And the Heat Goes On...

Zone conferences started on July 10th and all 3 FM couples were scheduled to attend that day.  However, due to extreme temperatures, 98+, we were assigned to drive to all locations on Tuesday and water the flowers and fertilize the pots. Therefore, we attending Zone Conference on Wednesday, the 11th, at the Liberty Stake Center across from the Kansas City Temple.
The conference was excellent and I was busy writing down scriptures and insights.  Two from President Love included "Don't interrupt the Holy Ghost.  Pause and be quiet."  He challenged us in our morning prayers to "delicate our day, heart and will to Heavenly Father."   President Hancock, a counselor to Pres. Love stated that "the Lord gives us what we truly desire." He knows our hearts.  President Cato, our stake president, also bore his testimony.  I always love to hear his powerful and heartfelt testimony.  After lunch, we were scheduled to attend a temple session as missionaries.  There were more missionaries than seats, so President Love was appreciative that Steve and I volunteered to attend a different session.  We attended on Friday night instead.

Thursday, we started the day by moving new sofas to the Clayview chapel for the foyers.   We have been hoping for months that the opportunity would arise to get a different sofa for the Maryville chapel up north.  Their sofa has been patched together for awhile.

When Mark, our boss, assigned us to load the better sofa and take it to Maryville, we were elated.  Maryville is always so appreciate of anything we can get for them.  Here Steve and Mark place the sofa in the tiny Maryville foyer.

The Maryville fridge went out last weekend, so we also had to stop and purchase a new fridge for the kitchen.  It isn't that easy to find small, basic, white fridges anymore.  Home Depot had to order one it, but fortunately Lowe's had the perfect fridge in stock.  We were grateful.

With so much driving and hauling,  it was a long day but we had more work ahead of us.  We were the first people to arrive to help the McArthurs, our young Riverview couple, to unload their moving truck at their new apartment.  It was several degrees over 100 actual temperature as we unloaded their truck and hauled things up one flight of stairs.  Eventually a few more helpers arrived which was appreciated.  After everyone else left, Steve insisted on staying and helping to put their bed together.  He especially thoughtful when it comes to moving situations.  It's the voice of experience.

On Friday, we drove to Cameron and Gallatin to deliver copiers to the family history centers.  Then we drove over to Albany to deliver paper products.  In the past when we have delivered copiers, we were always instructed to bring back the old copiers so of course, we did that.  When I asked the administrative assistant for the form we needed to fill out, she said, "Did you bring back the old copier?"  We answered "Yes."  She then told us that the protocol is different for family history copiers than for library copiers.  She said the old ones had to be returned to the sites until the new copiers were properly installed.  Therefore, we had to return the copiers to Gallatin and Cameron on Saturday.

                                         Gallatin chapel below is the Far West Stake Center.

We passed this old barn on the way from Gallatin to Albany and I had to take a picture.  There is a big barn quilt near the top.  We also loved the pickup for sale parked in front of it.  It is sad to see the normally green grass all dried up and parched.  We are in the middle of a severe drought especially in the northern part of the state.

Here is the cute farmhouse across the driveway from the big barn.

As we got closer to Albany, we saw this intersection where highway A intersects with highway Z.  We thought of the old saying "from A to Z" and thought this was kind of funny.

                                         Here is the cute little Albany Chapel.  It doesn't have a gym.  They have one large room called a meeting room and it functions for Sunday services and any gatherings.  They use padded folding chairs for flexibility.

We took a few minutes to eat our lunch in the fancy, spacious kitchen.  We rarely take special time to just eat lunch.  We usually eat as we drive in the truck.

On Saturday, we drove to Gallatin and Cameron to return the copiers.  Here is a picture of me in front of the Cameron chapel.

Then we drove to the Cameron Park and Ride lot to meet the Briggs and Mark.  Briggs have their grandsons, Easton and Jackson with them as they will be attending EFY in Liberty throughout the next week.

Mark and his wife, Allison, finally arrived at the lot and we formed a caravan to drive to Macon, Missouri for a championship truck and tractor pull.  Our boss, Mark, is a big fan of truck and tractor pulls and he was excited to have us join him.  I think his sweet little wife, Allison, was happy to have the company too.

Mark likes to sit up near the top of the stand near the point where the vehicle finishes and the measurements are taken to determine who pulled the weight, "the sled", the farthest.  You can see Steve on the far right, third row down.

There were a lot of fans in the stands.  We were happy to have a roof over our heads to protect from sun and those pop up out of nowhere sudden rainstorms.

Vickie and I thought the t-shirts were the cutest things since sliced bread.  We are still trying to get a sliced bread t-shirt.

When everyone went to the food booths for treats, I expected Steve to return with a funnel cake.  Instead he located watermelon.  I was pleased and it was tasty.

However, Mark returned with deep fried oreo cookies.  Everyone had to taste them, so Steve and I split one.  It as very hot and melty and of course, sweet.

The pulling vehicles emit a lot of smoke and a lot of noise.  We all wore earplugs.

The Farmhall tractor below was a winner named "Old School" since it has all original metal parts.

Below are a couple of winners in one of the truck divisions.

We were tired on Sunday, but so happy that our kids, Monica, Christina and Neville all came to church!

Monday, we started out at the Visitors' Center.  I took this photo because I could get Steve on the lift and show the Community of Christ Temple in the background.

When Steve changed this light, he felt like Joseph Smith was watching him.

Then we drove to the new mission home to put together and replace two nightstands for the bedroom where visiting general authorities stay.  When the bedroom set was moved from the old mission home, it didn't fit in the new home.  The night stands were too big and had to be turned sideways.  It didn't look good at all.  I was able to find replacements on-line that fit perfectly.  Sister Love was so happy to get the new nightstands and they really look great.  Whoops.  I forgot to get a photo. 

We had to rush home and get cleaned up so we could arrive at Aunt Inge Lisa's viewing a little early.  We wanted to support and great my cousins, Mette, Anne and Heidi before others arrived.

We had time for a nice visit and some photos with Mette and Anne.  Heidi hadn't arrived when we had to leave.  

The plant from the Bob Kerr Family is in the lower right hand corner.  It looked lovely.

We needed to leave to meet the group of senior missionaries at Fort Leavenworth army base in Leavenworth, Kansas.  A tour had been arranged a long time ago, to see parts of the base and especially the areas where the Mormon Battalion arrived and were honored.  The Battalion was given their weapons and training at Ft. Leavenworth before they left on their 2000 mile trek to California.

The fort is a beautiful place which is well cared for and full of historic homes.  It was built in 1827 and is the oldest continuously used fort west of the Mississippi River.  It was the jumping off place for any westward confrontations, etc. It is still very vital and there is a very important training school here that almost all high ranking officers attend.

Inside this old chapel, where the walls are lined with memorial plaques honoring servicemen and war heroes, we talked about the history of the Mormon Battalion and the fort.  Since my great great grandfather, Wilford Heath Hudson, was a member of company A of the Battalion, our guide, Bishop Wingo, had printed out journal entries that told about him.  I had the opportunity to share with the group that Wilford, was one of the first two men to discover gold at Sutter's Mill in California which started the California Gold Rush.  Willard worked for the mill in the daytime and then panned for gold in the evenings until he earned enough money, $1700, to outfit himself to travel back to Utah and meet up with his family.  He ended up traveling all the way to Council Bluffs area to retrieve his wife and children since they had not traveled to Utah with any of the groups.

On the other side of the railroad tracks behind Steve is the point where the Battalion members disembarked from the ferry that brought them across the Missouri River.  The river has since moved a couple of miles east of this landing area.

Our mission president and his wife, visit in front of some of the 36,000+ graves in the military cemetery.  Some very famous people are buried here and if their wives or family members are here also, they are buried several levels deep.

Next we stopped at the Monument honoring the Mormon Battalion.

Below are a few of the beautiful old houses that line the streets of the fort.  They have been renovated to incorporate modern conveniences like plumbing and electricity.

The home below is called the Rookery and is said to be the oldest home still used as a residence in the State of Kansas.  Accounts vary as to whether it was built in 1827, 1832, o4 1834.  Regardless, it is OLD.

Kansas sunset over the fort buildings.             

Here is the Fort Museum.  It isn't open on Mondays so we will have to schedule a time to come back when it is open.

Tuesday, we were busy cleaning up garbage and branches from a tiny lot in Independence, we were just notified was owned by the church.  If the weeds aren't removed and it becomes an eyesore, the owner will be fined.  Therefore, we have another new job.

Even though it is a small lot, it was nevertheless a big job in the heat!

Mark had mowed the weeds last week but there were lots of weed stems sticking up out of the ground and lots of holes so it was very tricky walking around and hauling branches.

We recognized the protecting hand of the Lord, when Steve was moving a large cinderblock and accidentally tripped on a hidden stem near the sidewalk.  It could have been disastrous for him, but he was able to toss the cinderblock away and roll in the dirt in such a way as to avoid an injury.  It was truly unbelievable and you had to see it to believe it.  The Lord blesses his missionaries.  We seen it many times.

We were glad to get this labor intensive chore done early in the day since the heat becomes sweltering.  Next we moved three large chalk boards out of the Clayview chapel.

We got to see the work in progress as the pews and seats in the chapel are being re-upholstered.  It is remarkable to see how they do their work and do it so well and so quickly.  We saw a photo of the finished chapel on a phone later in the week.  It was beautiful!

Steve sits on the one finished bench behind the sacrament table.

Here is a photo of the front of the Clayview chapel.  It was originally built in the 1960's.

On Thursday, we were working at Far West, grinding tree stumps, mowing, cleaning the grounds, etc.      Steve took this picture of the gorgeous hibiscus plants near the restrooms.

It makes us sad to see the normally green grass yellow and dried up at Far West.

We water the temple lot from the water collection ponds across the street.  The drought is so severe, there is not enough water to water any of the surrounding area where the picnic tables are, etc.  Even the temple lot is showing the stress of the drought.

In Missouri storms can develop almost instantly.  One minute I was trimming roses.  The next minute the sky was almost black and the parking lot lights went on.  We ran for cover under the porch of the restrooms just in time.  Thunder was rolling, lighting was all around us and the wind and rain were severe.  15-20 minutes later, it was all over.  The hot sunshine followed and the place became a sauna.

Our beautiful hibiscus plants really took a beating.  It was discouraging to have to clean up huge branches and tons of sticks and debris from the area we had just finished cleaning, but we are so grateful for any rain up north.  Sadly, it won't be enough to make things green again yet.

(This post was started in July 18 but not finished until later.  I don't know how to change the dates.)