It is STILL Winter in Missouri...

 Last weekend our canvas photo of the Idaho Falls Temple arrived at Costco.  We picked it up and hung it in our living room right away.  It was taken by my sister, Jackie, and we really love it especially since it is the temple where we were married almost 48 years ago.  Jackie is an amazing photographer.  I think she could sell these if she had an official website.

This week, we were sent on rounds solo for the first time since Steve's injury to his thumb and wrist.  It was a welcome milestone that he is doing well enough to handle these chores with just me for a helper.  Below he is securing an anchor to hang pictures in the offices at Liberty Jail Historic Site.

 The next day we had a staff meeting which took most of the morning, but later we changed a few hundred bulbs in the Cameron Chapel.  Here I am in the Bishop's office.

 There is a broken pew in the Liberty Stake Center.  Steve and Elder Briggs evaluated the situation and reported to the boss, Mark.  This will have to be taken care of prior to Sunday services.

On Wednesday as we did our rounds by ourselves again, Steve went up in the lift and changed a burned out flood for the first time in over three weeks.  Yahoo!  Great news!

Since we were running ahead of schedule on Wednesday, we drove about 5 miles down the further down the road to find an original millstone from Haun's Mill which was placed in a city park in the small town of Breckenridge about 10 miles north of Haun's Mill in 1927.  A monument honoring those who died and suffered there was placed with the stone by the Missouri Mormon Frontier Foundation and dedicated on May 26, 2001.  

 We were told by a long time Missouri resident that Breckenridge is still a town not friendly to Mormons.  It is truly one of the most decrepid, sad little towns we have ever seen.  Many buildings are boarded up, falling down or burned.  The post office, bank and a few houses seem to still be occupied but not generally in good condition. It was a pathetic little town with dirt roads and broken down homes and buildings.

After we finished our Haun's Mill check and were on our way to Richmond, we drove right through the quilt town, Hamilton Missouri, home of the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  We stopped for a few minutes to drop of my first finished quilt top.  I purchased the quilt last Friday as a kit which came with some necessary quilting tools and all the fabric pieces and instructions.  When the top is finished, you return it to the company and they attach the binding, batting and backing and have a long arm quilter sew decorative stitching throughout.  It is a clever way to get interested people started on quilting.  It worked.  I'm delighted to have been able to put the top together rather quickly and I can hardly wait to get my finished quilt back.

Thursday included the analyzing and execution of a repair strategy for the broken pew in the Liberty Stake Center.  Steve came up with the method they finally used to fix it.  Hooray!  It worked.

It is amazing if you sit in the right seats in the chapel, you can see directly out of the window to see the Angel Moroni on top of the Kansas City Temple spire next door.  Beautiful!

The night of the 31st, we were able to attend the temple to do some initiatories. It was a Spanish session so we were glad we had chosen to do the initiatories instead since our Spanish is very poor.

We stopped at one of our favorite stores, Sprouts, which is near the temple, on the way home.  Armed with chicken and cashews, we had yummy stir fry soon after. 

My generous sister, Cathy, sent me some special gloves you can wear and still work your cell phone.  I wore these the morning of my birthday.  What a cozy way to start a very cold day.

We missed the lunar phenomena because there were too many clouds.  So we didn't see the Super Blue Blood Moon and complete lunar eclipse on Jan. 31, 2018.  But we did see this beautiful view on the moon when we arrived at work on Feb. 2, 2018, so I took this photo.

Our plan was to work together on Friday and include our friends, the Johnsons, for rounds in the truck after we had completed our work at the Visitors' Center, Liberty Stake Ctr. and Liberty Jail.  The Johnsons, from Arizona, work at the two historic sites.  They had an 8 a.m. meeting and then were able to  meet us at the Liberty Jail about 9:30.  We had to have them back for their 3-9 evening shift at the Liberty Jail.

 We quickly finished our work at the VC, changed burned out bulbs in the Liberty Stake Center and took care of things at the jail.  Then everyone bundled up and we piled into the truck and headed for Far West.  On our way, we planned a stop at Slivinski's bakery in Kearny for Fritter Friday!

 We not only had Fritter Friday which was decadently delicious, Sister Briggs brought a candle and stuck it in my treat.  Then they all sang Happy Birthday to me right there in the bakery.  What a nice gesture.

It was a very cold morning, about 15 degrees, so we were bundled up and squeezed together in the truck.  We laughed and enjoyed our time together.  Getting in and out of the truck is a bit tricky, but we figured it out.

 Far West is always cold and this day did not disappoint.  We all worked to pick up the sticks from the grounds and make sure the lights and bathrooms were working correctly.  Then we were on to Hauns Mill via a slight detour to Breckenridge to see the millstone.

We were almost to Richmond to check and clean the cemetery, when we had a tire blow out on the highway.  Steve was able to control the truck and pull it off the road without incident.  The tire was completely shredded. We were grateful we had three men to change the tire as it took the efforts of all of them to get the tire off and the spare tire installed. 

This was the second time on Friday that we felt especially protected by the Lord.  We had a very near miss that morning when a car next to us missed us by inches but hit another car.  Then we felt blessed that no one was hurt and the vehicle wasn't damaged by the blow out  We always start our day with group prayer before we leave the office for our work. We really felt blessed and protected on Friday.

Because of the time it took to change the tire, we weren't able to stop in Richmond for lunch with our guests.  We were planning and hoping for BBQ at the Oink and Moo, but we had to head straight back to Liberty so the Johnsons could start their shift at the Liberty Jail on time.  We needed to get home ourselves as we were having our branch missionaries to dinner.  I loved celebrating my birthday by serving these dedicated missionaries.  We all had to settle for a tasty, but flopped blueberry cake.  It tasted great, but the cake fell apart when I tried to remove it from the pan.  We had a good laugh--just another birthday memory.

Saturday morning, the quilting sisters, Sister Diane Johnson, me, Sister Vickie Briggs, and Sister Ann Larsen got together for a big sale at the Quilters' Station in Lee Summit.  None of us had been to this quilting shop before.  It was a fun experience.  The guys went to the Big Biscuit for breakfast.

That evening the Briggs hosted us for a dinner to celebrate my birthday.  It was very kind of them to host us.

Sunday, we left early to start picking up our kids for church.  We picked up three kids, Sara, Christina and Neville from one family and Monica from another one.  They come from different countries but they can all speak Swahili together.

It snowed while we were in church so the roads were very slick.  We took Sara, age 7, home right after church and then came back for the others who attended seminary and had interviews with the branch president.  We finally arrived home at 3:30 and needed to shovel the driveway.  We got about 3 inches which is the most we have received in any one storm this winter.

Steve has done a lot of reading since we arrived in Missouri.  The history of the church in the area is extensive and we have access to a lot of interesting books.  I am reading them also, but due to my blogging, letter writing, cooking and quilting, I'm far behind him in the reading department.