A funeral and a baptism

We had a typical Monday morning with laundry and a walk, this time down by the river. The big controversy in Campbellford (at least to those on second street - no one else seems to care) is a proposed bridge across the river to reduce the traffic on bridge street. It is to be located close to where the railroad bridge used to be. A bigger controversy is the bridge in Hastings which is due to be closed for repair for several months and will cut the village in half.

Old railway crossing

Neighborhood sign

 We had another branch family home evening at the chapel on Monday evening. This time Sister Wheeler put on a demonstration on how to make gluten-free brownies. She had spent all day baking various items to share.

New handicapped parking - with no ramp to the building

Sister Wheeler makes gluten-free brownies

 Tuesday was district meeting in Belleville. We now have two sister companionships in the district so they can have exchanges (like the elders). We had dinner with Mary that evening.

Sister Beasley and Sister Meng on exchange

Wednesday was an interesting day. We went with Mary to the funeral of John Bolton in Peterborough. John was deaf and didn't want contact with the church, even after the branch sponsored classes in ASL to try to communicate with him better. We met him briefly when we finely found him home. As we visited with family members prior to the funeral they invited Elder Wheeler to say a few words at the funeral. He met with the Pastor Eyre, a Methodist minister (who had never met John) before the funeral to discuss the arrangements. Elder Wheeler had the opportunity to bear his testimony of the Savior and the resurrection to a group of nonmembers (we think there were about 50 people there). We were impressed with Pastor Eyre's sermon which we found to be doctrinally correct.

Pastor Eyre

Since we missed our morning walk we took a long walk through Ferris Park in the evening, in spite of the threat of thunder and rain. There is one hillside with a full forrest of poison ivy. It reminded me of Doug's back yard (my brother who lives in Virginia).

We stayed on the path past this poison ivy

We helped at the Family History Center on Thursday. This was followed by missionary lessons for Mark-James, preparing him for his Saturday baptism. The lesson included the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the commandments. We had a "chutes-and-ladders" type game we made to teach the commandments.

Sister Wheeler and Mark-James with the commandment game

We spent Friday preparing a DVD with some videos from the church website for time between the baptism and confirmation. It was a new experience pulling videos off the internet, putting them together with iMovie, and creating a DVD with iDVD. Using new software is always a challenge, but it came together very well. We were able to take a break and walk to the library in the afternoon and return in a rainstorm. We looked out the window and saw some excitement. A neighbor had been mowing the lawn and suddenly there were paramedics watching over him.

We hope he is OK

Saturday was the big day. Not only was it Mark-James' baptism, but the family decided to use it as an opportunity to invite many family members and friends to a birthday party prior to the baptism. We arrived at the church at  9:00 AM to help set up. It had been raining, but was clear enough to have the party outside. We were able to fill the baptismal font during the party. By noon we were able to get everyone into the chapel for the baptismal service. It was a nice service, with Sister Wheeler giving a talk on baptism (she was asked at 8:30 p.m. Friday) and Elder Wheeler giving a talk on the Holy Ghost. By the time it was over and we left the chapel (we were the first to arrive and the last to leave) we were tired. It was about 3 p.m. and Sister Wheeler still had to clean our apartment and organize the Relief Society lesson for the next day that she had been asked to give.

Kairi hitting the pinata in the gezebo

Mark-James (striped shirt) decorating cookies (with his mother)

 We had district visitors for sacrament meeting today. We always enjoy visitors. They commented on the beauty of the countryside as they traveled from the cities along the 401 freeway area to Trent Hills. We agree, it is definitely a beautiful place to serve on a mission. Sister Wheeler gave the Relief Society lesson today. We ended the day by having dinner with the Campbellford Holts.

It's June. It's summer. And we are enjoying ourselves.