This has been a busy week with our trip to New York over the
weekend, then returning home and trying to get caught up on everything here after
being gone for basically 2 weeks, plus I’m getting ready for Girls’ Camp which
starts Monday morning. There hasn’t been a dull moment.
Our trip first, though! We left Friday morning and got to
our hotel in Rochester by around 3:00. We checked in and rested for a while,
then drove to the Hill. It was super humid / hot / uncomfortable. We staked out
a spot in the seats and then Frank and Seth went to buy some dinner while I saved
our seats. We also started watching for work crew and cast to start coming out.
Right about the time that I was starting to eat dinner, we saw some work crew
guys come out followed by cast members, so we went over there and waited to see
Jared. We also watched for my friend Paula and her family, who are in the cast
this year. We saw Jared first and he was surprised to see us because he didn’t
think we were going to be there until Saturday. We talked with him briefly and
met his companion too. They were busy, though (of course!) so we didn’t talk
with them long. He did tell us he’s on the light crew and pointed out which
tower he’s in so we could see him up there. He is on the left side (when facing
the stage) and the closest tower to the Hill. Then I saw my friend Paula and
her family and I ended up being able to talk with Paula for quite a while, so
that was nice. After that I finally ate my dinner! We saw a family we know from
the Fayette Ward in the audience, too, so that was fun. This guy sat next to Frank who was just baptized about 3 months ago and had driven from Ohio to see Pageant.
He said he hadn’t read the whole Book of Mormon yet (he was in Alma somewhere)
so Frank helped him understand what was going on in the pageant and answered
questions for him. Pretty cool! Another nice thing is that the anti-Mormon guy
wasn’t back there screaming at us this year. I saw a few people in t-shirts and
a car go by with a sign but at least they were quiet!!
Jared in his tower, getting ready for the performance:
Pageant was, of course, amazing as always. I really felt the
spirit. It was great! We got home super late, of course, but it was worth it.
The next day we had arranged with Sister Hess to meet Jared and his companion
at the Hill for lunch. We stopped on our way to the Hill to get food at a
Wal-Mart and had to wait a while for them to fry the chicken we wanted. We got
some salads, watermelon, and brownies too. The lady making the chicken asked us
if we were there for Pageant and when we said we were, she told us about taking
her mom to Pageant years ago. She said her mom was staunch Roman Catholic and
didn’t want anything to do with it, but being a local she (the lady telling us
he story) had been to it and knew her mom would like it so she made her go. She
said at the part where Christ comes down out of the sky, her mom was just
sobbing and thanked her for making her go to it! Pretty cool.
We visited the top of the Hill and then had lunch with Jared
and his companion (Brother Brockhurst, I think his name is) and it was great to
see him and hear a little bit about what he is doing. He seems to be pretty
happy. He said he is exhausted, but still loving it. His companion was pretty
quiet, but then—he doesn’t know us so I’m sure it was a bit awkward for him.
They didn’t eat much because they had actually been allowed to sleep in that
morning (first time) and they ate breakfast pretty late. While we were eating,
Brother and Sister Hess (the couple in charge of the work crew) stopped by and chatted for a while. Sister Hess said
that when Jared got off the plane and she saw him, she thought “Oh, I miss
Brother Cleveland!” (meaning Tanner!).
Jared's tower (he isn't in it):
Jared with his companion:
The rest of the day we visited as many church sites as we
could. We didn’t make it to the Grandin Building, but we went to the Sacred
Grove, frame home, log home, and the Palmyra Temple. Then we drove to the Peter
Whitmer Farm. It was exhausting, but we loved visiting all those places again.
We didn’t take a lot of pictures because we already have a lot of pictures of
those places, but we did take some.
Smith farm:
A walk in the Sacred Grove:
More Smith farm:
Smith Log Home. A nice sister missionary took the picture for us!:
Palmyra Temple. We could see light from inside shining through the stained glass window. It looked like the tree was lit up, like the Tree of Life. Really cool, although you can't tell in the picture!:
I didn't accidentally take a picture of half of the Whitmer home. I just thought the sunlight shining through the trees on that side was beautiful:
They have a new movie at the Whitmer Farm
which I really liked. (They said it just came out a few weeks ago.) We forgot
to give Seth his medicine on Saturday (and left it at the hotel) so he was
pretty hyper and somewhat difficult all day. He was angry going into the movie
and didn’t even want to watch it at first but then the spirit started to work
on him because he got really calm and started paying rapt attention. I could
tell he was really impressed by one of the events depicted in the movie—the
miracle of the plowed field. Oliver Cowdery had written to David Whitmer to ask
if he and Joseph Smith could come stay at the Whitmer home to finish
translating the Book of Mormon. David asked his parents permission for them to
come, but his parents (although sympathetic) said it was planting time and too
busy to have guests in the house. Then seeing David’s disappointment, his dad
relented and said if the plowing got done that week then Joseph Smith could
come. After the first day of plowing, David looked at the field feeling very
discouraged because he had accomplished so little. He said a prayer asking that
if the work Joseph Smith was doing was truly the work of God, that the field
would get plowed in time. The next morning when he went out to begin plowing
the field, the plow was sitting in the field and the whole field was completely
plowed!! So yes—Joseph Smith came to the Whitmer home and finished translating.
It was really inspiring. When the movie ended and the missionary came in and
asked the group if they liked the movie, Seth said “yes!!” very loudly and
everyone in the room looked at him and laughed.
Saturday was still pretty hot, but it was less humid and a
little cooler than Friday and there was a nice breeze blowing part of the day,
which really helped it to be more comfortable. It was sunny and I kept thinking
that that area of New York is one of the most beautiful places in the world. It
really is! (Maybe not so much in the winter, though!) We got back to our hotel
later than we planned and we were tired, but it was a nice day. We saw some
people from our ward on Saturday, too. We saw the two families in the
parking lot by the Sacred Grove and Log Home visitor’s center, and we saw another family at the Whitmer Farm.
Sunday morning we planned to attend Sacrament Meeting at our
former ward—the Fayette Ward—before heading home. It was a long drive from our
hotel but we had it all planned out so we would leave in time to get to church
by 9:30. Then right as we finished packing everything into the car, Seth
announced he needed to go to the bathroom!! Why he couldn’t do that while we
were packing, I will never know. So we ended up being about 10 minutes late to
church but at least we were in time for the sacrament. We didn’t really get a
chance to talk with any of the ward members we know, though. The same thing
happened to us last time we went to church there! (We got lost on the way there
that time.) I don’t know why that always happens. It’s not like we are
habitually late for church or anything. (We are actually never late for church.) We saw families from our home ward and stake again though. Sunday was cool, breezy, and drizzly. We had an uneventful
ride home and we’re glad to be home again.
As I already mentioned, this week has been busy. Frank has
been getting caught up with things at work and he has done quite a bit of work
for clients, too. I have been busy getting caught up on laundry, grocery
shopping, cleaning, etc. I also mowed the lawn and weeded the flower beds and
picked up the mail that we had held for two weeks. I had book chat on Tuesday
afternoon and went to a RS activity on Tuesday evening (we went on a nature
walk). I had a Cub Committee meeting Wednesday evening and tonight is Pack
Meeting. In between everything else, I have been frantically working on my list
of things to do for Girls’ Camp. I’ve had more shopping to do and yesterday the
sister missionaries came over and helped me stuff a whole bunch of treat bags.
I would have been there 3 times as long without their help, so I really
appreciated that! I was put in charge of making welcome bags for all the 3rd level girls, but I found so many cute ideas that I couldn't resist making little treats to give to the girls each night from me as well. I also wanted to have some little treats to give to girls as a "thank you" when I notice one being particularly helpful or kind, or to give girls who might be feeling down and need a little boost. There are 26 girls plus 5 YCLs in our level so that added up to 31 bags times 5, plus the extra thank you and cheer up bags (I made 6 each of 5 different kinds for that). So you do the math!! Lots of bags to stuff. Here they are:
The welcome bags have two sides. If you can't read it, the first side says "Be-YOU-tiful...and burst with kindness this week at camp!" (Be-YOU-tiful is the theme for camp.) The starbursts go with that.
The second side says "Don't you worry your pretty little mind. People throw rocks at things that shine." The pop rocks go with that. They will also have glow sticks in them, but after accidentally activating one of them when I opened the packaging, I decided to leave the glow sticks in their packaging for transporting to camp and adding them to the bag right before we give them to the girls.
Here is one of the thank you or cheer up bags. It says "You're O"fish"ally Awesome!"
This one is for cheering someone up:
Close up of the tag:
This is a thank you treat bag:
Another thank you treat bag:
This one could be for cheering up or thanking (It says "Camp would be Un "bear" able without You"):
These are the bags I made for each night:
Here's a view of the treats that go in that bag. There is Laffy Taffy too but you can't really see it:
I just realized this one is upside down! It says "Orange you glad to be here at camp?":
This one is attached to a small bag of M&Ms, of course:
I had way too much fun with these! But it's a good thing I had help or I would still be working on them!
Last night I got all the financial stuff caught up which was
a mess and a really big task since I haven’t done anything for the last 3 weeks
(I did pay bills on time, though.) It’s a relief to have all of that figured
out.
Seth has spent most of the week glued to a screen since I’ve
been too busy to pay much attention to him but I guess one week won’t kill him.
He didn’t get a lot of TV time or games while we were on vacation. He has read
a bit too (mostly at night when I want him to go to sleep) and has even cleaned
his room a bit without my asking him to.
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