Winter wonderland

January is now officially over :-) It went by very slowly, but that's the nature of January, especially when we are making a new start. Looking at the pictures we took it doesn't seem like we did anything this week. It took us an extra long time to do the laundry on Monday because they were replacing the dryers. That way they can charge $3.00 instead of $2.00 per load. We heard about a gluten-free store that moved from Hastings to Campbellford. Had a delightful talk with Molly (the owner) and her 88-year-old mother, Eleanor. We set up an appointment to return on Friday so Elder Wheeler could play the harmonica with Eleanor. When we showed up they had forgotten all about it, but we did meet Molly's husband, Richard.

Tuesday was the last day of January. We wondered what we accomplished; then we reminded ourselves that the goal for January was to "get to know the territory".  We have visited all of the villages in the branch and found where most of the members live. We have also been to Kingston, Belleville, Brighton, and Cobourg. We are settled with the bank, pharmacy, and know where to find gluten-free food in the stores. We have been invited to dinner with several of the members of the branch and even been home teaching. We decided that January wasn't a waste after all. Now what about February? We decided to use Tuesday as a planning day to compile all the information we have gathered into our white notebook so we are ready to establish our missionary focus during February. Why does all of this take so long? We needed a break so we walked downtown to the post office, pharmacy, and library.

Two friendly snow people on our morning walk

A quaint building along the river is for sale or rent

War memorial beside the Trent River

Another snowman

 Wednesday we had another district meeting in Belleville. We miss the interaction with other missionaries we had in Toronto, so we enjoy our district meetings. Being the first of the month all the missionaries have new money in their account so they went to East Side Marios for lunch after our meeting.

A presentation in our district meeting by Elder Stubbs (from Alberta) 

Hungry missionaries at East Side Marios

On our way back to Campbellford we decided to drive by two mills. The first is Meyers Sawmill in downtown Belleville.  The second is Chisholm's Mill between Bellville and Campbellford (taking the scenic route, of course).

Meyer's Sawmill in Bellville, ON

Chisholm's Mill

 We spent Thursday morning organizing lists for less-active members and potential investigators. We passed by the family history library at the church to pick up some pedigree and family group sheet forms to use with people we visit. We were able to visit with Mary Longmuir and Madeline Charlesworth at the church. We then went across the street to find Ezmerelda, a six-year-old girl who plays the piano and may want to play a number in the church. They were not available, but requested we return on Friday. We returned to Campbellford and tried to hunt down some less-active members. One lives in a housing unit across the street from us, unit unknown. So we went tracting to find out where she lives. After several unanswered doors and one lady signaling for us to go away, we went to the housing office and found out that the member doesn't live there any more - Oh well, another lost soul. At another home we talked to the grandfather that informed us his granddaughter was not active in the church. It was good to get out finally, even though not much came from our effort.

We had two scheduled appointments for Friday :-) As mentioned earlier, Molly and her mother had forgotten. We did visit Ezmarelda and her father Michael, however. She was full of enthusiasm. Sister Wheeler visited with her, including playing a game of "Connect Four", having a tour of the house, playing with legos, and listening to her play the piano while Elder Wheeler talked to her father (about so many wild topics he couldn't keep track of them). We invited them to church. Since we were in the "neighborhood" we decided to go on to Peterborough, the town to the northwest of us. We were able to find some items in the stores that we had expected we would need to get in Toronto. On the way back we passed by two more mills, Hope sawmill and Lang Gristmill (associated with a pioneer village - which was closed).

Hope Sawmill

Frozen pond at Lang Mill

Lang Mill

 We normally take a half-hour walk in the morning between reading the Book of Mormon (in Portuguese, of course) and breakfast. This doesn't leave much time to explore. On Saturday we decided to have breakfast first and go on a "hike" in Ferris Provincial Park. It is listed as "hard" in the trail guide, but was very easy. We enjoyed getting out in nature without the rush to get back.

Sister Wheeler pointing to the white trail

Nap time on a park bench

The stone wall

 When we got back we received a couple of phone calls. The first was from the gospel doctrine teacher requesting a substitute for Sunday. The second was from the elder's quorum president requesting a substitute for the priesthood lesson. Since Sister Wheeler was substituting for the music she thought it was fair for Elder Wheeler to give both lessons. We are anticipating a total branch rebellion after having to hear two lessons in a row from Elder Wheeler (except for those who were away from church). It is good to be part of the branch and to help out in any way we can, however.

Well, this is the news from Trent Hills. Next week has some interesting things scheduled, but you will have to stay tuned to find out about them (just in case they fall through).