Last two weeks

Last week Sister Buhrmester left me on my own to do the meals on wheels. Monday was not too bad but Wednesday wore me out. I'm glad she is back.

Last Wednesday night four sisters from the Rexburg Central Stake came in and worked on quilts and rolled yarn.

This week everything is back to normal and I am very happy to have my sweetheart back. They sure did miss her running the sewing machine putting quilts together in the Humanitarian Service Room. Last night we hosted a couple of young men (Priests) and their leaders from the Hibbard Ward. We had a lot of things lined up for them to do but all they wanted to do was tie the quilt we had set up. The five of them completed about one half of the job. They seemed to have a great time. They were thinking that they would challenge the Young Women to a quilt tying contest. I wonder if they really will.

Our First Group Activity

Quilts and School Kits all set up for the nights activity

Sisters from St. Anthony working on projects

A very speedy quilt tying Sister almost tied one twin quilt in
a hour and a half. She didn't want to quit.

Cutting out squares for quilts.

The Humanitarian Service Room is open for group activities from 6:30pm - to 8:00pm Tuesday thru Thursday. Sister Buhrmester and I are responsible for groups that want to come in on Wednesday night. This was our first opportunity to have a group. Nine sisters came in from St. Anthony (about 10 miles up the road). After a safety briefing and prayer we showed them a film about how Humanitarian Service works in the church. Then they got to work. They were quite noisy and laughed and had a great time. (It reminded me of my mom's monthly bridge club meetings.) We packed 102 school kits and an untold number of quilt squares were cut out. One sister forgot to put the pencil sharpener in the school bags of about half of the ones she did so we had to open up the sealed boxes and correct the problem. I should have known better than to trust that things would go perfectly. Anyway, we finished off the pallet for Salt Lake and all seemed to have a great time. We had to get out of the building at 8pm sharp when the DI area closed. The sisters were all headed to Dairy Queen after their activity.

Fifth Week

A farewell breakfast for Elder and Sister Davis and Sister Erickson.

Their mission is completed.

Fourth Week

Delivery to Harold Hill (Remember the "Music Man")

Unfortunately this man can not hear.
We always hope this is shoveled because the ramp in the
back is fairly steep.

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.