What she said: February 2015

Our end of Lake Superior is now frozen over. It has been interesting to watch. There have been a few patches that have unfrozen when the sun shines even if it is not above freezing.

Sister Simpson (left) is going home and it's pretty sad around here. She was serving here in Duluth when we arrived so it will be hard to have her go. The sisters come by our apartment pretty often so it will be different. Sister Shumway is luckily staying though, and we hear that her new companion is from Texas ;and has an accent. I hope she brought a coat!

So, Sister Simpson was making brownies to take to a baptism. Her plan was to make them while we had our weekly breakfast. She carefully wrapped her egg in two layers of foil and cushioned by a paper towel for traveling to our apartment. As she was taking her brownies from the oven, they looked kind of strange. That was when Elder Stratton asked if that was her egg there on the counter. Yup. She thought her brownines were ruined but Brother Faerber liked them! She went ahead and made new ones, with an egg!

Shannon's baptism in Duluth. She was taught by Sister Simpson and Sister Shumway in Duluth. Brother Faerber baptized her.

The very next weekend we attended Trevor's baptism in the Carlton Branch. He was taught by Sister Curtis and Sister Wooley and also Sister England (not pictured). Trevor has played a lot of football and after coming up out of the water said, "touchdown!"

We have visited several seminary classes. We went to the temple for a baptismal session with the Carlton Branch last Saturday. Then we went to a senior missionary Valentine party. It is so fun for us to get together with other senior missionary couples. Such a lot of things to talk about! Even if we have to go to Minneapolis to see them.

On our way driving back to Duluth we saw this rig on the highway driving north. On this trailer there are three dog sleds. Yes, it did take us several guesses before we figured them out. The holes in the side of the trailer indicate a box that has a dog in it. You could see the hay for them to lay on in their box. We didn't see any dogs because it was REALLY cold and they were staying out of the wind. Just another interesting thing about Minnesota.

Things I have learned in Minnesota (so far):

1. Lake Superior doesn't always freeze over. From the Duluth side, it looks like the ice is coming from Wisconsin and is about halfway to Duluth, (approaching slowly, sort of like a horror movie). I can't see all of Lake Superior so I don't know how the ice is traveling on the rest of it. I haven't seen any ice houses or cars on Lake Superior. It did freeze over last winter but everyone says the winter last year was "brutal."

2. Not everyone likes me. Sometimes they are being "Minnesota nice." That is defined as people being especially nice but it doesn't mean they agree with you or even like you. I don't know how to tell for sure but maybe I like believing they agree with me and especially that they like me.

3. What is the deal with fishing???? I understand going fishing in the summer when it's warm and pretty, but the folks around here go fishing in the winter. Every little lake we pass (and there are a lot of them, trust me) has ice houses, plain or fancy, on them. Apparently fishing is fun in the winter. They drive their cars and trucks out to their ice house. It is called "hard water fishing." Some of the ice houses are an extension of their pick up, some are made of canvas, many made of wood and some are like fancy camp trailers. (I wrote about this earlier)

This is one of those fat tire bikes for riding on ice.

4. How to take direction from the Spirit. Actually you could learn this in any state, but I learned it in Minnesota. For instance; when we were planning that last stake youth activity. We had some ideas and talked to the YM president. Every idea we had, he said, oh we did that, we did that, we have already done that. So we went home and prayed and tried once again to develop some ideas. I had an idea for a small activity, but we needed to entertain 65 kids. We started talking and the activity got built bit by bit and when we were done, we had a great activity. We asked kids in the stake when we saw them in various places, "did you have fun at the stake activity?" They said, "yes it was fun." "I learned a lot but it was still fun." "It was the best stake activity I have ever been to!" That was a time when we were guided by the Spirit as we made the plan.
Another time: when we went to Chicago last weekend, I packed my jeans but no dress or skirt. At the last minute, I put in a skirt. I wore it to the baby shower, I wore it to the mission home in Minneapolis, I wore it to the LDS Institute in Minneapolis when we met with Bro. Matheson. I didn't know we would do those missionary things, but it turned out that we did. A small blessing, but a good one.

5. That lighthouse on the front of your puzzle box? Split Rock Lighthouse a few miles north of Duluth on Lake Superior.

6. I sort of remember how to teach seminary. I taught the Duluth class four days last week. The first day I was nervous and talked too fast and too much. The second day was much better. I made them name tags and had them tell about themselves.Then the lesson was so much better. The third day I had them start with a game and one boy in the class got a little crazy and acted out for the rest of class. The 4th day was good again--no games.

7. The people in our stake are amazing. They think nothing of getting in the car and driving an hour for a meeting. Our stake president lives an hour north of the stake center, a counselor lives in Duluth, but the other counselor comes from 2.5 hours south. We also stretch from 2 hours west and 1 1/2 hour east. All these people come to the stake center for meetings but luckily not every week. The people from Thunder Bay (4.5 hours away) visit meetings on Webex, an online meeting app.

8. We got a new branch (smaller than a ward) president today. He is young with a small child. His wife is very supportive of all the time it will take to council people, and listen to them and go to a lot of meetings. I personally think the branch will be blessed because of him. He chose one obvious man for a counselor who was already serving as a counselor BUT his other counselor is a man from Liberia who has been a member just one year. Samson still has a strong accent and little braids all over his head. He is awesome. He works as a nurse This will be so interesting.

Classes we visited...