Christmas Ornaments

Already told you about the honey locust tree that blew down during hurricane Sandy.  Here are some pictures of us working on one project that we made from that tree.  They are Christmas ornaments for our grandchildren. 

Thankful Thoughts for Mission 2012

On our first Thanksgiving Day ever, away from family and serving our mission in Palmyra, New York, here’s a partial list of what we are thankful for: 

A loving Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost

A missionary call and our ability to serve in this sacred area

We’re thankful for chairs and doors and walls and roofs that need repairing. 

We’re thankful for a Holy Temple that needs to be cleaned inside and out. 

We’re thankful for Sacred Sites to visit and maintain. 

We’re thankful for a magnificent wood shop and mechanic shop.

We’re thankful for wonderful people with whom we work.

We’re thankful for Easy-Go carts and Work-Horse carts to drive.

We’re thankful for acres and acres and more acres of church land and forests to ride them in and for the beautiful farm lands that are everywhere.

We’re thankful for the Pageant area that needs mowing and tending. 

We’re thankful for the beautiful, sacred wood from The Hill Cumorah from which to make wood projects.

We’re thankful for a cozy, warm, comfortable 162+ year old home on sacred land in which we live.

We’re thankful for our large, supportive family.

We’re thankful for our testimonies of the truth.

We’re thankful for being here together as eternal companions in the service of our God.

Wood From Hill Cumorah

During Hurricane Sandy a tree on the Hill Cumorah blew down.  The caretaker of the Sacred Grove and the Hill Cumorah gave the tree to Elder Poulson.  We've been having fun making things in the wood shop from the wood of that tree.  It was a honey locust tree.  Here are some pictures of Grandpa and Packer out in the back lot of the Facilities Management yard and in the wood shop.  They are making sling shots for Packer, Caleb and their Daddy from the wood.  Also, Packer and Caleb had fun riding with Grandpa and "driving" the Work Horse cart.

Whitmer Farm

We took a ride out to the Whitmer Farm where the Church was organized and where the first 2 General Conferences of the Church were held.  Here's a picture of Grandma and the boys near the log home where the organization and the conferences were held.  Imagine holding General Conference here now, wow.

Temple

So many people ask what Sister Poulson does on this mission.  Well, I do a lot of different things.  I sometimes work in the office helping with computer entry for completed jobs and credit card purchases.  Sometimes I work on projects by myself but mostly I work with Elder Poulson together on our projects.  He helps me with mine and I help him with his.  We love working together and it's more fun that way.  We don't often remember to get pictures of our "jobs" but while Amber was here, she took pictures of one of our jobs.

The Palmyra Temple was shut down for 2 weeks for semi-annual cleaning.  Inside the temple we scrubbed the tile floor of the baptistry so clean that we were recruited by the temple presidency to do other tile floors in the temple.  (One thing we know is the care and cleaning of tile.)  We also cleaned all of the windows of the temple inside and out.  There are no pictures of that project 'cause we don't take pictures in the temple but here's some of Elder Poulson's project that I  helped him with.....cleaning the outside of the temple.  It is so humid here that moss grows right on the temple, especially on the north and west sides.  We used warm water from an igloo and scrub brushes to get rid of the moss.  

On another assignment at the temple, Elder Poulson scrubbed the WHITE, yes white, tile paver sidewalks.  The pavers are sand set and so moss also grows between them.  He used a power washer and a specially designed tool to scrape and wash away the moss and the dirt left by landscapers who did some major remodeling of the front garden beds.

Here's a picture of the boys walking around the temple while we cleaned.  It was very, very cold and they only lasted a few minutes.  

Two more pictures of Caleb at the temple.  He was so upset that he couldn't go IN the temple.  He kept pulling on the door and crying.  It was sad and funny, but mostly good that he wanted to go in. 

Erie Canal

Okay, if you're tired of hearing/seeing the Erie Canal, you can skip this part of the blog.  I'm putting these pictures in here because I'm so facinated by the operation of the locks and we were fortunate enough to catch the last boat of the season going through "our" lock #29.  It was fun to share this experience with Amber and her boys. 

 

This first picture shows the boat approaching the lock on the high or west side of the lock.  

Second picture shows the boat entering the lock.  The lock keeper filled the lock up as the boat approached a bridge enroute to this lock.  Filling this lock up at the right moment helps this large boat get under the bridge a little easier because filling the lock also slightly lowers the Erie enough to give the boat a little extra room beneath the bridge. 

 

The third picture is the boat waiting for the lock water to lower to the level of the east end of the lock.  

The fourth picture is the boat lowered and leaving the lock on the east end. 

 

As we were leaving we talked to the only other person watching this event.  He was a man in his 70s or so.  He said he's lived here his whole life and that was the first time he has seen the lock operate.  I am amazed at that.  I've only been to the lock twice and I'm 2 for 2.  I love seeing the Erie and I am constantly amazed at the this engineering feat accomplished so long, long ago. 

Amber's Visit

One of the best weeks on our mission was last week.  Amber brought her two boys and came for a visit.  Took her 6+ hours driving to get here from their temporary home in Virginia.  Daddy couldn't come as he was "playing" war as part of his officer's training.  We missed him but we also had a great time and got to see lots of sites together while they were here.

Here are just two of the pictures I took.  The one is of Packer and Caleb on Alvin's grave here in Palmyra.  The other is at the Grandin Building where the first copies of the Book of Mormon were published. 

Made It Out

Well, we did make it out before dark, but just barely.  We came out on the south end of the Grove and walked along the "road" by the Frame House and the Log Cabin.  These pictures were taken from that gravel walkway looking toward the Temple.  The Temple is so easy to see with all of the leaves gone.

Trails

These are pictures from our Sacred Grove walk.  The first one is Elder Poulson walking along one of the trails in the Grove.  Most of the leaves are off the trees and on the trails.  It was very hard to even see where the trail was.  We were mostly walking from bench to bench just to stay on the trail.  

The following pictures are still in the Sacred Grove on that warm Sabbath evening.  The setting sun made for some great pictures.  What do you think?  But the setting sun made Elder Poulson a little nervous  that the sun would set (it does that quickly here) and we wouldn't be able to find our way out of the grove in the dark.  (He didn't tell me until we were out of the Grove.)  I am so confused by which way is east, west, north and south here that I, for sure, would have been lost. 

Sacred Grove

Sorry, we're a bit behind on our blog but stay with us we're going to try to catch up this afternoon.  These first few pictures were taken on November 11, 2012.  It was a beautiful and warm Sunday evening for November.  We couldn't resist a chance to take a walk in the Sacred Grove.  We love it there and it was a perfect time to take a walk. 

Here is Bill holding a leaf we found on the ground.  It's huge.  We are not allowed to take anything from the Sacred Grove.  So, Elder Poulson is only holding the leaf for the picture and he put it right back where he found it. 

Family History Center

Here is one of Elder Poulson's assignments.  This shelf is for the Family History Center in one of the chapels we take care of here in New York.  I wasn't around when he finished and delivered it so no finished pictures.....yet.  When we are in the neighborhood sometime, I'll take some finished pictures the shelf in its new home.

It was built to hold a copier that is new and very tall, too tall for a regular table.  The sisters who run the FHC had to have a stool to stand on when operating the copier before Elder Poulson built this for them.  The wood shop here at the FM office is state of the art and fun to work in.

Joseph Smith Sr Home Repairs

These pictures are one of the assignments Elder Poulson had.  The front door on the Joseph Smith Sr. frame home was starting to come apart.  It has been repaired before, of course, and the calking was cracked and falling out.  Bill cleaned it up and replaced the calking and we planned to repaint it the next day.  Then the rain started and kept up for days.  The first clear day came and Bill was replacing shingles on a garage just across the street behind the Frame House.  So, went together to the Farm and I painted the door while keeping an eye on Bill across the street.  No pictures of the finished door, but we'll get them soon and post them.  The door will need to be completely re-painted when we have some better weather.  Up close it looks a little "touched up" due to the fact that the old red paint has faded a bit.

I just kept thinking as I was painting, "Joseph walked through this very threshold".  How blessed we are to be helping to maintain these sacred places.

Pole Barn

This first picture is looking east from the FM office.  On the right is the Pole Barn.  No one I've talked to knows why it's called that.  It's big and has anything needed to fix golf carts, cars, trucks, snow blowers, etc.  Right now there is an amazing missionary/mechanic serving here along with his wife.  (They live in the apartment below us).  He can fix anything and keeps very busy in the Pole Barn.  Elder Poulson helps him every time he has free time.

The second picture is what we call the mechanics' garage.  It's where the paid male employees keep their tools, etc.  You can't see from the picture, but it has a walk-out basement with roll-up garage doors behind and beneath it.  One side has plumbing parts and every paint ever used anywhere in the Finger Lakes area of the Church, seriously.  The other side is where plants are started early in the spring to be transplanted to the little "replica" gardens at the Smith Farm and Whitmer Farm.

The last picture in this group is a building called the "Wind Tunnel".  Again, no one seems to know why.  Neither of us has been inside this building, yet.  It is only used in the summer during the Pageant.  About two dozen, young, pre-missionary men come to stay here during pageant.  They help with stage set-up and anything else the pageant director needs them to do.  I guess we'll know more about all of that by this time next year. 

Office

Here's the office at the Facilities Management Grounds where we meet each morning to report and receive new assignments.  This is also where I work at the computer and watch the office when the regular secretary is absent.

Sacred Grove

The Church has a great friend here in Palmyra.  He is Bob Parrot.  He is not a member but he loves the Sacred Grove and has a testimony of the spirit felt there.  He is the paid caretaker of the Grove and the Hill Cumorah.  What he says and does for these places is "law". 

There was a time when the church kept the Grove cleaned up and free from dead or dying wood and fallen leaves, etc. but it was actually killing the Grove.  So, Bob appears with the knowledge and love for the Grove.  He keeps it safe for visitors and more importantly healthy.  Here you see an e-mail we all received the day before "Sandy" hit.  Thought you might like to read his message to us. 

My Tree

Remember "my tree", the one I look at through the window from my desk?  Here is a fall picture of it right before "Sandy" hit and one a few days after the "Super Storm" left.  It is like most of the other trees here.  What few leaves they had left were not a match for the winds and rains of "Sandy". 

But all  in all, we were spared any damage.  This ol' house, built in 1850, didn't even tremble in the raging storm.  As you probably know, others living near the coast are still cleaning up.  They say it's the biggest storm/hurricane to hit the area in recorded history.