Primary Program

Today was a day of firsts. We had the first primary program for the Trent Hills branch. Someone seems to recall a program back when it was the Campbellford Branch, but no one seems to know how long ago that was. We had four children in the program (which exhibited all the personalities you find in a big ward - the shy boy, the runaway girl and eyes peeking over the railing). Two of the children were actually nursery age which would normally not be in the program but we needed each one to participate. Sister Wheeler played the piano. We also sang the theme song as a duet since no one had time to learn it (including us). It was a nice program which brought a nonmember grandmother to our sacrament meeting.

We also held the first Elders Quorum presidency meeting since the formation of the branch. We only have a short time to figure out how an elders quorum should operate before it has to be reorganized.

Last week we had our service project which resulted in a front-page picture in one of the local newspapers.

Brother Rowan on the front page of the paper

On Monday we decided to go to the library in Warkworth. It was closed so we took a little walk along the river.

A stop along our Warkworth walk

Tuesday we spent the day preparing for our Pearl of Great Price class. We also had a planning session to figure out whom we needed to visit. There are not a lot. We have a few projects to finish up, like the branch boundary maps for the district. Tuesday was transfer day, but the temple is closed so we didn't have our normal visit to Brampton.

Cooking time

District map project

 Wednesday was district meeting (missionary district) in Trenton. More missionaries were added to the Kingston Zone so we are back to two districts again. We only have three areas in our district now so the meeting place will be Trenton rather than Belleville. We had a lesson on how to get referrals from members of the branch.

Cars lined up for district meeting

On the way home we went through Wooler and found the Birdhouse, which is a charming store with all sorts of supplies for feeding the birds - Mary Poppins, eat your heart out :-)

The yard of finches at the birdhouse

Our own finches
They go through half of the seed in a day

We had a little more time for our morning walk on Thursday so we had another walk through Ferris Park. We discovered that they had put up some new signs at trail junctions to show where you are.

We had a new idea for our class on the "signs of the times". Normally classes focus on all the scary things that will come before the second coming of Christ. One of the signs is that the gospel will be preached in all the world. We did a little research on the internet about the growth of the church. Satan declared himself to Adam as the god of this world. As the gospel is spreading, there are fewer and fewer countries where Satan has full reign without the presence of the gospel. there are only 41 countries or territories that do not currently have the gospel present, and many of these are small islands or city states. Satan is loosing his reign over the world. We decided to use this as the focus of our lesson on preparing for the second coming.

Sunlit trail in Ferris Park

We had several things to do in the apartment Friday morning, but we needed to get out so we went to find three mills. The first was Needler's Mill in Millbrook. There was a nice mill pond (which included a great blue heron) and a trail along the hillside.

Needler's Mill in Millbrook

Along the trail by Needler's Mill

Great blue heron in the millpond

 We then went to Port Hope and found Molson mill. There was a no-fishing area by the mill that had huge fish jumping from the water. Sister Wheeler thinks they were rainbow trout. There was a sign that mentioned some of the fish and it mentioned rainbow trout. When they surfaced their skin had rainbow colors shining from it.

Molson Mill in Port Hope

We then went to see Pratt's Mill in Cobourg which is now a restaurant.

Pratt's Mill in Cobourg

It was a nice break from all the studying and projects we have been doing in the apartment.

Saturday was district auxiliary training meeting in Kingston. Since Elder Wheeler is working with the elders quorum he was invited to go. Sister Wheeler was invited to attend with Sister Holt as if she were a counselor in the Relief Society. We rode with the Holts. Elder Wheeler was able to give the branch maps to President Davis who passed them out to each of the branch presidents. The Relief Society meeting was on the importance of being happy, which included yellow roses (why didn't they pass out Maple Leaf hockey tickets in the elder's session?)

She's the "yellow rose in Kingston"

We decided to take the scenic way home. This meant following highway 33 along the lake. We stopped outside of Bath to see a historical plaque about the early Mormons living in Ontario. It names the missionaries who first came to Canada and converted about 600 people.

Plaque for the Canadian Mormons

We also stopped at a fruit stand to buy some apples.

Which kind of apples do we want?

Suddenly Hwy 33 ends and you need to take a ferry to Prince Edward County (a peninsula).

Ferry to the peninsula.

On the ferry

 We stopped by at the Lake on the Mountain where we had previously visited.

We didn't take the horse ride

We stopped at Belleville for some dinner at Swiss Chalet. It was a productive day with good meetings and a scenic ride back. There will be a lot we will miss about Canada.