Venom and Art

This has been a mixed-up week. Why does it take so long to prepare a 1 1/2 hour lesson for our Pearl of Great Price class? We both read through the chapter and lesson materials then get together to plan the actual lesson. We try to use the Old Testament Visual Resource DVD, but sometimes it doesn't have the pictures and videos we want to use so we make a DVD for the lesson we are teaching. Thus, we spent all day Monday working on the lesson. We didn't even make it over to the church for our normal work.

In member and leader support we have opportunities the younger elders and sisters don't have. On Tuesday we went with Mary and Penny to the Indian River Reptile Zoo between here and Peterborough. Elder Wheeler is practiced in pushing a wheel chair on gravel paths. The small zoo is well known for its collection of various reptiles and supply of anti-venom. It added a few dinosaurs that actually move and roar.

No, these are human, not reptiles

Our friend, the black mamba

Are we supposed to touch the dinosaurs?

Not this one, for sure

An alligator in the reptile show

It's a good thing we went before we left home

 Mary and Penny provided us with a good lunch after the zoo.

Elder Wheeler got a call asking if he could go with Russ Dishington for home teaching on Tuesday evening. They visited Jim McComb, Wayne Emino, and Eleanor Murphin. He really enjoyed visiting the members as a home teacher. We don't know Eleanor very well, but found out she plays the steelpan. Her family played for the Caribana festival in Toronto.

Eleanor with her steelpan

Wednesday we were back in Kingston for our district meeting. We really enjoy meeting with the elders and sisters. We don't see them as often as we did in Toronto. We all went to Hardy's for lunch afterward. We have been working to clean out the church library, but now we are helping President Holt clean out the clerk's office and his office. We went to the church Wednesday evening. This added several materials to the library.

President Holt sorting out materials in his office

On Thursday (and half of Friday)  Elder Wheeler worked on copying district maps. Our scanner is small (8 1/2x11) so this means scanning several sections for each branch boundary and merging them in photoshop. It works very well for scans from the same side of the map, but two of the branches have parts of their maps on the two sides of the large map. This is trivial for Doug, my geographer brother, but more difficult for me. We had dinner with the Havelock Holts then our Pearl of Great Price class. They had invited Cheryl Easterbrook to dinner also. She used to be in the branch before moving to Toronto and now has moved back into the branch. She decided to join us for that class that evening. We hope this will help integrate her back into our activities.

Window display along our morning walk

Our neighbor the "big bad wolf" (actually old and timid)

We saved our P-Day activities for Saturday this week so on Friday we went to Brighton to make another deposit in the bank (worst exchange rate so far on our mission). We then went to the church for an hour (which stretched into three or four) to match our inventory with what is actually in the library.

We saw an advertisement for an art tour in Prince Edward County this Saturday. We visited 14 home galleries along Rednersville Road. We met a lot of people, saw some nice art, and even talked about the church with several of them.

Looking across Quinte Bay on the art tour

That's what I feel like doing

We heard about Birdhouse City by Picton so we decided to see what it was like. There were a lot of birdhouses modeling famous buildings, but no birds.

A piece of the rock

A small fraction of the birdhouses

Birds in training

We found a little trail to follow and found ourselves at a museum in honor of Reverend William Macaulay who built a church in the area. We wondered if some of Sister Wheeler's ancestors knew him.

A trail through the goldenrod

Reverand Macaulay's house

Reverand Macauley's church

 We have seen a lot of unusual lawn ornaments in Canada, but this one beat them all, by force if nothing else.

Why didn't we think of putting airplanes and missiles in our front yard?

We then went to Lake on a Mountain which is a deep lake almost adjacent to the Picton Bay and Adolphus Reach (a bay). The Bay is much lower than the lake. While there we met Joseph Smith's 7th cousin (a non-member who does a lot of genealogy). He is through the Mack line.

Lake on the Mountain

The lake

Aldophus Reach (a bay), across the street from the lake

 Sunday brought a lesson on Home Teaching, since there were new home teaching assignments for September. I don't understand why everyone was surprised about being called on Saturday (September 1st) to report their home teaching for August. Could it be that the July report was just turned in last week? The report for August was turned in today.

We enjoy Sundays because we get to Skype our family. Whenever we skype it seems like everything becomes chaotic, but maybe that's normal, who knows. Tomorrow we have Labor Day and kids will be back to school on Tuesday. That means the summer is over and we can look forward to a long autumn.

Brynlie on Skype

Snakes and Shotguns

Summer is winding down. We have had some cool days (except for this weekend which was hot enough. On Monday we worked in the church library again - fine tuning. We then went to Marmora for dinner with Doris and Eileen. On the way back to Campbellford we passed by the street where Rob Michel lives. We have been trying to meet him for eight months. As we arrived a young boy (Hunter) came out to greet us, telling us they were in the back yard. Hunter is Robs 12-year-old son who was visiting. We met Rob's father, Robert, who had several questions about religion. The elders had taught him in the past (as had the Jehovah Witnesses). Soon Rob came along holding a shotgun. He had been hunting a fox that was steeling chickens. Hunter had a baby garter snake he had caught. He kept Sister Wheeler entertained for some time. We were glad to finally meet them.

Hunter, Rob, and Robert

We spent most of Tuesday preparing our Pearl of Great Price lesson for Thursday.

On Wednesday we had district meeting in Kingston again. It's a long drive - 1 1/2 hour each way. It is good to meet with the elders and sisters from time to time. Elder Wheeler had a role play with Sister Jungert. She always has a smile on her face no matter how hard the work is. Sister Wheeler had a role play with Elder Decker. Every missionary meeting includes role plays. We had branch council in the evening. It was different attending as the Elder's Quorum president rather than visitors.

A couple of red-breasted nuthatches stopped by for a visit

So did a goldfinch

Thursday ended up being a long day. We went to help Mary at the family history center. Elder Wheeler spent his time reformatting old floppy disks so they could be thrown away. Sister Wheeler was able to find a nice website about Benjamin Thomas Mitchell, who was a stone mason for the Nauvoo and Salt Lake temples. As Mary was leaving to go home the door stuck on her specially-retrofitted van (to handle her wheelchair) so we followed Mary home and then went with Penny (who lives with Mary) to the dealership in Campbellford to get it fixed. It took them to closing time, but they were able to fix it. Because of the late time, Penny joined us for dinner before we all rushed off to the Pearl of Great Price class.

Friday walk along the canal

On Thursday night, Bro. David (the sunday school president) told us that Linda (a sunday school teacher) was moving to Toronto and couldn't give the lesson for Sunday. Elder Wheeler spent much of the day Friday and the morning Saturday working on the lesson. He finally found out there was a misunderstanding and Linda was just visiting her sister and had the lesson prepared. As sister Camejo would say, "Blessed are the flexible for they will not be bent out of shape."

On Saturday afternoon we decided to take a drive, since we had not had a preparation day, not knowing beforehand where we were going. We ended up at Callaghan Falls Conservation Area. It is a section of the Crowe River that has some nice, shallow wading areas, small falls, and deeper pools. A perfect place for the grandchildren. Elder Wheeler was able to talk to a man from Peru about the gospel. It was a nice break from the indoor work we have been doing this week.

Crowe River

Canals cut into the walk

Local beauty

Train bridge across the river

One of the falls

A closer look

On a rock by the falls

 We need to rush to make an 8:00 AM PEC meeting Sunday mornings. Elder Wheeler and President Holt are the only ones there on time. Several don't come at all. Elder Wheeler has just updated the home-teaching assignments. There are only five districts (there were four before). Of the 11 elders, 7 can go home teaching. With three prospective elders we have five companionships. He has not yet been set apart and counselors haven't been called, but Elder Wheeler is trying to organize things anyway. The purpose is to train future leaders. Maybe by the time we leave there will be a presidency to work with. We had district visitors today so Sister Wheeler was busy in the primary, there were 9 primary age children. We also had a pot luck following the meetings. Sister Wheeler fixed a gluten-free lasagna and a cookie pizza for desert. The lasagna ended up being the only main dish and was quickly devoured. One of the visiting teenaged boys came by afterward and said how much he LOVED the strawberry cookie pizza. Maybe that's what member and leader support is all about.

War Time

Not a lot happened this week, except the car next to ours in the parking lot got bombed. It was just parked there for months without being used - except by wasps. They built nests in the mirror, trunk, and door. One day we got word that the owner died and had no heirs, so we cautiously got in our car every day. One day this week the nests were gone, wasps were dead, and spots of a dark residue stained the parking lot.

Wasp and nest in the car mirror

We had a normal Monday which included a walk in the morning and going to the church to organize the library at the church.

Tractor-pull sculpture found along our walk

Sister Wheeler in the church library

 On Tuesday we worked on preparing our PofGP class and working on the district maps. We were invited for dinner by Mary and Penny.

Wednesday was a long drive to Kingston for our zone meeting. When we got there we caught the sisters remodeling the Trenton elder's truck. Obviously the missionaries have a few light moments.

Who put this "just married" sign on the elder's truck?

You've got to be kidding!

 We had lunch at the Swiss Chalet then traveled back to Marmora for dinner with the Sedore family. We were a few minutes early so we had a little walk around a village park.

Among the black-eyed susans

As we were returning to Campbellford we heard music as we passed the waterfront. They have musical programs every Wednesday night, but in the past we have had other meetings. We were able to join the community for the entertainment. We saw some of our apartment neighbors and Priscilla, from the branch, was there so we joined her.

Music at the park

A time for dancing

Sister Wheeler with Priscilla

 Elder Wheeler met with Tim Holt (the former elder's quorum president) on Thursday morning to go over home teaching and other business of the quorum. We had our Pearl of Great Price class in the evening. It takes a long time to prepare, but it's a lot of fun. We have a core group of 10 members attending.

Friday was a slow day. It was the 40th anniversary of our first date. We worked on projects in the morning then we walked to the library and Elder Wheeler checked out some books to read.

There was a special arts festival at Buckhorn that Mary attends every year. We were anticipating going there, but she decided not to go this year. It's about an hour drive each way so we decided to do something closer. We went to the Hastings waterfront festival. It wasn't large, but was very enjoyable. There was a reenactment of the war of 1812 (200th anniversary). This is known as the American war during which America invaded Canada and were sent packing back to their own home. There were cheers whenever an American got shot and a standing ovation when the Canadians defeated the Americans. One lady sitting on a rock said, "I hope there aren't any American tourists here." No, not tourists, but American missionaries. We did notice that more than half of the Canadian soldiers were female. This must have been a battle of liberation:)

The redcoats

The Americans

Reinforcements

Return in victory (with the lady sitting on the rock)

 There were some nice booths of art, old rifle carving, and Alpaca products. We especially enjoyed a few moments on a park bench looking over the Trent River.

Sister Wheeler feeding the Alpaca

Since we didn't get a walk in the morning we decided to have an evening walk through Ferris Park. It was very pleasant, few mosquitos and not too hot.

Sun through the forest, it reminds us of the Sacred Grove

We started Sunday with an 8:00 AM meeting at the church. Since many of the leaders are irregular in attending meetings, it was a meeting with Elder Wheeler and President Holt. They were able to review changes in home teaching assignments. Sister Shannon was gone today so Elder Wheeler led the music for sacrament meeting. We had a special combined priesthood/relief society meeting during which we watched a recording of President Monson's 85th birthday celebration. It was very nice, but when Will Francis (our friend and neighbor from Logan) played his horn solo, many golden memories of our home ward flooded in. Maybe they have forgotten us by now, but we will always cherish our friends in the Foothill 1st Ward. Thanks Will.

We had a new visitor today. A goldfinch feeding at our apartment for the first time. This is either a breeding female or a juvenile. The birds have really been going through the food lately. Maybe they are getting ready for winter.

The hungry goldfinch