Senior's barbeque

July is moving along. We had a few cool days this week. Some of the leaves on the trees appear to be changing colors. Does this mean we will have an early fall or is it just a dry summer? We help supply drinking water for the church. On Monday we stopped by the Bulk Plus (the store owned by the Rowens in the branch) and filled up two big bottles of water for the church. We are still working on organizing the library at the church.

For some must push - as we go up the hill

This picture is from a couple of weeks ago at the Lavender festival. Someone else took it and we just received a copy of it this week.

We had district meeting in Belleville again on Tuesday. Everyone was asked to prepare a talk on Faith and Expectations. Fortunately, we didn't have to give our talks. At times we feel like we must not have much faith, since not much is happening here. We discovered a quote by President Uchtdorf, however that helps, "Love is the measure of our faith, the inspiration for our obedience, and the true altitude of our discipleship." If our faith is measured by the love we have for the people rather than the results we see, maybe we do have a little faith.

Our district

On the way back from Belleville we passed by an old Case steam tractor, like the one at the American West Heritage Center (well, maybe not quite, this one is out of hay bales).  The creator, Mr. Haig, makes sculptures like this every year for the Campbellford fair which is coming up in August. We happened to catch him there and discussed how old steam tractors work.

Mr. Haig with his Case steam tractor

 We have been trying to help Meheffin with her goal to go to the temple this year. We heard on Tuesday evening that she had moved suddenly, so we passed by her house and sure enough, the house was empty, furniture and all. She has a new fiance so we hope she will pursue her goal of going to the temple where ever she moved to.

On our walk Wednesday morning we passed by the farmer's market to see if they had any sweet corn yet (not yet). The market is small, but there are a few items and even a busker playing the violin. There is an antique shop we had not been in, so we went in to look around.

Violinist at the farmer's market

Antique shop by the farmer's market

Thursday was our Pearl of Great Price class. It takes a long time to prepare the lessons, but we enjoy teaching the class.

We took another long walk around the canal on Friday morning. We saw several Cedar Waxwings flying from tree to tree. We recognized them even though we had never seen them before. 

Cedar Waxwing

We decided it was time to see Lang Pioneer Village, by Peterborough. We had passed by there during the winter, but everything was closed and there were sheets of ice at the mill. We really enjoyed our visit, stepping back in time to the 19th century. 

What kind of car is this?

Did you forget, smoking is not allowed

Need to pick up a head of steam

No water, we must be in a drought

Lang Mill

 Saturday was our senior missionary barbeque at the mission home in Brampton. It's a long drive, but we enjoyed meeting with the other missionaries. We now are the old guys on the block. Several of the couples we had not met. It is always nice to meet with other senior couples and learn that they do some of the same things we do and to also get ideas of what we could do differently. After the barbeque we had a testimony meeting. It was a very nice activity.

The chef, Elder Martindale

A time to relax

Good food

Sister Wheeler with President and Sister Scott

 Just as we were leaving for church on Sunday morning we got a call from the primary president informing us that she wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be there. Naturally, Sister Wheeler pitched in (along with Sister Holt - Campbellford) and ran the primary. It would help to have a little time to prepare. Brother and Sister Lalonde were visiting from Kingston. We didn't want them to travel back to Kingston on empty stomaches so we invited them to the apartment for lunch. We didn't know what we were going to eat, but Sister Wheeler came up with a nice, quick meal.

Lalonde's from Kingston

 Another week (and month) has gone by. We are not certain what next week will bring, but we saw an interesting plaque in the mission home.

Add up the miles

We put a lot of miles on the car this week with three different trips out of town. On Monday we went to Gananoque for our annual 1,000 island tour. This time we went with the Bosches (from California and serving in Smith Falls), and the Andersons (serving in Brockville until the end of the month then returning to Arizona). It is always fun to get away and slow down to boat speed. We were able to talk to several people and give out pass-along cards on the boat.

Bosches, Andersons, and Wheelers

One of the 1,000 islands

Cute couple in front of the Boldt Castle

Lake from the castle

A quiet reading area in the castle

One of our traveling companions. This seagull followed the boat back until we docked.

 We missed district meeting on Tuesday this week. Usually we don't have district meeting the week we have interviews and we missed the 10:20 text message on Monday night letting us know about it. We got a call 15 minutes after the meeting started asking where we were, but there wasn't time to drive to Belleville before the end of the meeting. Since we were gone on Monday we went to the church on Tuesday to work in the library and worked on preparing our lesson for the Pearl of Great Price class.

A picture on a house taken during our walk

Wednesday was another travel day. We went to Bancroft to meet with the Bevens before they return home to Cardston, Alberta. We are trying to update the boundaries of the district and the Bancroft Branch is located just to the north of the Kingston District. While we were there they took us to see the Eagle's Nest which has a nice lookout over the city. Believe it or not, there are homes hidden among the trees.

At the Eagle's Nest

Lookout from the Eagle's Nest

 We spent some time on Thursday working on Canadian family history. We have identified five lines from Sister Wheeler's family who lived in Canada, mostly Ontario. Most of them had joined the church and left Canada before Ontario was Ontario. We had our Pearl of Great Price class Thursday evening. We covered Moses 1, discussing the topics removed from Genesis by conspiring men: 1) the true nature of God, 2) our relationship with God, and 3) the true nature of Satan. We are enjoying the class and hope the students are.

Friday was another travel day. We went to Kingston for interviews with President Scott. We always enjoy the interviews. We took the slow way back to Campbellford (Hwy 2) so we didn't get back until about 8:30 pm. We took the wrong turn (which meant we went straight instead of turning) and ended up in the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. Maybe Olivia can interpret the sign.

I think we are supposed to stop here.

We drove through Trenton and found the Festival on the Bay going on. We walked up and down the street closed to traffic for the day.

At the festival in Trenton

From there we went on to Brighton for dinner with the Koerber family. They were in Trent Hills last Sunday and invited us to have dinner with them and discuss a missionary fireside they are planning for next week. Their home is right on the lake with a good view of Presqu'ile Provincial Park. We had bobotie from South Africa (very delicious). It is a curry type dish served on rice and with fruit. The family lived in South Africa for some time before moving to Brighton.

Dinner on the lake

The Koerber family

 When we finally got home we were serenaded by a group of singers in the yard behind our apartment. They were singing old-time favorites accompanied by guitar and harmonica. It was pleasant to have the window open and just listen.

The backyard crew

Since we had to leave early on Friday for our interviews we didn't have time for our walk. We decided to take a longer walk on Saturday so we went to Goodrich-Loomis Conservation Area. We had a delightful walk there before. This time we were eaten alive with mosquitos. Elder Wheeler ended up with at least 16 bites on his neck even though Sister Wheeler kept killing as many as she could that would land on him. Sister Wheeler tried the Listerine trick and only ended up with a couple of bites.

Bridge over infested waters

On the way home we saw an inuksuk (plural - inuksuit) in the riverbed. The inuksuk is a special symbol used by the Inuits of the Arctic region of Canada. It has been adopted as a national symbol for Canada so we encounter them from from to time.

Inuksuk in the riverbed 

We were expecting a calm day for Sunday, but it didn't turn out that way. We had a family of 9 visit from the Black Creek Ward (Spanish ward) in Toronto. It meant we had a deacon to pass the sacrament and another high priest to bless it. Elder Wheeler taught a youth sunday school class with Paul and Diana. Sister Wheeler helped in the primary with 7 children. We need families like that to move into the branch instead of just visiting. We had our monthly pot luck dinner after church. Their grandmother was baptized last week in Toronto.

Paul and Diana in sunday school

Paul and Diana's family

The weather has been strange this week. We have had a couple of sweltering days where the air conditioner has had trouble keeping up, but there have also been some cool days that were very pleasant for morning walks. We hope the cool days keep coming, but the area is in serious need of rain.

Lavender anyone?

Summer is finely here. We pass the city pool on our walks and it looks refreshing. Maybe next summer.
We have had a week of being indoors more, which means we have been able to stay some what cool. We have been preparing for our class, Elder Wheeler has been working on the branch boundaries for our district, and Sister Wheeler is working on the inventory for the library at the church, and typing up the corrections on the membership records, that we have been able to get the information for, so that others don't have to try to read Elder Wheeler's writing.

Cooling it in Campbellford

This week was our first institute (oops, adult religion class). We prepared a lot of material to introduce the Pearl of Great Price as a power-point then burned it onto a DVD so we could use the TV at the church rather than take the laptop and projector. Preparation came between our regular activities of organizing the church library (Monday), district meeting in Belleville (Tuesday), and taking a morning walk through Ferris Park (Wednesday). We had a good turnout (14 - which is more than we got to our class in Toronto) and it was a lot of fun.

Here is our adult religion class - Thursday evenings

We read about the Summerfest being held in Belleville on Friday so we decided to take a look. There wasn't much to see, but it included free parking.

Belleville spinning club

The Front Street train

 We decided to take a drive through Prince Edward County, since some of Sister Wheeler's ancestors may have lived there. We walked around Picton then drove along the south side of the island and back home.

Hay in the fields of Prince Edward County

Painting in Picton

Prince Edward County - wine country

 We had a branch activity on Saturday. They called it a family-home-evening, but it was a branch away-from-home day. We went to the Scott lavender farm for their annual festival. We were able to see four varieties of lavender, taste lavender lemonade and ice cream, and wander around the gardens.

Sister Wheeler and Sister Holt in lavender

Gardens and lavender fields from the barn

Wheat crop

Penny, Mary, and Sister Wheeler in the barn

The barn from the lavender field

Penny pining away

The shady characters in our branch

 We then drove to Brighton for lunch at Sister Holt's (H) sister's restaurant. Brighton was having a street festival as well. Everyone seemed to like the chocolate store with authentic-tasting gelato.

At the restaurant

Sister Wheeler with the Holts at the chocolate store

Sunday was a tiring day. It might be as much from the heat as from the activities of the past two days although we have been about 10 degrees cooler than Washington, Arizona, Utah, or the eastern US. Even more travel is in store for next week.