What a great place - Week 17

Dear everyone

Most of the week has simply been working where we have been placed. All of our shifts have required focus to ensure that the patrons have a wonderful experience. And that means both sides of the veil.

A family came Monday without priesthood, so I performed the baptisms. Neither the grandmother nor the grandson would relax and the baptisms were very difficult, but I avoided just shoving them down, but continued to work with them so they would appreciate the experience. Later at the veil, Grandma was a patron and I  was able to bring her through the veil, the first time since we were married. It was very special.

Last week, if you recall, the missionaries helped remove a tree. This week we received a thank you meal. It was decidedly strange to be thanked like this for service, but she would have been offended if we had not accepted it, I think.

Donna, the owner, is the one in the shorts and this is her restaurant. 

That night the Rays thanked us for helping with the flower gardens with an ice cream social. Grandma caught me hiding in the corner.

Tuesday I walked on the hill and we cleaned up. We also read in the Dynasty book. Learning some very significant things about our Savior's love and our family with him.

Wednesday we simply worked hard.

Thursday, P-day, we went on a museum tour of Palmyra. It was fascinating because so much happened here. Currently they are trying to stop change, but that means we can see what happened in context. This is an old voting machine that works just fine, but now we have computer screens and people do not trust them.

There is so much snow here in the winter that they used to put babies in little sleighs and pull them.

Grandma enjoyed the tour, too.

This is Bonnie who led the tour with a stereopticon, an old style TV, one without moving pictures

 Remember I said how important this area must be to the Lord and so many important sons and daughters had come here. For instance, the admiral who essentially won the Spanish American War was born here.

And then there are grandparents, Winston Churchill's American grandparents, were married here.

This is what school desks looked like.

This is how some of the old buildings look. The first is the Erie Canal Depot. The second is an old house that they preserved and where the main museum is housed.  The third picture is the Phelps Store and the Print shop beside it to the right.

Here are some of the printing presses which were in use.

This is a printing press that was built in Palmyra in the 1820s.

Here is Grandma with some of our friends

And now a store that was closed in 1940 because the owner didn't want to take food stamps. Everything was left on the shelves. It is a fascinating view of what 1940 looked like. 

And this is how they got things out of the store room from down below.

The next bunch of pictures is from the home above the store. This is what a washroom and kitchen looked like.

Here is a formal diningroom. 

And an organ. 

One cautionary tale was Sybil, the daughter and granddaughter of the store owners. Life was so comfortable for her that she lived here until she died about age eighty . .  and did nothing else except when she was young when she tried to be an actress in New York city (until her father cut off her money). Never live in a gilded cage, it is still a prison even if it is of our own making.

We ate lunch at Muddy Waters where we did the service project last week. 

Friday I wrote in the morning and we worked in the mid shift. It was a worthwhile sealing session helping patrons. We ate at Noonan's afterwards.

Saturday I suffered through our double shift for nine hours with a migraine, sometimes severe. By the end it was gone and I was very appreciative of that.

Grandma made a great soup this week and we have had it twice so far. Too bad I can't share that on the blog.

At Church we said good bye to three of our Sunday School kids who are headed back to their mothers' homes in Virginia and North Carolina. Grandma will have a picture of our class. In Sacrament Meeting a spider climbed on the microphone. the sister missionary speaking was really nervous, so one of the branch presidency had to kill it. How funny.

We are prepping now for singing in an FHE for older single people. Grandma, of course, is doing the music and arranged the score.

Love Grandad

PS Grandma arranged "High On The Mountain Top" for the missionaries to sing at this fireside for older people. (Older than us, for sure.) (Mostly). It was great, as always. The other music was wonderful, too.