Goodbye June & Visitors for Now

Temperatures are heating up in Missouri so we like to do our outside work early in the day.  It was already hot by 9 a.m. when the young sister missionaries arrived.  They wanted their pictures taken with the watering hoses so Steve got the hoses back out and hooked them up for photos.  This is Sister Jex and she is a real fireball.  A couple of the other sisters were going home on the transfer later this week.  It's always hard to say goodbye to our beloved missionaries.

Monday we had rounds so I'm pictured below in Far West.  The hat is to protect me from the sun but it is hard for me to wear hats very long.  It comes on and off all day on hot days.

Steve removed this huge branch from the Richmond cemetery.  In front of him are some of the Whitmer family graves.

We had one last dinner with Elders Rowley and Thompson on Monday night.  We are pretty positive that Elder Thompson is moving at transfers.  Correcto mundo as Steve would say.

Tuesday we hooked up all three trailers for the first time.  We had a lot of chairs to move plus some equipment to haul.  It was our first three trailer day!

Some elders helped us move this exercise equipment from a former missionary apartment.  We have fewer missionaries right now so some apartments are being vacated.

We picked up a lot of chairs from the Jackson chapel and donated them to the Salvation Army since the church won't continue using this particular style.

Fotunately, we got everything unloaded before a sudden rainstorm popped up and a tornado warning sounded.  The guys had to hurry and unhook the trailers and get the vehicles inside the garages in the pouring rain as huge hail was expected.  We were immediately sent home to wait out the tornado situation.  Our friends came over too since we have a garage and a carport.  Everyone wanted to protect their cars.  Within 20 minutes after arriving home, the storm was over in our area.  You never know in Missouri/Kansas.  The tornado hit a few miles south and east of us this time.

Tuesday night I was visiting with Tiffany to see how things were going in Logan with visitors, patriot camp, the gathering for Preston's blessing etc.  I knew that Tiffany was watching Elsie and Quinn while Heather attended a conference with Aaron but I couldn't remember where the conference was.  When I asked Tiffany, she responded that it was in Nashville.  I realized that both Liberty and Heather were both in Nashville.  I hurried and sent them a text hoping that they might be able to connect.  Heather saw her text right away and they were just leaving a restaurant near the Grand Old Opry where Liberty and Jeff were attending a show.  I mentioned that.  Heather immediately looked around as they were walking past the Opry and the show was just getting out.  She spotted Liberty crossing the street.  It was a surprising and miraculous reunion.  God is in the details of our lives.  What a tender mercy to bring together two sisters who live thousands of miles apart for a quick reunion!  I love Heavenly Father and His compassion and love.  He does want us to have joy and happiness!  

Some days our hats are worth taking pictures of.  I am at the Visitor's Center with Sister Chamberlain and Sister Briggs.

I love Steve's Amish hat that he sometimes wears in the heat since it is air conditioned.

The mower and the stump grinder barely fit on this trailer together with about 1" to spare.  Good work guys.

Here were are a Far West mowing, watering, weeding, picking up branches and sticks and grinding stumps.  It is hot, hard work but the drinking fountain has wonderful COLD water so I drink a lot of it there.

Thursday night, Jackie, Val, Ann and Steve returned to Independence to spend the night on their way back to Utah and Idaho.  We had a fun dinner at The Best Little BBQ Joint, a local dive in Independence.  We loved the old rusty, model cars carefully placed inside of our table.  It was fun and tasty too.  Thanks Ann for the yummy dinner!

Early Friday morning, we left on our rounds again and they left for their long trip back home.

Here Steve is trimming the decorative grasses along the fence between the Liberty Jail and the sister missionaries' home.  One of the sisters saw a spider on this grass and it caused quite a situation.  Their are lots of bugs and spiders in Missouri and someone will need to adjust to that reality.

The day after transfers, we hosted the sister missionaries from our branch.  Sister Franco on the left is the trainer and Sister Parkin is brand new in our mission.  She will become a fine missionary.

Saturday, we talked quite a bit with our neighbors, the Kirks, helping them to maximize their visit to Missouri historic sites.  We were unable to join them as I needed to visit my Aunt Inge and cousin Mette.  Inge had taken a turn for the worse and was suddenly bedridden and not eating or drinking.  Her passing will take place within the next few days.

On Sunday, we hosted the Kirk family for dinner after church.  It was fun to catch up on neighborhood events and enjoy their fun-loving personalities.

Steve gives them directions as they prepare to leave for the West.

Sunday night, I drove back to the care center to visit with Mette and her sister, Anne, who had arrived from Utah.  They plan to stay with their mother around the clock until she passes.  At this point, she is sleeping quite peacefully since hospice gives them medication for any pain and discomfort.  Mette's dear friend stayed with them also.
Monday, we began our final preparations to set up the former pageant grounds at the Visitor's Center for the big Independence Day celebration, concert and fireworks.  We removed some low branches and others that had been partially broken by the recent storm.  We filled in holes, roped off firework's areas for protection, set out garbage cans, etc.  The big event will take place the evening of July 3rd.

Monday night, July 2nd, was Mormon Night at the Kansas City Royals baseball game.  Almost all of the missionaries from our mission attended the game until 9 p.m.  Since I had never attended a professional baseball game before, I was happy for this opportunity.  It was a very hot day, so we were especially grateful that our seats were on the shady side.  Hooray!

Special Mormon Night t-shirts were provided by an anonymous donor.  We just wore our Temple Run shirts from a previous event.

A Mormon youth group gave a wonderful accapella performance of the national anthem.  The game started out to be very exciting with a home run on the second pitch and another run in the same inning for the Royals.  Unfortunately, it went downhill from there and the opposing team ended up winning the game.

Due to our early work schedule the next morning, we left with the younger missionaries.
Here I am with Sisters Parkin and Franco.  Two of our former elders, Elder Thompson and Earl posed for a picture below.  I think the missionaries really loved having the chance to attend the game.

Tuesday, we had more preparations for the celebration that evening which included removing some unsightly, half dead shrubs near the parking lot.  It was already hot by 9 a.m.

After removing a lot of other hazardous branches, we had a full trailer load which needed to be covered to drive over an hour north to Mark's burn pile.  He will bring it back this evening when he comes to the fireworks, and we will loaded it up again.

That evening we had invited all of the senior missionaries, other FM employees and staff to join us at our shop for a potluck and BBQ prior to the concert and fireworks.  Our mission president, President and Sister Love were the first people to arrive.  We know it was an extra effort for them to drive from Liberty and join us, but we always appreciate their presence and their loving support.  They are such great people.  They left before the fireworks since he had a lot of things that needed his attention.

Below Sister and Elder Langford, Sister Johnson, Sister Larsen, and Sister Love dish up yummy food.

Our boss, Mark, shows something to President Love, and Steve on his phone.

We had our own private seating for the concert on the balcony of the Visitor's Center behind a locked gate.  The group was more appreciated by a much younger crowd so it didn't hold our interest much.  We walked back to our shop to prepare for the fireworks and to serve cake and ice cream in honor of a couple of birthdays.

The concert stage was across the parking lot in front of the green background.  President and Sister Love walk in the foreground.

When Mark arrived we loaded the dumper back up with more branches.  He will drive the trailer back to his place in Amazonia after the fireworks.

Steve chats with Mark while his family enjoys the potluck and Steve eats watermelon.

Then we brought out the cake and ice cream in honor of Elder Brigg's birthday last night.

We also had an ice cream cake in honor of Caroline, Mark's granddaughter.  We also sang Happy Birthday to our good old USA.  There was a lot of celebrating!

The fireworks display was outstanding and lasted 30-40 minutes.  I kept thinking every round was the finale but it just kept going.  We were so close to the shooting off point, that we were looking almost straight up.  It was quite the experience. My pictures were less than satisfactory so a friend sent me this one.

On the actual 4th of July, we divided up the historical sites and each couple went to water the flowers at one place.  We drove to Richmond and did a couple of errands on the way back.

That evening, I drove to Liberty Jail and met up with my friend Jacque.  We had a very nice tour with the young sister missionaries.  My friend is a member of the RLDS church so we share a deep respect for Joseph Smith.  It was a very spiritual experience for both of us.  

Thursday morning, we cleaned up any remaining garbage, removed ropes, garbage cans, etc. from the  pageant grounds.  For the most part, people were very respectful.  There wasn't that much garbage to pick up and we were thankful for that.

Then we drove up to Far West to clean up piles of branches that had been stacked out of the way from  an earlier work day and to grind stumps.  Steve and I were assigned to drive an hour west to dump the full trailer on the pile.  By the time we returned, it was too hot to continue working so Mark sent us all home.  It was late afternoon by the time we got home anyway.

Friday, we had to meet an exterminator at the Leavenworth chapel at 8:30 a.m.  We rushed to get there in time and of course, we made it.  I practiced the piano while we waited for him to do his work.    Then we drove to a couple of other chapels to check on some damaged items and assess what would be needed to repair them.

On our return to Independence, we were very near a place called Tiffany Springs so we drove a couple of miles to see it.  It is a newly developing area and there were lots of newer shopping areas and housing projects clustered there.  We had to take a photo since we love Tiffany and thought it is cool that she has her own town.

That night we took dinner to the sisters at the Visitor Center.

Saturday morning, we picked up our friends the Briggs and Elder Forsyth for the 1 1/2 hour drive to

Chillicothe for the Sliced Bread Day celebration.  We wanted to arrive in time for the 10 a.m. parade and we successful.  We parked around the corner in the shade and had front row seats for the 15-20 minute "floatless" parade.  Without the local politicians, the parade would have lasted about 5 minutes.  However, the politicians were very careful with their candy.  Supporters handed out individual pieces rather than throwing them from the vehicles.  It was safe that way. The most interesting things in the parade were some old restored trucks, a tractor and a couple of cheer leaders from the Kansas City Chiefs.  Of course my favorite was the color guard and the flag.

We love the quaint little town of Chillicothe though because they have beautiful murals painted on many of the buildings.  They also had a small farmer's market with vendors selling, homemade goodies, bread, jam and veggies.

The fried pies with cherries and blueberries were the best sweet treat by far.  Yummy!  We shared one.

A resident is being interviewed about the Sliced Bread event by a TV reporter.

The upper windows of this building and a few others were also painted on.  It was kind of cool.

The sign in the background says that Chillicothe is also the glove capital of the world.  Maybe they used to make gloves there.  ???

We stood in front of The Silver Moon Plaza where a group provided musical entertainment.

We tried to purchase Sliced Bread t-shirts but the business that sold them was closed.

Steve really love this mural because it featured Case equipment used many years ago.

This the the town's war memorial right in front of the county courthouse.

Andy, Steve, Vickie and Dave pose in front of this mural.  Andy's wife, Peggy, was having trouble with her ankle and opted to stay home to rest it for the next week's work.

Then we went to the Chillicothe museum which was very interesting.

Steve used to use a forge and anvil a lot like this one when his dad farmed during his childhood.

This is an underground railroad quilt.  Each block is a signal so the meaning changed according to which way the quilt was hung to warn of danger and give direction.

I had never realized that a couple of local women went to France during WWI to cook homemade meals for the soldiers.  When they arrived, supplies were so scarce, they only found flour, yeast, lard, etc.  They figured out how to make dough and fry it in a helmet over a single burner.  They proceeded to make donuts around the clock for the soldiers.  They were nicknamed the donut gals.

Steve also used to use a cream separator similar to this one to separate the cream from the milk so they could make butter with the cream.

This old soda fountain brought back childhood memories for us.

The museum director loved our interest and the complements we paid him.  Steve left a nice tip too.

Here are the entries for the bread tasting contest which was to take place that afternoon.

Steve poses in front of the 2nd bread slicing machine that has been restored.  The first one was destroyed.

The first sliced bread machine invented by Mr. Rohwedder was sold to the Chillicothe bakery on July 7, 1928.  It was very popular and bakeries from other cities brought their bread to Chillicothe to have it sliced until more machines could be built.

The director was kind enough to bring us and another group out to the barn to see the restored trucks that had been in the parade.  It was fun having our own private showing.

This restored 1930's truck was used for many years. Now it is driven in the parade.  

A friend was driving past the museum in this 1950 Ford.  It is a small town and everyone was very friendly.

After we left the museum, we went to the Wabash for BBQ.  This is a second location and we prefer the food at the original location in Excelsior Springs better.  

We stopped by the Sliced Bread Market before we left town.  

They had sliced bread sugar cookies for sale and miniature souvenir loaves of bread.

They had made a huge cake in the shape of a slice of bread.  It contained cake pieces in white, chocolate, red velvet, yellow and strawberry.  They gave everyone a free piece of cake.

Chillicothe was such a cute, very friendly town.  Everyone was super friendly even to old missionaries with badges.

We arrived back home in plenty of time to get ready to drive Elder Earl and his companion to a baptism in Olathe.  Elder Earl now works in Baytown but he worked with this bright young man previously.  The support for Austin Steckline was considerable.  In fact the room was so full, Elder Price stayed out in the foyer.  The newly baptized member is in the middle with the purple tie.

Sunday, our friends, the McArthurs blessed their baby and Steve was asked to participate.  We kind of adopted them when Shanelle was terribly ill throughout her pregnancy.  She could sometimes eat in the evenings so we fed them as often as we could.  We are so happy she is well now and the baby is darling.  This is their last Sunday in the branch so they had been asked to sing but their accompanist couldn't attend.  They switched to a hymn and I was able to play for them at the last minute without any practice.  They were fantastic and gave a beautiful rendition of Dearest Children, God Is Near You.  We will miss this special young family.

Brinley arrived home from her humanitarian service to Thailand on Saturday.  She was very please with her quilt that had arrived during her absence.  We hope she will feel wrapped in love every time she uses it.

Steve and I accompanied Mark to Platte, Liberty and Leavenworth Chapels on Monday with the lift so we could fix doors, replace ceiling tiles, deliver supplies and check a sound system.

I got a kick out of Mark talking on the phone in the lift.  We got back home just in time to fix dinner for Elder Rowley and his new companion Elder Hunt.  It was Elder Hunt's birthday last week too so we sang Happy Birthday over a bowl of ice cream.

Tuesday, Mark asked us to drive to all the sites to water the flowers because of the extreme heat this week.  The heat index will be over 100 degrees every day this week.  The other couples attended zone conference while we watered and also fertilized the plants in the free standing pots. 

Because of our assignment, we were able to stop in at our favorite quilt shop in Hamilton so I posed for this photo with one of the amazing clerks who has become our friend.  Meet Jen from Missouri Star Quilt Company.