I love this Church!

 October is pretty wonderful in the state of Minnesota.  We had a visit from Grey and Robyn.  We had such a good time looking at ships, birds, leaves, water falls, pies and bikes--but no bears.


 We had a meeting the first evening they were here.  So we left them at canal park to explore and we thought we had given them enough information so they could ride the bus home because the hills are REALLY steep.  They found a homecoming parade to watch and walked to Duluth Pack and Duluth Trading and then they WALKED all the way back to our apartment!!

See how pretty the leaves are and
how happy they are to be here!

The view from Enger Tower

Big ship loading ore pellets

Hand and Foot at the Newtons

  

Mountain bike trail
Ron is making his last good weather count by riding lots of trails.

We attended Sister Webster's seminary class in Pine City.

So, one day I said to my friend Patti Newton that we should get together for Hand and Foot. So she invited us for dinner and cards.  I was still scratching my head wondering how I invited her but she was the one cooking dinner.  It worked out pretty nice for me!

Ashli and I were partners doing a worksheet.. 

Then we built an altar out of cookies.  Pretzel sticks were the wood for the sacrifice and we each sacrificed a paper lamb on which we had written a habit we wanted to break. Then our lambs were sacrificed on the cookie altar.

Then we went to visit a seminary class in North Branch and here are some photos from that class. (No fire)

The really happy boy is Jacob.  And we happened to be talking about Jacob in the Old Testament.
  When he was asked to read, he said, "And I said" instead of reading "and Jacob said."

 At our stake conference, Elder Neil Anderson was here.  It was an amazing spiritual experience.  He talked a bit about the 3 apostles who recently died or he called it "graduated".  His experience with each of them shortly before they died was pretty amazing.  I love this church!

We fed 16 elders and 4 sisters breakfast before we went
 over to stake conference.

This morning we went to seminary with Cora and Audrey Delich.
  Before seminary class, we did not know they were famous tennis players.

                                                                                         

                                                                                    Last night we got invited to Elder Dover's going                                                                                       away dinner.  This was his first area and he is                                                                                           loved.

We also inspected the Elder's apartment in Virginia, MN and took them to breakfast.  Elder Frost ate a lot.  This is the breakfast he ate after he ate his own breakfast and some of mine.  He warned us that he is Samoan so he can eat a lot.  And it is true!!

Milk inna beg!

 We went up to Thunder Bay, Canada last week.  And this is the kind of scenery we saw.  Lots of fall colors and somehow, we never get tired of Lake Superior. 

   

First we had an in-service meeting with the seminary and the institute teacher there.  They appreciated us bring in-service to them since it is so far for them to drive.

Then we inspected the missionaries apartment.  What do you think?  Did they pass? Well, we took them to dinner.

The next morning we visited this seminary class.  This teacher has 5 students and she uses her Apple TV for the music and for the scriptures and even for the questions.  I am always impressed when people can use their technology without a bunch of problems with it.

After picking up rocks, you wash them to make
sure you have amethyst.

Then we drove North along the lake to see some more scenery and we stopped at an amethyst mine.  The vein was discovered accidentally and it is the only amethyst mine in North America.  It is an open pit mine and you can see trays of stones, bigger than the ones we were allowed to "mine"

 

Many of these stones are purple, really, and we mined a box of rocks.
This is not going to make us millionaires, in fact we paid $3.00 a pound,  but it was fun. 

Then Ron went for a hike across a swinging bridge or two and down a zipline while seeing beautiful scenery.

On Monday we went to visit a seminary class in Askov, MN.  A woman teaches her two daughters in her home.  She did everything that a teacher of a big class would have done, although there were less people to say prayers. But her preparation would have been the same for a class of 2 or a class of 15. We talked on the way home about all the women in the Duluth Stake teaching seminary, miles apart, but having similar experiences of studying and teaching the gospel to a new generation of teens. And their goal is teaching the gospel, not just getting through a lesson, but living and teaching so that the Holy Ghost testifies to the students.  These are truly woman of the covenant who are dedicated to carrying the gospel by converting their own family first.

If you have spent any time in the North Country (upper MN, WI, ON) you learn to say things like "beg" for bag, "eggate" for agate,"aboat" for about and you put an "eh" at the end of a sentence (more prevalent the further north you go).   So I was in Kwik Trip (a gas station) and I saw a much lower price on the milk if you bought it in a bag instead of a plastic bottle. Then later when the elders were here for breakfast, Elder P said, "Oh milk inna beg."

Doncha just love Minnesota?

September: fun and busy!

Many times this summer we have
looked out on the lake to see a ship
carrying windmill blades-the huge ones.

                 

On Sunday mornings when we arrive at church we often see Brother Martindale sitting at the piano.  Brother Martindale dosn't know how to play the piano but he does know how to punch in the numbers for the automatic hymn player.  He is always smiling about this good trick he plays on us every week.

 This is an in-service meeting in Pine City.  Look how good they are listening!

On September 6,7,8 we held a senior couples' conference in Duluth. There are 9 couples serving in the Minneapolis, Minnesota Mission and they all came!   We had a potluck first thing and,as usual, the food was delicious. Thompsons, Graffs, Arringtons, Forbes, Becks, Marlos, Higbees, Morrisons, Sawyers, Strattons. I don't know first names, we just call them Elder and Sister.

We were lucky enough to see a big ship come through the ship canal.

Biking on the lakewalk

 We took them to all the scenic spots around here: Enger Tower, Canal Park, Gooseberry Falls, Split Rock Lighthouse, Glensheen Mansion,Betty's Pie Shop and the Church for "Hungry Hippos-senior style" and some other games. It really surprised me that ALL the seniors had a turn on the roller boards.

This is President Forbes, the mission president.

                                      

And we invited the Sisters Christensen and Pointer.

They slept in the Villas at Spirit Mountain.
We slept at home. (I knew you would wonder)

 We made some very fun memories while they were here.  Overheard comment, "I am going to go back to my mission and rest up from this."

And then it was time for our next visitors!  It was so good to see Barry and Beth. You may be starting to recognize this view from Enger Tower.

 One thing we hadn't done yet in Minnesota was go and tour the Soudan Mine.  We were over 2,000 feet underground and I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous.  We saw how they mined iron ore.

This is the photo they took to send to their mom.

Ron and Barry on the very loud and crowded elevator.

We cooked us some brats!

Mountain biking!

We dropped in at a resort in northern Minnesota on Moose Lake which the Halls (that we know from church) own and run.  People come here to get outfitted to go into the Boundary Waters on a canoe/camping trip. It was a beautiful setting and when Blayne asked if we wanted to go on a boat ride, we agreed.  We saw several eagles nests and eagles.  The lake was smooth and beautiful and then we stopped on an island and Blaine told we were in Canada.

Yesterday Ron gave a workshop at youth conference on "Scripture Study". We actually know the kids from visiting their seminary classes and going to Nauvoo with them.

             

Just reading the scriptures is like a bucket of sand.
You have to sift through to find the gems!

Elder Stratton and some cute girls.  It's the selfie stick once again.