What she said

Monday, March 23, 2015

This winter is not so bad...

Grant's Ridge Villas - Biwabik MN

Ron snowshoeing on the lake; Giant's Ridge Ski Resort

I kind of hate to tell you this, because we are supposed to be suffering here and snowed in and frozen with the cold and working hard every minute, but we went for a week to a condo up near Virginia, MN. This is where we stayed, and we thank Marvin for buying some timeshare time that didn't get used, so at the last minute we found a place here in our mission and also our stake! We did some missionary work while there. Yes, we did. We inspected two missionary apartments and visited two seminary classes. And also did some snowshoeing, and some reading, some quilting, and some card playing with friends from Duluth that stayed over for a couple of nights.

Elders Boster & Benson

We went to check out the apartment of Elder Boster and Elder Benson but their car was more interesting than their apartment. This happened when they got too close to a deer.

Elder Hicken and Elder Jove had an super clean apartment and they also had a free afternoon as a result of a cancelled appointment. Our appointment was also cancelled so we stayed and played cards with them. Missionaries can play cards on P-day, just so you know. Senior missionaries can do "whatever".

We had an interesting tour of the high school in Hibbing, MN. The high school was built in the 1920's by the mining company to attract immigrants to come work in the mines. The school is huge (really huge) and looks like the inside of a museum or the Paris Opera House or Grand Central Station. But the auditorium is the best, most amazing--patterned after the Capitol Theatre in New York City.

We did not see the ghost who comes to the performances and always sits in the same seat. Do you see him? He is wearing a top hat.

This is Paul Given (Down syndrome) who has his own seminary class, taught by his mom. Paul is the youngest of 10 children. He LOVES Joseph Smith and every time he sees him, the biggest smile comes across his face. He can say Joseph Smith and Jesus and only a few other words. He has been learning about the Kirtland Temple and the appearance of Jesus Christ to Joseph Smith. As his mom was reading to him, he suddenly pulled the book over in front of him and she told us that he wanted to practice saying the Sacrament Prayer. Then he knelt down and folded his hands and recited the Sacrament prayer, every word, after his mom. It was such a sweet experience. I know that Heavenly Father loves Paul and Paul's mom. And it will be a glorious day when Paul gets to meet Joseph Smith. This is one of my all-time favorite seminary class visits!!

We have been hearing about the ice caves since we got here. They are on Lake Superior in the Apostle Island Lakeshore National Park. Ron decided that since I couldn't keep up with the walking, he needed to invite some people who could. So he got Elder Adamson and Elder Lambertson and Josie to come along. First you drive 1 1/2 hours into Wisconsin along the south lake shore. Then you park and walk to the lake and then across the lake to where the ice caves are. Ron thinks they walked about 5 miles and Josie thinks it was WAY too far to walk! Here are some pretty cool photos.

Elder Adamson

Elder Ron

Cave Opening

In the a cave

Adamson, Thao, Ron & Lambertson

Sister Ballif (former missionary) returned for a fun visit.

Jake, Shelby Ballif, McKennon, Josie

When we went to inspect Elder Zerkle's apartment, we discovered his way of memorizing hymns. Yup, it is in the shower.

We went for a hike in Jay Cooke State Park. A beautiful place, we need to go back again.

St. Louis River

A concert by DSSO (Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra). A great evening.

We DO have some friends in Minnesota who invited us for dinner and we played Wizard. (You may not have been as worried about this as me)

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

This and that

I don't mean to complain, but it has been kinda cold here. I keep hearing from the true Duluthians that this winter is not as "grim" as last winter.
We have made it a goal to explore and learn about this area so I hope my blog doesn't turn into a travel report because we do have great experiences with seminary classes and teachers and with missionaries.
That said...

One day Ron went for a walk on Lake Superior. He has done plenty of walks next to the lake, but this time it was ON the lake. He walked out to check some of the fish houses. The fish houses on Lake Superior as not as elaborate or expensive because the ice can sometimes move according to the wind (the entire lake is not frozen) and sometimes a big crack opens up and the people have to be helicoptered off. They have to leave their equipment behind.

We were driving north to vist a seminary class and were driving by Mille Lacs and saw a sign about fish house rentals. This is a lodge across the highway from the lake. We stopped to take a picture and saw the removal of a fish house. It is on skids and was easily pulled on the ice but we wondered about the highway crossing. The driver of the pickup pulled it up and out of the lake and across the highway to it's home.

Do any of you want to join us for a "eat, sleep and fish package" at Mille Lacs? (pronounced Milax)

INTERESTING PEOPLE IN MINNESOTA:

This is Sampson Dolo who joined the Church about a year and a half ago. He is now a counselor in the branch presidency. He is an amazing person. He is from Liberia and when the war broke out his family was ruined, some killed, some beaten, some lost. He grew up in a refugee camp from 8 years old until 22. He shared some of his experiences at a fireside He is an awesome person who has found peace in the gospel. His testimony is so heartfelt and we are so interested to see what he accomplishes in his life.

Lisa Ream came to Minnesota because she felt led here and that there was something she needed to do here. She is awesome, a returned missionary, an experienced camp counselor with emphasis on team challenge games and a degree in math. She comes over on Sunday afternoons to play Hand and Foot with us and take a nap on our couch. Sometimes she makes cookies or rolls. We love her but she is going back to Utah. She has an ability to draw together everyone in a group and has done some awesome things with the young single adults here. She will be missed.

Theresa Smith has the "celestial kingdom" of quilt rooms!! It is built above her 4 car garage and has the coolest long-arm quilting machine I have ever seen outside a quilt store. And she said I could bring a quilt over and we could quilt it. And you know me, right? Here I am talking to her while she does all the work. She is the wife of our stake president. She has some beautiful quilts in progress.

We were invited to a Valentine Party for senior missionaries in Minneapolis. We had a potluck dinner and played some games. We did not know how serious they would be about Skipbo!! The Grafs are serving a medical mission. The Thompsons work in the mission office. The Soelburgs work with the young single adults in Minneapolis near the University of Minnesota. The Arringtons' mission is called member/leader support which means they serve in an area where there are just a few active members. They help the church members in any way they can.: sometimes providing rides, sometimes teaching English, sometimes helping to fill out forms for assistance. And lots more I don't know about. We are the only seminary and institute missionaries in the Minneapolis mission.

I was invited to teach a seminary class in Pine City. What a great class. Do you see them all reading their scriptures looking for an answer to my question?? This 4 student class is held in the basement of their teacher's home. She has a whiteboard set up and some shelves for them to keep their scriptures and other materials on. She has pens and pencils and markers in the middle of the table. There are muffins. She has colorful scripture mastery posters on the walls. In another part of the basement is her painting studio and the paintings are really good. In fact, Ron commissioned her to paint a picture of Minnesota for us. She also plays the guitar and piano and often accompanies the singing in seminary with her guitar. One of the students joined the church a few months ago. It is very rewarding to see him get excited about the scriptures and the things he is learning. He gave the most humble closing prayer that I will always remember.

We have been assigned to inspect the young missionaries' apartments for health and safety. So far they have done pretty well. Elder Stratton told them we would take them to lunch after the inspection. If they get a good report from us, they can choose the place for lunch. If they get a not so good inspection report, we choose the place. Either way they get lunch so they are pretty happy and we get to know more missionaries. But just so you don't forget we are in Minnesota, here is an antelope in one apartment sporting a Fedora, feather and a stuffed spider (I think). Don't you love the juxtaposition of their to-do list and the Savior and the antelope?

Monday, February 16, 2015

Cold temps, warm hearts!

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.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

What Minnesota is teaching me.

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...