The great month of April!!

What a month this has been.  It has been busy and eventful.  We started with all the "Sugar Shack" ing, and having  wonderful conferences, both general and regional!!

We had to say good-bye to one of our missionaries who was reassigned to Montreal...  bye bye Soeur Hunt!!  We are going to miss you.

Then Hello to Sister Tehaamatae who got here just in time for the baptism of our sweet Louise. 

We also had to say good bye to our trainers the Vallecalles from Calif.  They are such excellent missionaries the mission is going to miss them terribly,  but I know that they (especially she) is going to be happy to be home with her grandkids!!

 While we were in Montreal visiting the Vallecalles we took a walk (on one of the first nice days we had during the month I think it was a beautiful 45 degrees, who thought 45 would feel so good!). Anyhow, in front of one of the banks was this statue.  It is really quite big and a little over life size. I was intrigued with it - the front of the line was so full of life and the end so horrible.   Then I read the plaque.  I think it is wonderful how it depicts the effect of light on the soul...  and most specifically the light of Christ on the soul of man and humanity.

For Brent's Birthday he wanted to go to the temple.  So we did.  We contacted David and Debbie Cowdin who are on a mission at Sharon, VT (the birthplace of  the prophet Joseph).  They are about 2 hours directly south of us and the closest temple to us is the Boston - and Sharon is about 1/2 way!!  They were excited to go also, so we drove down, spent the night with them. They gave us a beautiful tour of the grounds and the building and were the perfect Host and Hostess.

We drove with them the rest of the way to the temple the next day and then spent the rest of the day in the temple.  What a special experience.  We started with Baptisms for the ancestors of one of our friends and then we did conformations, Initiatory, endowments, and finished the day doing sealings.  The sealer was the perfect person to end the day with also.  He was greek with a Boston accent, he was a character.  But he told us all about the history of the Boston Temple and some of the wonderful events around it's construction.  

April 19th was the 240th anniversary of  "The Shot Heard Round the World" that started the Revolutionary War. Cambridge, Mass is only 10 miles from the Temple, so we headed over there to see a little bit of history while we were in the area.  It was very interesting to be in the spots where so many important things happened and shaped   the United States as a country. We found a great restaurant to finish up the day, and went home filled spiritually, patriotically, and physically. 

 The next morning we headed over to Dartmouth College.  We had heard that they had some important church documents in their libraries...  so we went to see them.  We started at the Library...  what a beautiful place inside and out.   We asked them if they had the original Book of Mormon and they went and got it for us.  They just sat it on a little cardboard stand and said, here you go..   no gloves, no signatures, nothing (Ingrid and Iris --- a little different - NO?) So we sat there with an 1830 first edition Book of Mormon and were able to take pictures, read, hold, and enjoy that beautiful piece of history.

 We then asked them if they knew where the Nathan Smith medical bag was...  and it took him a little bit, but he finally remembered that it was in a display case in the administration bldg of the Medical School.  So we headed over there. Sure enough...  there is was on permanent display. His medical bag, saddle bag, and around the corner was his surgical tools.  There is no way of knowing if these are the exact tools that were used for surgery on little Joseph's leg, but there is a pretty good chance since they were his personal supplies.  They are pretty crude, and it makes my stomach queezy to think about them being used on a little boy with no anesthesia.

Next --- to the Appalachian Trail. There just happened to be a leg of it attached to Dartmouth...  and in Honor of John Volt, we couldn't be that close and not do a little of it!!  It took us a little bit to "find" it. It was tucked behind the baseball field.  But we finally found it.  The Cowdin's had to get back to get ready or their shift at the center, so they left and we started up the trail.

Here is Brent and Debbie.  Yes it was a little chilly that day.

The Proof that we were really on the trail.

The Velvet Rocks Shelter....  Wahoo!!!  we both had to have our picture at the shelter.  We did it.  3/4 mile up and 3/4 mile back....   whew.   John, I don't know how you did it for 6 months and 2000 miles!!!

To end  the month (really the 30th - the very end) we went on a visit to a member that lives about an hour and a half away. It was a beautiful visit and we hope to go again in a few months.  While we were so close (<2 miles) we decided to pop over to Maine and get some gas and see what Maine looks like on this side.  Oh my goodness, what a beautiful place.  We have learned to make sure we always have our passport with us just in case we end up at a border crossing.  This was a good choice.  The border guard told us there wasn't much around, not even a city for about 30 miles, (except the gas station across the street) but there was a little pull off where you could see the chain of ponds.  So we decided to go see the chain of ponds.   PONDS???  NOT!!!  they were huge lakes!!  Well huge by what used to be our standards.  They have lakes up here that you can drive for 3 hours on the freeway and still be driving to the side of the same lake.  The picture at the top with Brent by the lake is another view of one of the "ponds."  The chain is 12 miles long.  They were just starting to have the ice start to break up.  Stunning.

We dropped by Lac Megantic on our way home.  It is a beautiful (wow I use that word a lot - must say something about the area!!) resort area.  It did have a horrible run away train disaster in 2013 that killed a lot of people and destroyed a lot of the town.  But they are bouncing back and trying to put things back together.  We stopped there at a darling little cafe' and boutique and ate, (had free samples of some of the best chocolate I have had in a VERY long time), Brent bought me a necklace for Mother's Day, looked around town, and then headed home.

On the way home we took some pics of the huge piles of logs and the resulting piles of lumber.  There are a LOT of trees around here.

Well, there is our April.