3rd Week events

Today was our first day to deliver meals on wheels by ourselves. We did OK, I think. It took two hours starting with assembly of the lunches and then delivery. The old Caddy pulled a trick on me. I set the emergency brake to get out and when I tried to release it it wouldn't give. I tried and tried but no luck. I thought we were doomed with almost all the lunches left to deliver. I called Dave for help. He called back and said that the mechanic was not available to come but that he had said a prayer that all would be ok. Guess what, I reached down in front the the brake pedal and found an emergency release tucked up under the dash. The brake pedal mechanism snapped back and stung my hand but we were free to go again. So we did.

I'm thinking Dave's little prayer may have had something to do with my discovery of the emergency release.

Second Weeks Activity

At the beginning of each day we have a spiritual thought and a prayer.





On this day we received several bags full of cut out school bags

that we had to orgainize and box up for shipment back to Salt Lake.

They will then be sent to another location to be sewn together.

Sister Buhrmester working on tying a quilt

At 10am we reported to the Senior Center to

help get the Meals on Wheels lunches ready

Sister Buhrmester waiting at the Senior Center

for instructions

This is the Meals on Wheels director and

Sister Buhrmester at a home where weare delivering

a lunch. The old Caddy was donated by someone to use.

Our first day on the mission was not without excitement. We checked in at the HSR at about 10:15 am and received our briefing and introductions to those that were there. At 12:30 we took off for lunch and as we were headed home we saw that the traffic lights were all out. "Oh, oh", we said, "looks like the power is out again." We drove home anyway knowing that the garage door would not open. We sat in the car for a while but decided that we did not want to stomp through the snow to the back door to get in. We decided to go get something to eat at Wendy's (they give a 50% discount to missionaries). Guess what?. The entire town was without power. In fact, the entire upper valley was without power (about 27,000 customers).

So, we went back to the HSR thinking they might have a backup system. They did have battery backup on a few light fixtures, but essentially we worked in the dark. It's quite interesting to try to tie a quilt in the dark. Eventually it was decided to give up and go home. So we left at about 2pm. The power came back on at 2:28. So there you go, we thought it was all quite humorous.

January 4th 2010 - Our First Day

Today was the beginning of our mission call to serve in the Rexburg Idaho Humanitarian Service Room (HSR). On our first day the purpose of the church's (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) HSR rooms was explained to us. We learned that part of the welfare effort of the church is to have a stable source of goods and materials to be provided in case of disasters throughout the world. The Humanitarian effort is considered to be one of the four primary missions of the church and is intended to be a source of relief for all people anywhere in the world without regard to their religious beliefs.

The primary process to supply needed goods and materials throughout the world under the direction of the Presiding Bishopric of the church. As relief materials become depleted at the Salt Lake City warehouse requests are made to the HSR's for fulfillment. Volunteers and missionaries then come to the room throughout the week and work to fullfill the requests. Most missionaries are senior couples. However, there is no limitation to who can come and provide service.

Another activity of the HSR missionaries is to be a free resource to local community organizations to help meet their demands. This is especially important to these organizations since they are ususally underfunded and have significant workloads to accomplish. I believe the Rexburg HSR services about 28 such organizatons.We will be serving for about 16 hours every week as part of this mission and will be able to live in our own home. Our initial mission is to be for a year. We will use this blog to provide an idea of what our mission is all about and the things we are doing.

The HSR is located in the Rexburg DI building
This month Salt Lake needs as many full size quilts as we can make.
Glenn is tying a quilt that will be sent to Salt Lake

This is another quilt that he worked on.

We cut out the fabric squares and sew them together, add the batting and back fabric

Volunteers come in and make quilt tops for us to sew and tie