073 Tuesday to Tuesday (Sept 9-15, 2015)

I had finished the Book of Mormon for the second time this year at the beginning of the month. I have to say I’m quite proud of myself, and I feel that I learned things this time around I hadn’t learned before. Along with the Scriptures, I’ve used the Institute manual to help add further insights. I’m also reading Jesus the Christ (and loving it). This next week we have Pathway starting again. We have 23 enrolled, but hardly anyone has paid. They have to have it paid by the first class, so we will see what happens. If they put off paying it at the beginning, they can add a one-time fee of 5% and pay later. It ends up to be $15. Most of the students will take the fee. We are excited to see Pathway begin. This time around we will have the Book of Mormon Religion class also, so it will be a 2-hour meeting on Thursday nights to deal with. That will be a change, and we will see how it works. We have been notified that Madison did not make their classes this time which is really a shame. They had four to sign up. We have been asked if we will take any of those people if they want to come an hour to class. Of course, we said we would, and we have one who will come. I’m kinda worried about her though. She has learning disabilities, and in our communications, it is obvious she does not understand what I say she corrects me each time and tells me it doesn’t make sense, I should have said so and so. I’ve asked her to get a blessing before she starts class to help her deal with anxiety and to help her understand what she is committing herself to doing. We shall see!

Anyway, the reason I started on this topic is that I will now start reading the BOM with the students. I hope to finish it by the end of the year. It is amazing that I can read an average of three chapters a day (once in a while I forget), and yet, I’m paying more attention than ever. It has been a great blessing to me.

On the 9^th, Wednesday, the next batch of Elders and Sisters were transferring, going home, etc. The new missionaries came in on Tuesday, so Wednesday was devoted to making sure all had their final interviews with the President, they are fed lunch, luggage comes in and has to be sorted, everyone is allotted a place to sleep for the night – usually Elders to the Mission Home and Sisters to the hotel (they know those Elders way too well hahaha). There is a testimony meeting that evening, and so the day is busy, busy. Craig and I have been asked to have a service project for them, and Craig arranged for those Elders who are leaving and have arrived at the Stake Building in time (they are coming from all over the Stake to pick up new companions, bring in those who are leaving, etc.) would go to Salvation Army and sort toys for the upcoming Christmas season. It was really fun, and I think the missionaries enjoyed doing it. It sure was more fun than trying to herd cats to clean the Stake building. 

Missionaries who are leaving - most we worked with in  mission

Sorting and packing toys for the Christmas season

We work with Stephanie at Salvation Army for many projects

It is disappointing when some of the missionaries who had served right next to the Mission President will look at you and tell you they aren’t cleaning the Chapel, and then they walk out. So when I talked to the Senior Missionaries who are in charge, it was decided that it wasn’t going to work to clean the chapel. But President Cutler wants them involved in some type of service before they leave. This was a success, but don’t know if it will happen again because Salvation Army has to have them at a certain time before they let their people go home, and President Cutler needs them to stay around to be interviewed, etc. We shall see.

On Thursday, Craig had a CAT scan for his eye. He has been having a rouge time with one eye that starts to hurt, and he feels like to it going to pop out of his head. Hopefully, the CAT scan will give us some information as to why this is happening. He has some pain medication and eye drops that are supposed to help. He started off the day with blood work done that morning. I think he has probably given lots of gallons of blood over the years. They should name a blood bank for him.  Hahahaha

From 12-2 then that day, we were at the Indian Summer Festival (American Indians). This is a fun festival. I love seeing all the costumes. They had a puzzle there that had been put together showing where the Indian tribes were located in the U.S. It was unbelievable how many there were. Most of them I’d never heard of before. Here in Wisconsin, several tribes have come from Canada and moved back and forth between the two countries.

If there is anyway to enlarge this, you can see hundreds of Indian Tribes shown in the places they lived.

 

On Friday, we worked the festival from 12 to 10 at night. That’s a long time, and when we get home from a day like this, we are done for. It makes our legs hurt so much. We did have a much bigger area this time, and lots of computers so it was nice working there. The best part was when a man came up getting some information. I asked if he was from Wisconsin so I could tell him about the library here and its sources. He said he was from Virginia. I asked where, and he said it was a little town in the hills. Where? Grayson County, Virginia where my ancestors are from. I was jumping up and down. He knew about Chilhowie, Marion, and all the places I have relatives. His name was Suit, and I’d never heard of it in my work, but I’m going to be looking for his family. He gave me his email, and later I emailed him and told him about the Grayson Historical site online. It  was a testimony to me that the Lord is watching over me as I do the work for our family. If you want some blessings, you should jump on the genealogy train. Craig and I are taking family names to the Temple every week now. Usually, we will take several so they can do the baptisms and confirmations and we will pick them up the next week for the initiatories and endowments. It is hard to get initiatories done in the Chicago Temple. They don’t often have enough people to work to have that area open. Once I went to ask for just one name to be added in the group, and they just said they couldn’t add it in because someone was doing their own work and couldn’t do my one. I’ve learned to get there early in case we have to do our own initiatories (which I love to do).

There is something written on each skin about different aspects of the Indian cultures.

Craig doing the war dance

 

Saturday we pulled a full day also from 12-10. It’s a good thing they had so many others helping in the booth so that we could get out a little and do some exploring. We went to one shop that had people from Ecuador selling stuff. They were members of the Church and asked us when and where they could go to Church the next day. How small is our church world?

On Sunday, we were able to go to Church and leave early to be there by 12 and work until 6. This is a great festival. We met some people who ae re-enactors or those who settled the area. They cook outdoors (and invited us over for supper), and they give demonstrations of how the old settlers did things. They are members of one of the local Church units, and they have Dowells in their family. WOW, two connections in one festival. Love it! 

Demonstrating some kind of craft

The members of the Church had this tent and others beside it that they paid to be part of reenactment.

When Monday came around, we were so tired, hurt in way too many places, and just worn out. We got up, went to the gym, and came back and collapsed for the day. This meant we just did things at the apartment. We worked on Pathway stuff for the upcoming Thursday, checking to make sure we still had plenty of students. Every day it seems there has to be an email to clarify stuff as various students will call in asking questions.

On Tuesday, our District meeting was cancelled because the President was doing interviews on Thursday, and we would be meeting then. We are going on an overnighter this weekend with the Barleys to Door County. If you look at the Wisconsin map, we are going to the area near Green Bay but looks like a thumb sticking out of the mainland. We have never been there, but we have heard that it is beautiful, especially at this time of the year. We really like the Barleys. They will be leaving in October, going back to Farmington. We plan to stay in contact with them. They are wonderful missionaries, and we have loved serving with them. We went by the office to clarify what we need and get the time for leaving, etc. This is not like us because I like to know I have a place to stay. They love to just head out and stop wherever and whenever. We will see what success or nightmares we have to report.

September’s scripture is 3 Nephi 27:20 –

          Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth and come 

          unto me and be baptized in my name that ye may be sanctified by the 

          reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand blameless before me at the 

          last day.

Elder and Sister Lenhard

071 Tuesday to Tuesday (Aug. 26-Sept 1, 2015)

On Wednesday morning I awoke after having slept like a rock which was my mode of operation. I hadn’t dreamed for a long time, so my sleep was hard. The next morning we were up early and off to pick up Elder Carter after our less than yummy breakfast. We drove through some absolutely beautiful countryside. This state is a great place to visit. There are a lot of places to go and things to do. We got to the city (actually, it was small and not sure it classified as a city). We didn’t have as much time as we would have liked, so we went to the place where an historical tour would take place. It was really nice. There were several old buildings, but we couldn’t enter because we weren’t on the tour. 

When we got there, we had an hour before we had to pick up the first missionary. Then, we would pick up the other on the way back through Madison. There was a tour that we could take, but we didn't have enough time for the whole thing. We decided we would just walk around and see the place. I would have liked to go into the fur trading store, but we couldn't unless we were on the tour. There were some other buildings we could have gotten into, but again we couldn't do it unless we were on the tour. Craig found a couple of books that were dedicated to Indian lore. One of the books had the Indian tribes stating that they knew they were part of the Lost Tribes and came here from Jerusalem. We figured that we were close enough to Nauvoo that probably missionaries had taught the tribes. It was in that area that the men of Nauvoo would have gone up to get the logs they needed to build Nauvoo.  

Prairie du Chein sits on the Mississippi that separates Wisconsin and Iowa. Looking at that great river makes one realize why Samuel Clements took the name Mark Twain and wrote of its glory and majesty. What a system of water that flows along, so strong that it would pull you down quickly into its depths never to be seen again. There is such strength in the flow of the water. The width of the river is extraordinary, considering the water froze when the Saints needed it to so they could cross. That was truly a miracle. 

One of the things we were looking forward to was that we had been told that Prairie du Chein was the place for the headwaters of the Mississippi. We quickly found out that was not true. It is the headwaters for the Wisconsin River. On one side of the town, is the Wisconsin and then just a few miles away is the Mississippi. I’ll bet if they get a lot of rain, there are problems with flooding. That may be why the tourist place we stopped in was built on stilts.

There was a bridge over the water so we decided we had a few free minutes to travel across. We weren't quite sure we were leaving Wisconsin and going into another state or not. There was no welcome sign, but as soon as we got over there was a tourist city on one side of the road. On the other, we turned and took a road down by the river. We passed a casino on a boat. We also saw several paddle boats pushing large barges up the river. It almost looked like we had traveled back in time. When we came back across the bridge, there was a welcome back to Wisconsin sign. I guess that means we went to Iowa.  

We found the Chapel and picked up the Elder as he finished up a meeting.  We left there and went back to Madison to pick up a Sister Missionary. She wasn’t quite as ready as the Elder. We were getting hungry and felt that we needed to eat, but by the time the Sister was ready to go, it was almost 3:00. We had an hour-and-a-half to get back to Milwaukee and had to be there by 5:00. So we skipped stopping for food. We would deliver them to the Missionary Home. We weren’t sure if we would be invited to eat because last time we weren’t. This time we were. It was nice to eat a great meal. We left that night thinking good things were happening in the Mission. 

We had a goal of 75 baptisms by the end of September. We are all praying together and asking the Lord’s help in reaching our goal. I can feel the strength of praying as a mission. We had 37 baptisms up to this point. We will be looking forward to reaching our goal.

After we picked up the Sister, we headed back to Milwaukee, not stopping for food. We knew when we got back that Sister Cutler would have food to feed them. I had brought some food bars and fruit so we fed them as best we could. It was an interesting trip. We had met Elder Carter before when we visited the Church in Reedsburg. He was so mousy and quiet, no personality. I’m not sure who we picked up that day pretending to be Elder Carter, but he was very personable. We had worried that he would be hard to talk to on the way back, but no problems. When you asked him a question that was yes or no, when he answered in the affirmative, he didn’t say yes, he would say “absolutely” or some other word I can’t remember now. It was an odd word, not heard often, but it was obvious that he wasn’t putting us on, his choice of word was unique. I wished I could remember what it was.

When we got to the Mission Home, we stayed for dinner with about 10 missionaries in all that were leaving.  Our mission was told that the number of missionaries would be reduced from 280 to 200. Certainly, more appeared to be leaving than coming. It was a good evening, and after a testimony meeting, we headed home. We had seen another part of Wisconsin, and still we are in awe of its beauty.

On Thursday, we went to the gym that morning, and had a Salvation Army thank you luncheon for all the volunteers. It was really nice, and we took the opportunity to talk to others about what we do.  Then we spent the rest of the day collecting pictures and getting them scanned in. We now had enough students to have a Pathway class, and we are excited. There are 23 that have signed up, but one will not be going this semester as she took this one last year. She will pick it up in January. 

Friday found us at the Temple. The greatest thing about going to the Temple now is that we are taking family names every time. That is such a blessing. There are many doors opening up for my family.  I’m still amazed that when I find a new family, much of the direct line ancestry has been done. I have to work on decendancy groups.

On Saturday, we were supposed to go to Lake Geneva and take a tour around the lake and then visit another state historical site, Blackpoint Estates. We actually got in the car and went for gas, but the weather looked nasty. It was foggy (which is a common occurrence), wet, and cold. We decided to call the place and check to see if the lake tours would be on. We were told that they would go out as usual, but we asked if we would really be able to see anything. They said that we wouldn’t really enjoy it as much with the weather being the way it was, but they would gladly reimburse us or reschedule. So we rescheduled it for a couple of weeks later.

That night there was a secret going-away party for the Carters. They would be leaving on Monday, and we were invited by their Ward to go to the one this night. It was really nice. We got to talk with them for a little bit, their Ward really loves them. We envy them the relationships they have with their leaders because this was in the Bishop’s house. Our Bishop hardly even knows us, even though we have asked to help them in reactivating or whatever. They don’t seem to have any time to deal with us. What can we do? Nothing. We do go visit some members, but we stay busy with the genealogy work and with Pathway when it starts.

On Sunday evening, we had a meeting in the North Stake to help them plan a missionary meeting on genealogy. We found out really quickly that the woman over the library was not really interested in a missionary activity. She wanted to tour the library, and do some other things that are really meant for the members. It was a good meeting, but we could feel her dominance in the meeting. For some reason, those in the North Stake aren’t very friendly. Their Stake President isn’t very friendly either. He is going to be replaced later in the year because he has served for over 9 years. Tough calling! 

Monday found us having a farewell dinner for the Carters at the Mission Home. All the Senior couples were there, and it made me wonder if this would happen for the other couples that will be leaving soon. We all had to brag about the Carters, and believe me, I could find nothing but lots of good stuff about them. They have been good to us. We have so enjoyed them and will truly miss them in the office. The other couple in the office will leave in October. The couple serving in Kenosha who speaks Spanish will leave the first week in September. Those will be three hard to replace senior missionary couples. The Carters’ replacements have already arrived, and they will be great. She is really different from Sister Carter, but I like her. She is more like me, not so angelic.  Hahaha

Our week ended with Zone Conference held at City Branch. I’m really going to have to look on a map, because that building appears to be in the center of so many places. We love the building, but it has become the Spanish’s branch. It is a good place to meet.

September’s scripture is 3 Nephi 27:20 –

          Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth and come 

          unto me and be baptized in my name that ye may be sanctified by the 

          reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand blameless before me at the 

          last day.

Elder and Sister Lenhard

072 Tuesday to Tuesday (Sept 2-8, 2015)

Getting to go to the Temple each week is an amazing experience. The best part is taking family names. Anita has finally begun to get involved, and it is important for our family to add another researcher to the family. I looked up Granddaddy Walton this week and found a new picture that she had put there. Aunt Polly had it in her home for many years. Before Granddaddy died, I guess he had indicated that Aunt Polly’s oldest son, Bobby, was to have the single picture of Granddaddy. Bobby passed away a few years ago, WOW, only one Aunt still lives on daddy’s side. All of mom’s siblings have passed, and now all of dad’s except for Aunt Shirley. Not only that, but three out of four of Uncle Wallace’s kids have passed. I haven’t seen the remaining boy, Morris, in over 40 years. He left home a long time ago, and we only heard rumors that he was upset with the family and had promised never to come back home. Now, we are into my generation of cousins to be the seniors. As I work with the family history, it brings back so many memories of family reunions, times when we children loved to play together. I’m afraid sometimes that our children will miss so much by not have regular reunions. The family is what keeps the union strong. 

Wilborn Booker Walton, my daddy looked a lot like Granddaddy Walton.

 On the 2^nd, we were off to the Temple. We try to go early enough to get there so we can leave and get back before the heavy evening traffic. Honestly, by 3 the cars are heading up the road, and there are so many trucks heading to and from Chicago. However, our Temple dates are so enlightening. We are both looking for new things to learn. It keeps us awake.

Sunny days are the worst for pictures!

On Thursday, Craig had a busy day. He had an eye appointment that morning because of the pain he had been experiencing in one eye. It was really bad. The doctor set him up to have a CAT scan the next week. Later that afternoon he had to help the Senior couple that takes care of the cars to do some errands. I spent the day doing genealogy and getting ready for Pathway that night. It was a long night.

On Friday, the Ward had a Temple trip. It would be fun to go with others in the Ward, but we had the Waukesha Highland Fest. We actually weren’t doing genealogy because we didn’t know they had a genealogy section. We took tickets like last year. It was a beautiful day, unlike last year when it began to pour – cold and wet – we couldn’t get to the car fast enough. This time we went throughout the festival, and it was great. We met a couple there who had come over from Iowa. They saw that we were missionaries, and they are members. So nice, and so fun. We feel very blessed to be recognized by members wherever we go. Members are not strangers in the world. The man was a foot doctor. This place is overflowing with students in the medical field, doctors, nurses, you name it. It was a nice day, and we found out that there was a genealogy tent, but the lady who was in charge hadn’t gotten in touch with us, so we didn’t offer to help. 

Viking Re-enactor

Showing Off the Armor

Dancers in Contest

Blacksmith

After Church on Sunday, we had a meeting at the North Stake building in Brookfield. We had been asked to help their Stake organize a missionary family history activity. They have a new director of the family history library, and it took very little time to realize that we were just breathing the air and would have no real input into this activity. Oh, well, some you win and some you lose. This one we lost. I finally agreed to help with the nursery because we wouldn’t be allowed to do anything else. We left with the idea that we were to submit ideas and then the High Councilman would let us know what would happen.

On Tuesday, we were off to Lake Geneva. It was such a beautiful day and what a place! We had gotten reservations to take a tour around the lake and to visit one of the state’s historical houses, Black Point Estates. This tour gave us a view of some of the biggest and wealthiest estates in Wisconsin. When Chicago burned in the 1890’s, many of the rich lost their homes. A railroad had been built from Chicago to Lake Geneva. It was an easy commute from Chicago up to Wisconsin.

We got to Lake Geneva early, so it was good that we were there. I went on to find where we needed to be to board the boat. Craig had to put the money in the parking meter, and what a mess the meters are here. If the meter is facing the sun, you literally cannot see the information on how to pay, how much to pay, or when to pay again. It was taking forever. I could see him from where I was standing, and there were some people in front of Craig. Finally, he came down, and I had to go add more because I had the right credit card.

Private boats

Area to board our boat

 

Getting Ready to Go

This is like the boat we rode.

Me and My Newest Hat to Keep the Sun Off

 

Sail boats

On the lake, such notables as the Wrigleys (gum);

Driehaus (investment banker); Museum in downtown Chicago named after him

the Yerkes Observatory (one of two places in America that Einstein insisted on visiting); Montgomery Wards founder;

a 18,000 sq foot Italianate palace built by Otto Young, who made his fortune buying up Chicago real estate after the Chicago fire – the third floor had a miniature golf course – it was donated to an Episcopalian private school for girls and then used for a elegant French restaurant. Eventually, it was sold for back taxes for $74,000. Now, converted to condominiums that go for $1.6 million or more.

Maxwell Mansion – 1856- where Ulysses S. Grant actually slept;

a home owned by the director of The Young and the Restless;

One home built for a prominent surgeon that was later the site of courtship for Nancy Davis (later wife of Ronald Raegan);

Home built by Edward Swift, founder of Swift and Co.

Mansions owned by industrials of Sears, Pinkerton; and

historic Black Point Mansion built in 1888 by a man who came from Germany with nothing and established himself in the brewing business – his home was designed by the man who designed Cyrus McCormick’s home. Here's a sampling of the types of homes on the lake:

 

The Black Point Mansion was the one we went to see. It is on the Wisconsin Historical Sites. When the man who built it died before he ever got to live there. He built it for his wife. After she died, it was too expensive to keep in the family, so they donated it to the state as an historical site. Today, it looks exactly as it did when they left it. The stipulation that was made on the house was that nothing was to be changed. It has the original furnishings, even the medicine cabinet is the same as it was then (although I saw bottles in there that I couldn’t believe were that old). It is a beautiful historical building, and it was amazing how it had been maintained. It is perched on a hilltop above the lake. When it was built, everything had to be brought in by boat (there were no roads – this was the same for all of the houses being built there). Then it had to be carried up this hill – there were 120 steps that we had to climb up, so I cannot imagine how they did it back in 1888. All the furniture was big heavy wood, and I mean big. The fireplaces were a special glass. There was a brick road around the side of the house for people to get to it once roads were made possible. When it was built, there was only one bathroom  - for his wife. All others had to go outside to the john. We truly enjoyed seeing this place.

Front of Black Point Estate House

Now you can see the turret or whatever you call it!  haha

Better view

There were 120 steps to the top from the lake.

Wreathe made from the hair of a dead person, meant to remember them by. Can't remember if it was only one person's hair or multiple people contributed (after death, of course)

Dining room

The largest doll house I've ever seen, made for the girls in the family.

Hiding the honey pot

Original medicine cabinet - nothing changed for over 100 years.

Fireplace made of special glass

Interesting bedroom

The trip around the lake to see the many humongous places that once held the rich and famous (and probably still does) was fascinating. There was a NASCAR driver, Olympic gold medalist, Baby Face Nelson (bank robber), several authors, and quite a few legislators. I can only imagine what it was like in its hayday.

On Tuesday, we didn’t have a District meeting, but we stayed busy. I can’t believe I didn’t write it down, but never a dull moment.

September’s scripture is 3 Nephi 27:20 –

          Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth and come 
          unto me and be baptized in my name that ye may be sanctified by the 
         reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand blameless before me at the 
         last day.

Another couple will be leaving before long. We are going to be the most experienced senior couple out here soon. Now, that is scary.

Elder and Sister Lenhard