Memorial Day

              

              

Pittsburgh 2nd ward has an annual Memorial Day picnic at South Park in the East Rise Pavilion.  We ran to the office to get some cars ready to show and then went to the breakfast.  We have good friends in the 2nd ward now.  It was a beautiful day but hot and humid.

             

We got to see another Pirates game. This time with the Christensens.  It was their first time at a professional baseball game.  The rain came down in sheets for about an hour and then the game got underway.  The Reds beat the Pirates 8-1.  The temperature was warm so we enjoyed the rain up under the overhang of the deck above us.

              

                                                

We had fun meeting the Brenchleys in Somerset on Saturday.  They had come back to visit their daughter and family in Hershey and drove to Somerset to visit where they had served for a year.  They were staying at a B&B they had stayed at for the first two weeks in the mission field.  Carol, the owner, had become a good friend.  She shared with us her days-old baby skunk.  It’s name is Cush.  It’s mother had been killed on the highway and they had found the baby abandoned. She was deciding whether to keep it or not and get it de-scented.  It really was cute and cuddly.  Carol milks goats and makes goat milk cheese and fudge. She says her favorite is the cheese cake from goat cheese.  They raise chickens and have lots of cats too. Her B&B is beautiful and decorated with hedgehogs and porcupines.  WIsh we had known about this when the girls came here with us.

                                    

These are the Elders in our Zone and the ones we teach the Book of Mormon Class with.  Elders Mackintosh and Shumway are the Pittsburgh 2nd ward elders and the moving elders for the mission.  They drive the new Chevy pickup so they can get apartments moved in and out of.  Elders Deaton and Heinrich are the Zone Leaders and Elders Gerratt and Christensen are the APs.  We love them all.

                                         

Elder and Sister Neal just arrived this week and are from Nampa, ID.  They are our new CES couple.  They are going to be loved by the young adults.             

We love all of our missionaries and are happy to be serving in the mission office and getting to know them all. 

More family, Yay!

We loved having Tyson and Jamie come visit us in Pittsburgh.  They are the first family to visit since we moved to Pittsburgh from Wheeling.  We miss our family so much and love when they can visit.

             

              

We saw Pittsburgh from all three overlooks.  Fortunately it was good weather and only rained occasionally.

                                      

We took what they call the “Just Ducky Tour” and learned a lot about the city of Pittsburgh itself.  They have taken WWII amphibious machines and turned them into tour busses. We drove around down town Pittsburgh with a tour guide, learning about it’s history and buildings.  Then we drove right into the river and toured the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers for a bit.  The funnest bit of information I learned was why Pittsburgh is so crazy to get around in.  We were told that two different engineers planned the city. One started from one end and the other started from the opposite end and worked towards the middle, never thinking they would meet because there was a hill between them, but over the years they have dug out the hill  and it is now Grant Street.   There really is no rhyme or reason as to why the streets run like they do. 

              

We took another day and drove to Kirtland, OH and toured the Church history sites.  There is such an amazing spirit at the Church sites and we loved visiting with the site missionaries who serve there.  One of the couples was in the MTC with us, the Symes, and it was fun to catch up with them.  Jami had never been to Kirtland and it was fun sharing it with her.  Kirtland is about 2 1/2 hours from Pittsburgh.

             

We drove to Wheeling and showed them some of our favorite places and they got to meet some of the people we grew to love so.  That evening we went to a Pirates game. It was free T-shirt night so we all got our souvenir Pirates shirts.

We really enjoyed playing hooky from the office for a couple of days and loved having Tyson and Jami come experience some of our mission with us. 

Flat Stanley comes again

We had Flat Stanley come visit us again.  This time Easton sent him to us.  We got to spend time at the office, he went to primary in the Pittsburgh 2nd ward, he helped with a service day at the church and he got to see the Pittsburgh Pirates play the Denver Rockies. 

              

This time President and Sister Topham went to the ballgame with us.  We got rained out on the Monday night game so we got to go to a Wednesday day game instead.  It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day.  President and Sister Topham have taken Flat Stanley touring around the mission also so they were quite familiar with him.

              

We had a ward service day and Flat Stanley got to help Elder Green vacuum the building.   He also went on team-ups with Elders Mackintosh and Huber.

               

He visited with Elder and Sister Bowcutt in the office and got to be the fleet coordinator for a day. 

                                      

He also got to say good bye to Elder and SIster Marshall as they were leaving the Mission to go home to Cortez.  We are really going to miss them.

                             

We  enjoyed another trip to the Washington, DC temple with Brian and Amanda O’Connor from the Ward.  Brian’s mother, Theresa Schieffer, was there to receive her endowments and it was fun to be there with her.  She’s become a good friend.  We are enjoying our service in the Mission Office, doing what ever we can to help the mission work go forward. 

More new missionaries

With the new changes for Senior Missionaries, we have been getting more couples here in the mission.  This week the Abbotts from Yorba Linda, CA arrived and will spend 6 months in Lock Haven, PA doing MLS.  There youngest of seven sons is serving his mission so they decided to serve while he was.  They wanted a Pittsburgh experience before they took off across the state so we took them down town to see the sites and then out to dinner with the Bowcutts.  It was fun to talk MLS with them since we had spent a year doing that in Wheeling.  We are so excited for them.

            

Last week we got to take a drive to Punxsutawney, PA to take a new car to some elders.  We met the Mudgetts, the Senior Couple serving there, and had lunch with them and the elders and took a tour of the city.  It’s a quaint little town that used to have its own branch until they combined three branches to form a ward.  Phil is, of course, the celebrity there and we got to see him and all the statues they have of him. 

              

He actually lives in the city library and comes out once a year to see if he sees his shadow or not. 

                                        

Our cute AP’s, Elder Hatch and Elder Christensen, brought us dinner one night at the office when we were working late.  They had made chicken noodle soup that was delicious.

           

We also had a lovely dinner at the Mission Home hosted by President and Sister Topham.  It was for Elder and Sister Marshall who are going home soon.  The Christensens and the Bowcutts were there too.  The advantage of working in the office is being able to associate so closely with the Tophams.  They are wonderful people and we have learned to really love and appreciate them.  We know what ever work we are called to do helps the Gospel to be shared.  We are grateful to be serving our Savior at this time and in this way. 

A Surprise Visitor

We had a surprise visit this week from Flat Stanley.  Luke sent him to us and we took him around the city and gave him a mission experience.  He even got to go on team-ups with Elder Huber and Elder Hatch and Elder and Sister Green. 

             

             

He got to see a great view of where the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers converge to become the Ohio River. Thanks to Luke for sending us such a fun visitor.

We also were able to witness the conversion and baptism of Shelby Rogers.  Shelby told his wife 40 years ago that he would never join the Church. She remained active and through her love and good home teachers, Shelby’s heart finally softened and he asked to be taught and baptized.  His son was able to baptize and confirm him a member of the Church.  The ward sees this as a true miracle.  We only knew the humble, repentant Shelby but are convinced that the Gospel changes hearts and lives.

             

Elders Mackintosh and Huber were the ones who got to do most of the teaching.  Elder Mackintosh just started his second transfer and this is his first baptism.  We keep telling him that they all won’t be this easy. 

            

There were 10 missionaries at the baptism.  Elder Jex had served in the ward for 10 months while he was in the office and knew Shelby well. He and Elder de Leon are serving together now in another ward but got permission to come to the baptism.  The AP’s, Elders Hatch and Christensen came also. The Christensens, the Mental Health couple were there also.  The ward had a good turnout as well.

We survived our second transfer last week and got 12 new missionaries oriented to the mission.  Rod spends most of his time figuring out the cars.  We were at the office until about10:00 p.m. last Thursday getting two cars that had been sold loaded on a carrier.  We just received four new cars so that means 4 more to be sold for a total of 10.  Rod has to get them in good shape mechanically and detailed to make them saleable.  That’s on top of doing regular maintenance and keeping track of service and miles on the 63 cars in use as well as repaired when they have accidents.  That means, of course, lots of record keeping and reports sent to Salt Lake.  We manage to keep busy.

                                       

The weather has been beautiful for 2 weeks with blue skies and temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s.  Things are starting to turn green instead of grey and it’s a beautiful time to be in Pittsburgh.  We are looking forward to more visits from friends and family.

Zone Conferences

We spent all last week traveling around the mission going to four zone conferences for our seven zones in the mission.  The first conference was in Harrisburg, a four hour drive from Pittsburgh.  We stayed in Harrisburg Monday night and had conference with two zones on Tuesday.  Rod and I gave a short presentation at the beginning of the conferences and then spent the rest of the day out side inspecting vehicles.

             

Most of the days were cold and sunny but Thursday it rained all day and we were soaked, especially Rod.  I was in the cars most of the time inspecting the interior and checking all the paper work while Rod checked fluid levels and topping them off.  Then I got really good at checking tire pressure and tread depth while Rod looked over the exterior of the cars and noted all the dings and scratches.

                                         

After Harrisburg we drove three hours to State College.  Most of the entire trip was following the Susquehanna River and was a beautiful drive.  We stayed in State College Tuesday night and had another conference Wednesday with two zones there.  Rod is also in charge of the 60 plus phones in the mission and had to change out new phones for everyone during the conferences.

             

Of course, we had to take a look at Penn State campus before we left State College for the three hour drive back to Pittsburgh.  We finally learned what a Nittany Lion is. Nittany is a Native American term meaning “single mountain.”  Nittany mountain overlooks the Penn State University campus and the community of State College.  A Nittany Lion is a mountain lion, or cougar, that roams the Nittany mountain.  Kind of like BYU cougars.

              

We spent Wednesday night back at our apartment and then got up early Thursday morning and drove the 1 1/2 hours to Butler for another conference for two zones there.  Same routine but with rain this time.

               

Rod spends a lot of time on his mission phone talking to missionaries about their cars.  He could get a lot more work done if he didn’t have to talk on the phone so much. Friday we were back in Pittsburgh for our last Zone Conference.  We gained such an appreciation for the hectic schedule that President and Sister Topham have to keep.  We were exhausted after only one week of following them around the mission.  It made us happy to get back to the office.  It was another great mission adventure we are having together.

Another temple trip

Wes and Sara Walton invited us to go back to the Washington DC temple with them.  They have gone to the Columbus Temple once since they were endowed but wanted to return to the DC temple. Of course, we jumped at the chance and talked Elder and Sister Christensen into going with us.

               

Wes and Sara and Payton became an eternal family here last December and were so excited to come back.  Wes spent the morning in the temple and Sara spent the afternoon. 

                                

        Payton just enjoyed the beautiful, warm day outside on the grounds of the temple.

                                          

We did the trip in one day this time so we left early and drove the 5 hours to the temple, attended a session, visited and ate and then drove the 5 hours back to Pittsburgh. It was fun playing hooky from the office for a day.

Wes and Sara are thinking about moving and their only criteria is that it be somewhere near a temple.  We suggested Utah would be a good place.  They promised they would at least come visit us and tour all the temples they could while there.  President Ferguson said in the last stake conference that a good test about how we feel about the gospel is how we feel when we go to the temple.  Right now it’s pretty evident that Wes and Sara feel good about the gospel.