Each couple ordered one order of haystack fries.  That is cheese, green peppers and French dressing on the top.  The Idaho missionary who recommended this said it was to "die for."  I believe she was correct but should have said it will hasten your dying.  It was tasty but probably not a dish we will sample very often. 

The week of Thanksgiving we were on full throttle to get the Christmas decorations up.  Sister Briggs and I were assigned to pick up live poinsettias for both visitor centers.  It was a visual treat to see hundreds of gorgeous poinsettias in one building.

We returned to find the men diligently hanging Christmas lights on the trees at the Independence Visitor Center.  We had to have everything ready for the Christmas Lighting Ceremony and program on the Saturday night after Thanksgiving.

The next day, Tuesday, we placed the Nativity set at the Liberty Jail, the Kansas City Temple and the Independence Visitor Center.  It was quite an operation to move them from their storage garage near the Liberty Jail to their places for the holiday season.  The Mary, Joseph and Jesus statue weighs about 500 pounds.  We definitely need Bob, the Bobcat skid steer, to do that job.

Below is the Liberty Jail Nativity.

Here is the crew working at the Kansas City Temple a couple of hours later.

Our last stop was the Independence Visitor Center.

When we finished there, we went back to our shop a few blocks away where our boss proceded to remove a diseased pine tree.  Steve cut off the branches, and we stacked the entire tree in the back of a truck.

 I called this the "tree in a truck".  Our boss probably took this to his infamous burn pile which we will probably see sometime in 2018.  We have to admit that we were totally exhausted at the end of that day.  It was most likely one of the nights, we went to bed early--like 8:30.  We were tired.

On Thursday, November 23, we hosted three other couples for Thanksgiving dinner at our little abode.  Our place accommodates several couples and everyone brought part of the feast, so we had a very nice dinner late that afternoon.  The visitor center was open so we had to wait until one couple was finished with their shift.

Friday we had the day off because our boss are church employees and they had the day off.  It was the perfect opportunity for us to drive up to Adam-Ondi-Ahman.  We had just finished reading the book, written by our high school friend, Randy Bird, compiling all of the official information about the site.  We were eager to see the place where Adam counseled and blessed his children before his death.  This is the same place where priesthood leaders from all dispensations will meet with Adam to return their stewardship keys and report prior to Christ's second coming.  What an amazingly important historical site!

This possum running around really caught our eye.  We have never seen a possum in its natural habitat and were surprised how active it was during the middle of the day.

Directly after we left Adam-Ondi-Ahman, we headed back towards Independence via a small town named Jamesport, Missouri.  They were hosting their annual Christmas Festival and selling lots of local products including crafts, jams, baked goods, etc.  A lot of Amish families live in and around the town.

It was an interesting little festival.  Many of the booths were located in the local school which was truly a step back in time.  This Amish bakery below was interesting, but since they don't use electricity or modern equipment, once inside the bakery it wasn't very clean or very appealing.  We purchased something to be nice but couldn't eat it.  We did eat at a highly touted restaurant that had a waiting line out the door.  We were disappointed in our lunch but later found out that the tenderloin sandwich we ordered is a local favorite and is always battered and fried which was not what we had expected.  The best part of our day was definitely our visit to Adam-Ondi-Ahman!

 Saturday was a beautiful day and the perfect day to use our coupon for a free visit to the Kansas City Zoo.  It was a big zoo and really spread out so we weren't able to see the entire zoo before we ran out of time and energy.  We were most intrigued by the red panda and the tree kangaroo, two animals we had not see before.

That evening we attended a marvelous Christmas program held at the Independence Stake Center.  The choir and the narration were exceptional.  Every number was top notch.  Then we walked across the parking lot for the Christmas lighting ceremony and some carols sung by the same choir in the Visitor Center rotunda.  They ended the evening with donuts and juice back at the stake center.  Apparently this is a long standing tradition in this stake and it was an excellent program.

This Light the World program schedule will begin on December 1st at the Visitor Center.

The next week, we were back at our regular duties including blowing leaves from the Liberty Jail area and the Far West Temple Site.

On Monday evening, we participated in a potluck dinner and FHE at the mission president's home in Liberty, Missouri.

Of course, we were back at work on Tuesday morning, which included fixing this water cooler at the Maryville chapel.

The very best part of this week was the safe arrival of Preston Taylor Price, born on November 29th at 1:15 p.m. He weighed 8.2 lbs and was 20 1/2" long.  Jen was a champion and is very happy to have him here.  We are too!

On Thursday, we had the unique opportunity of cleaning out dead wood and brush from the far end of Hauns Mill and burning it.  It was every kids dream to throw sticks in a blazing bonfire.  The fire got very hot though and just getting close enough to throw our sticks and brush singed our skin. The sparks burned holes in Steve's vest.  We were definitely hot, tired, and dirty by the time we did that for 5 or so hours.

Below was the fire at the beginning.  It got a lot bigger and hotter as the work proceeded.

That night we had the elders from our branch to dinner.  One of them had just arrived in the mission late the night before and today was his first day on the job.  I was happy that I had made the beef stew  the day before, because I was too tired to cook anything else.  I forgot to take a photo that evening.