Imagine his surprise!

I got a parking ticket.  You have to use quarters here when you "plug" the meter. That's the short version. The cool part to this story is, when I came out of City Hall there was a bear in the tree right there in downtown Duluth.  So it evened out, didn't it?.  Bad=parking ticket  Good=seeing a bear in downtown Duluth.  And he stayed in the tree.

This is right after they sang "Happy Birthday" to me.
As you can see, no cake.

We are taking one last picture with Elder Damron before he goes home to Arizona.  We will miss him. He was an awesome missionary! We commemorated his leaving by having lunch at Grandma's Restaurant.

We drove up to Thunder Bay, Canada where we visited an Institute class, and a seminary class, a new seminary teacher and the Elder's apartment.  And then we took them to breakfast at the Java Hut.  But we didn't take pictures because it was too rainy.

Then we packed up and went to see Pelican Lake and spend a few days there at a place called Breezy Point.  It really lived up to its name!  Very breezy and rainy.  This is called the "lake area" which is kind of funny in a state of 10,000 lakes.  (There are actually 11,842 lakes bigger than 10 acres in size.)    We took this photo near the headwaters of the Mississippi River.  It is even smaller if you drive another hour North. 

 Wade and Patti Newton came and played some Hand and Foot with us.  As you can see, Patti and I had no luck.  It was pretty sad.  Wade, however, is having a pretty good time.

.Ron has been stopping to look at aluminum trailers for months and months.  So he found one for sale and bought it.  Now, I don't know what he will stop to look at now!  But I am comforted knowing I can take all my stuff back to Idaho in 6 months

We went to a Minnesota fish fry at the Conservation Club.  These are the guys frying the fish.  It was excellent!

Pelican Lake, calm and peaceful.  This was just the one afternoon.  The rest of the time there were whitecaps!

I am going to add some pictures that have not happened in Minnesota but have an impact on our lives anyway.  

3rd place in the Pinewood Derby.  Miss you Sean!

THESE PEOPLE ARE COMING HERE TOMORROW!!!

 Mother's day in Utah with Nanalee, Ashlee, Megan, Angela, Afton and Gloria

Here and there!

 The Northern Lakes Second Harvest Food Bank had a big fundraiser called "The Empty Bowl". People from the community, including artists and schoolkids, made ceramic bowls and donated them.  Hundreds! Restaurants donated soup and bread. On the Empty Bowl day, people came to the old Train Depot and each paid $20.00; then they could choose a bowl and have a bowl of soup and bread.  Some of the beautiful art bowls were sold at a silent auction for a lot more than $20. There were lots of volunteers including missionaries!  A great community event.

 We went to Brookfield, Illinois to meet baby Vance .  He is a cutie and it was fun to see the new parents (Scott and Jessica) "parent" him,  He has reddish hair!? 

 This is how we watch a hockey game on TV with sleep deprived parents!  Everyone sound asleep!

We drove all the way to Bismarck, ND(!) for our Seminary and Institute training. In this photo are other senior missionaries who do what we do in Bismarck, Fargo, Rush City, MT, Pierre, SD, and Rapid City, SD.  We learned a lot and broke our diets--a WHOLE table full of snacks!

   I am writing their names so I will remember them:  Brimhall, Metallo, Pearson, Gent, Forsgren and our trainers Troy Matheson and Mark MacDonald.

And THEN, we went to Fargo, ND to a young single adult conference where Elder Stratton taught a workshop on personal finances.  Do you want to know the lesson?  It is:  1) Plan - you are in charge of your finances,  2)  Get a education that will earn you good money.  3)  Invest money so your money can earn money instead of only your time earning money.  4)  Give 10%.  5) Retirement/long-term savings 10%.  6)  Reserve savings 10%  and live on the rest.  Wasn't that interesting?  Well not so much.  But pretty important.

We were home for just 2 nights, then we drove south to visit seminary classes in Pine City, North Branch and Wyoming (the MN town).  Such awesome classes and we took no pics.  But we did find a few fun things to do.  One day we went to Taylor Falls, on the St. Croix river, which divides Minnesota from Wisconsin here.  There is an outdoor sculpture garden with such interesting sculptures, I don't know if they all qualify as art but the artist sure had a good time with his heavy equipment and acres of land.  I will share some of the ones I thought were strange/interesting/artistic.

Yes, this really is a  house, suspended in the air.  Very Oz'ian.

These are lifesize because they used to be alive.

A big cage full of round rocks.  I should have added something for scale but the bigger rocks are bigger than the size of your exercise ball.  so this sculpture is pretty big. And the next one is too.

Lifejacket totem

This one is called Lizard Lounge.

Then on to St. Paul where we met up with other senior missionaries for a conference. It's possible you are confused by our two groups of friends (senior missionaries).  This group in St. Paul are all senior missionaries serving in Minnesota and NONE of them have anything to do with Seminaries and Institutes.  We are lucky to have two groups to associate with.  Such awesome people!

Names: Forbes, Arringtons, Thompsons, Grafs, Soelbergs, Morrisons, Becks and Marzos and Strattons

One of our activities was going to the Minneapolis Museum of Art.  There was a special display there where local florists came in and chose a piece of art and then made a floral sculpture to match the art.  It was fascinating.  I will just post a few.

 Some seemed obvious and others... not so much.

This is Haylee.  She is in my (Ron's) Sunday School class.  She was explaining why she didn't get a hello text from me.  Evidently she had maxed out on her Data Plan.  Then she said "If my GPA was as high as my data usage, I'd have it made for life."  No truer words ever spoken.

And here is a scenery picture.  See, no ice and snow?  And we have some leaves on the trees.  Must be Spring!

Goodbye ice and snow!

This is what it looked like two weeks ago.  The ice is  melting on Lake Superior and in the creeks and rivers. And the missionaries are getting moved around...

Elder Roose went south to Lake Prior

Sister Shumway went home to Wyoming
Elder Zerkle went south to somewhere
Elder Hicken went home.

Elder and Sister Stratton with Elder Roose

Sister McDowell, Sister Stratton, Sister Shumway

  Last Monday afternoon (P-day) we heard a knock at our door and there were 4 elders standing there.  One said, "we're bored.  Can we come in a play games?"  Of course!  We are always up for games.

Jean and Russ at Lake Superior

Weighing in as our first visitors of 2015, Jean and Russ!!  We first met them in Minneapolis where Russ was teaching. We did some sightseeing with Jean:  the state capitol building and the Minnesota History Museum. And we toured the James Hill (railroad $) mansion in St. Paul. I think I should have an organ in my house like his.
On Friday we brought Jean with us to Duluth and we toured another mansion and the Maritime Museum and had dinner at Grandma's Restaurant (sponsor of the marathon).  Russ drove up on his own after teaching.  On Saturday, the weather was awesome!  Lots of sunshine and a record high of 73!!
We drove up the North shore of Lake Superior and saw the Split Rock Lighthouse and hiked around Gooseberry Falls. And watched a carrier get loaded with taconite at Two Harbors.  It was so fun to have them here.

This is the organ and no one in his family knew how to play!

Minnesota State Capitol

Gooseberry Falls

In front of the Glensheen Mansion in Duluth

I padding

We have finished our first visit to inspect all the missionary apartments in our district.  That is 10 apartments.  We have taken 20 missionaries to lunch or breakfast.  It has been very enjoyable to get to know them all better.  We have finished visiting all the Seminary and Institute classes 2 times this semester.  That is a lot of visiting!  The teachers are all doing well but they like to have a break and most times I teach when we visit.

 In March,  Ron and I had an assignment to speak in Church about The Restoration.  My life is greatly effected by the Gospel being restored and the Church organized in the latter-days. (For instance, I am here on a mission instead of being on a cruise).  I am going to give you just a little of my talk:

There was a couple named Richard and Margaret Phillips who lived in Tom's River, NJ in the 1800's.  He was a sea captain and his route was from New York to New Orleans and back again. He was called "Captain Dickie" and was known for being honest and dependable. They had a lot of kids-12 total, although one baby died shortly after birth. One day when it had been raining, Captain Dickie sent his kids outside to flip over turtles  They came out after the rain-the turtles, I mean.  The kids would flip the turtles over onto their backs so they couldn't get away, then Captain Dickie and the big kids would come along and collect the turtles in bags.  Then he took the turtles down to New Orleans where they were used to make turtle soup.
In 1847 the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints found Captain Dickie and Margaret and their family joined the church.  They wanted to go to Utah and be with the Saints so in 1861 they started from Florence, Nebraska with 10 children, 2 wagons,  a carriage with 4 horses and several oxen and milk cows.  They settled in American Fork, UT where they built a small house and where they had one more child.  Captain Dickie fished on Utah Lake and sold his fish up in Salt Lake.  I would say that the restoration of the gospel effected their lives quite a lot.  It also effects my life because one of their children, Emeretta,  is my great grandmother. The church is a tradition in my life. All of my grandparents and also my parents are members of the Church, and all my aunts and all my uncles. This is so different from most of the members that I meet here in Minnesota. Almost all of them  have learned about and joined the church as adults.

I like this scripture in 2 Nephi 31, that tells about the message of the restoration and the doctrine of Christ. "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.  Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father; Ye shall have eternal life. And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ."
When I read "press forward" I can picture Captain Dickie and his family crossing the plains with the pioneers with a "perfect brightness of hope." I am so grateful for my ancestors who joined the Church, and then passed the tradition and testimony on to me.  I really would rather be here than on a cruise.

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)