This past week was full of projects that needed to be completed. I was madly pushing myself to finish quilts to gift to the departing missionary couples. Three couples are finishing their six month temple missions. I wanted to make something special for them to remember Palmyra. After all was said and done, I made three table runners with a floral fabric that depicts seasons and I called them, The Flowers of Palmyra”.

As well, I needed to finish a baby quilt to gift to my friend, Wanda, who is soon to be receiving her first grandson. Her daughter is due in 5 weeks and we’re praying that all goes well. Our local quilt shop in Palymra has a quilting service, so I had them quilt the baby quilt and what I call, “Penny’s Big Girl Quilt”.

I quilted the table runners myself and thought that I would mark the grid that I wanted for quilting. Well, that took way too long for my liking so I sat for a couple of minutes and a thought came to me. I have painter’s tape in my art supplies and decided to try marking the lines with it. That went so well, that I carried on with that method. I had premade the binding for all the projects but realized that I needed fabric to make the quilt labels. Then I was running out of white thread and Jenn (shop owner) graciously lent me a spool of white thread so that I could finish quilting the runners. She has been so delightful to work with!

It took me awhile to think about the coming week where our friends return to their homes because I was so busy with the task at hand. I was suddenly hit with sadness realizing that my friends won’t be at the temple working alongside us any more. There will be a slight adjustment in the scheduling for our shifts and we will be working with Rick and Tonya Gurr as well as Glen and Bev Parker.

The temple president’s house has a large room in the basement that they offered to us temple missionaries to have our last get-together in. Charlie made the chili con carne, I made a 7-Layer salad and the Stevens’ brought dessert. There was also cornbread and rolls provided by Parkers and Mexican layered dip made by Kinnersleys. Gurr’s looked after the drinks. We had a great time and after the temple president and his wife finished their meeting, they came down to join us.

The funny thing that happened was when Dan accidently spilled a drink (we’re on carpet), Eileen jumped up and got a tote that had rags and carpet cleaner in it. She came prepared!! Eileen has a cute saying about, “When I was domestic…”, well, her domestic side definitely rose to the surface.

We took photos, cleaned up, put the tables and chairs away, and were off for the night. I learned that Glen Parker is quite knowledgeable about genealogy. He did some amazing things while they were on their mission in Denmark. Neither him or Bev speak Danish but they found great information to fill in the blanks and correct a lot of the work.

On Saturday, there was a Halloween Trick or Treat event in the afternoon going down Main Street of Palmyra, and the businesses were handing out candy. It made it tricky for parking when I went to pick up Penny’s quilt. The kids seem to be having fun though; it was about 10 C. Another thing that I found funny was that it was warmer in Alberta than here in New York.

Apple harvest has finished and we are getting to try varieties of apples that are amazing. We have been recommended to look for different varieties. There is one I tried that was spicy and sweet, wow, it was delicious. It may have been a “SnapDragon”. Erik went to help the Wilson’s with some power washing as they are preparing to leave for their mission in eastern Europe. They still have apple trees on their acreage as well as ten acres that they lease out (full of apple trees). Erik brought home a bag of apples for us and they have been delightful.

In our little Branch we have a couple who were married on Saturday. The Branch put on a wonderful celebration for them as well as gorgeous photos on the beach at Lake Ontario. Then on Sunday, we had Compartir and the cultural hall was decorated for them as a reception. The thing I have learned about Latinos is that they love to decorate for any party or occasion. The decorations are always great and festive. I had signed up to bring a dessert and I made those squares that I posted last week. They turned out well according to the members of the Branch. It was great to give them away to missionaries as well. More contraband is gone from my household, haha!

Sunday evening, the temple missionaries were invited to attend a devotional with the Historic Site missionaries and a member of the Presiding Bishopric, Elder Budge. His wife is orginally from Ithaca, NY and she was excited to come along on this trip. We met in the newly renovated Hill Cumorah Visitor’s Centre in the theatre room. The last eight sister missionaries will be leaving to their new assignments this week and there were tears shed during their last song. Wanda turned to me and said, “Oh, oh, they’re done!” They are all going to different areas in the USA for the remainder of their missions.

Elder Budge explained the role of the Presiding Bishopric and what they oversee. The Presiding Bishopric is a council of three men who work under the direction of the First Presidency. They manage such matters as humanitarian aid, welfare programs, tithing and fast offerings, physical facilities, and the organization of membership records, among others. They also travel frequently to minister to Church members around the world. He talked about meeting with the First Presidency weekly and trying to resolve their issues with the temporal things that the church is experiencing. The First Presidency says, “If you have an issue, come with some solutions so that we can discuss them.” Oh, to be a fly on the wall! He did open the floor up to questions and my hand shot right up. I wanted to know where the two new missions are going to be in Canada. He couldn’t remember because there was 55 new missions announced. Well, I learned that the Halifax Mission is getting resurrected as well as a new mission in Toronto.

One of my favorite couples, the Cruz’s have received a job promotion with the Facilities Managment for the church. They just moved here 9 months ago and are now heading to Florida. They are orginally from Brazil and are what I call, “True and Faithful Servants”, full of honor and a desire to serve the Lord. We will really miss them!

So there you have it, many of us are finishing up assignments and moving on. We’re finishing up projects so that we can move along. I have my next baby quilt to start because the baby is due in a week. It’s progress and makes me think about what’s next for us. We still look at real estate listings trying to find something but then we also look at the next mission opportunities available.

I can attest to this because most times I am amazed at how I accomplish things. Knowing that the Lord helps me as well as sending others to help keeps me humble and full of gratitude. These days, I feel like we need all the help we can get and because He is most powerful, I willingly take His hand.

Choose your goals and be a finisher! Your faith will grow not by chance but by choice.

Enjoy your week, stay well and use your heavenly angels to help you along. Te amo!

I was saying this to someone this week because each of us are the same but different. Everyone has a story that is unique to them. We come from different circumstances and yet have experienced similar hurts and traumas. You can’t necessarily look at someone and guess their life story. We dress up, we dress down, we wear costumes to depict our lives and how we wish to be seen. If you could see my sweater that I have on right now, you could see that I’ve had a day 🙂 I’m not planning on going out in public with this sweater; it is headed to the laundry this evening. It tells my story of what I did today.

This morning started with last night because a friend who I know from the the temple, suggested that I make my own almond milk in my blender. I was disheartened by all the additives in commercial almond milk. I bought a nut milk bag for straining and put a small amount of almonds to soak in filtered water in a glass jar. We don’t have a glass bowl here in this apartment (off to Marshall’s I’ll go). Erik shakes his head but I tell him, “Hey, it’s cheaper than buying a nut milk machine!” Almonds need to soak 8-10 hours or overnight.

I drained the almonds this morning and gave them a rinse a couple of times. Into the Vitamix they went along with more filtered water, salt and a wee splash of vanilla. If you want it sweetened you could add a couple of dates. I don’t like sweetened, so plain it is. I blended the mixture for 1 minute and then used my strainer bag over a bowl. After squeezing the pulp fairly dry, I poured the milk into a jar and put it in the fridge. I spread out the almond pulp on a baking sheet and put it in the oven for 3 hours at 175 F. I actually forgot about it and it went a little longer. After letting it cool, I put it back into the blender and more finely ground the pulp. Now I have almond flour! No waste and fresh delicious products are ready to use. Part of my protocol is to not consume dairy. My only thing I wish I had was cheeses, particularly, French cheeses. I do eat sheep cheeses and enjoy those. I was not a milk drinker so I do not miss that. My dehydrators are at home and those can be used to dry out the almond pulp as well. Remnants of almond flour dusted my sweater.

I was fortunate to be able to sew today and if you know, you know. There is a saying, “You can tell a quilter by the threads she wears.” I am adorned with colorful threads as well. Then supper was created and I am so tired that a forkful ended up hitting my sweater before landing on the floor. So, I have salsa bits and refried beans on me as well. What a hot mess! Does it define who I am? Not usually, but I need to be more concerned with how the Lord views me.

An interesting thing has occured. Two days this past week, I was so tired that I couldn’t keep my eyes open, so I sat back and had little naps on those afternoons. Very curiously, my blood sugar dropped into normal range on both those days. I will continue the experiement. Rest is vital for healing and I’m hoping this is part of my healing journey.

We had an interesting family come to the temple which follows the adage about not judging a book by it’s cover. Grandpa became very wealthy from a company he developed and the lovely thing was that if you don’t know them, you would never know their story. The grandchildren were polite and treated us with respect. It was a joy to serve them.

Sometimes we wear masks to protect ourselves, sometimes to fit in with our peer group. What message are we trying to portray? Sometimes we don’t realize that we are trying to portray a persona that isn’t in best form for us in the long run. What best serves your needs in the eternities?

Both Erik and I like to be active and try to stay healthy. He bought a 30 pound weighted vest for rucksacking. He noticed that his heart rate wasn’t getting up as high as he wanted with the 20 pound vest. I am still bouncing but noticed that I can spring up into sitting and standing positions easily because of developing my core muscles.

We are getting to the time when the six month missionaries will be heading home. It will be different without them as they return to their normal lives. Erik was plotting out a route for us in April when our mission is finished. There are a lot of temples on that route and it would be really nice to see them.

It was great to be back with our Spanish Branch on Sunday. It had been a month since we had been together with them. I have been doing some more French lessons lately and have switched to another app for Spanish. I was worried that I would be too rusty without speaking Spanish for the past month. All is well, my middle-aged brain still remembered Spanish, haha! We will be having Compartir next Sunday after meetings. I signed up to bring dessert (postre). It gives me an opportunity to remove contraband from my pantry and feed it to others.

https://cookiesandcups.com/caramel-stuffed-krispie-treats/

Life-Changing Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes

Now, these cupcakes are legal for me and I can’t wait to give them a try. I made some pumpkin cupcakes this past week that turned out like little pumpkin pies. Oh, they were delicious! My dear husband has a contraband cupboard above the stove that has food with gluten in it and sugar. This week he fell victim to a little pumpkin pie (mass produced) and brought it home to his stash. He said that it was better than he expected and I’m glad he enjoyed it.

Despite what you wear or how you wish you looked, these ten ways to succeed in life are a good list to have as a guide or to check ourselves. The Lord reminds me every so often about number 7. I try to live joyfully, but there are days when injustice makes me want to go crazy. Having a cheerful countenance and not complaining does help my heart. I do know that it is my weakness and I need to guard against complaining in my conversations.

Have a fantastic week! We love you and wish you many blessings and happy days.

Our fellow Canadians are celebrating Thanksgiving today as I write this message. I worked on a baby quilt for a friend’s newest grandbaby that is coming and I sent Erik to the grocery store with a list. While not getting together with our family, the next best thing for me to do is service for others. When we lose ourselves in service, we also lose sight of our own infirmities and sadness.

Erik roasted a chicken, while I prepared the veggies and we had a nice meal together. Tomorrow, I will focus on the pumpkin pie. Eating super clean makes a person think outside of the box to create tasty dishes that are also nutritious.

Last week was anniversary week for three couples who are temple missionaries; Mark & Wanda Stevens were on the 7th, Erik & I were on the 9th, and Rick & Tonya Gurr were on the 10th. The Stevens were celebrating their 9th anniversary. We were celebrating our 43rd and the Gurr’s were celebrating their 50th anniversary. I wanted to help celebrate the 50th Anniversary and told Erik that we would bring cake to the temple for their shift on the 10th.

The Stevens told us about Dinosaur Barbeque in Rochester and said it was a really interesting restaurant because it is in the old train station building overlooking the Genesee River. It took me a bit to get excited about going out on our anniversary, but once we were there, I was glad that we came. We parked on the bridge that crosses the river and saw the Central Rochester Public Library across the road from the restaurant. It is impressive! Built in 1936, it is known as the Rundel Memorial Library building. We found the meal delicious and I had leftovers for later.

On Friday, Erik wanted to go to the Priesthood Restoration Site in Oakland Township Pennsylvania. It was a 2-1/2 hour drive to get there and we left at 8:45 am. The final exit to get to the site was closed so we drove an extra 9 miles to the next exit ramp. We filled up with gas and then took a back road to our destination. I can’t tell you enough, how much I love the back roads of America! I saw one home that would have me moving there in a heartbeat; it was so idyllic.

We arrived at the Visitor’s Center and waited for the next tour which included two reconstructed homes, statues, and historic landscapes. Erik and I also walked to the McKune Cemetery where Joseph and Emma buried their first child, a son. His grandparents, Isaac & Elizabeth Hale have headstones are next to his headstone.

This is Joseph and Emma’s first home. It is on a piece of land (13.5 acres) that Joseph purchased from Emma’s brother and father. It was wonderful to be in the place where much of the translation of the Book of Mormon took place. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints website has information on the Priesthood Restoration site and all the components. We learned more about the history of the Hale family and the events that occurred in the translation of the Book of Mormon.

It was interesting to Erik and I that Isaac Hale made his living hunting and selling venison. That was a lot of work to do and we imagined what it entailed.

We then drove to the Susquehanna river where Joseph and Oliver Cowdery baptised each other. It was a lovely quiet place to contemplate the return of the priesthood to the earth.

The Susquehanna river flows at quite a clip and was the source of shipping goods. At 444 miles long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the United States. It’s historically significant as an ancient route for Native American tribes and a crucial transportation and trade artery for early settlers. The river is also celebrated for its natural beauty, scenic landscape, recreational opportunities like kayaking and fishing, and the numerous islands and historic sites along its banks.

We stopped in Auburn to pick up a couple of cakes to celebrate the Gurr’s anniversary and headed straight to the temple to drop them off. A 50th anniversary deserves celebration!

Saturday was upside-down sky day. The clouds had the sun shining from the bottoms, and everything looked upside down. To an artist’s eye, it was unusual. We did our morning shift, went home for lunch, and then returned for a special baptistry booking at 6 pm. A ward came from Connecticut to do a group session. The youth said they had been travelling for seven hours! Saturday night was spent at a couple of AirBnB’s.

Sunday was Rochester Stake Conference. The Whiteheads drove and we were their passengers to the Stake Center. Charlie and Eileen attend the Batavia Branch. There was a Primary Choir during the meeting and they sang, “As I Have Loved You” in English, Spanish and then ASL. While they were signing, the congregation sang the words. Three Primary aged children spoke and three youth spoke in conference. They all did such a good job. I was impressed that a young man was asked to say the closing prayer at the beginning of the meeting and he did it without balking!

One of the most interesting things I saw was after the conference was over. To preface this, when we arrived to the parking lot, parking lot attendants were directing traffic. One man was holding a big sign that said, “Tailgating? Flash your Headlights!” The four of us were wondering what on earth that was about. Later we learned that if you were going to tailgate, you were directed to park in a certain area of the parking lot. This all started when a mother brought food for her family because they lived quite a distance from Rochester. Then the Stake President said that if any one wanted to participate, they could. It is now tradition to tailgate after Stake Conference. People open up their vehicles and share food and visit. Personally, I think the concept is brilliant because there is no cleanup of tables, chairs or dishes. Everyone is responsible for their own garbage and cleanup. Unfortunately in Alberta, Stake Conference time is not particularly great weather for tailgating unless you are extremely hardy. Well, come to think of it, we dress for ice fishing and other winter activities. Just throw on some snow pants over your dress and Bob’s your uncle!

My prayers are always full of gratitude. I truly am grateful for all things, come what may. Life doesn’t always turn out the way you thought. I’ll bet if you look back at the past fifteen years of your life, you probably couldn’t have guessed at how it was going to go. Despite all the hardships and trials that we endure, it is important to have gratitide. President Nelson expressed this very well.

I’m over a month into my gratitude journal. Everyday had to be three different things to be grateful for and nothing could repeat. It has been simple as I know to be grateful for the little things.

Enjoy your week! Consider journaling your gratitude. Think on these things to be able to rise above the world and the loss of values in society. Keep your heart in line with goodly virtues and you can find joy and happiness.

This week was a time for rejuvenation and rest (to a point). We had our usual duties with extra things thrown in for something different. Monday was coming back to the USA. It felt so good to be back in our own vehicle and the huge sigh of relief after crossing the border with a feeling like, “Ah, we’re home!” Seeing the New York license plates again felt good. It was a sense of, “You’re where you are supposed to be.”

We did some laundry upon arriving to our house after unpacking everything. Erik and I were exhausted and went to bed early. I think it took us a few days to get our mojo back after our whirlwind trips. Tuesday morning we went to our shift at the temple and it was so fun to see everyone again and see the improvements that were made in the temple. The weather is still so glorious and we will enjoy it while it lasts. This week the weather has been in the high 20’s celcius and we are still using our air conditioning.

On Wednesday, it was lovely to see our shift coordinators return after four months off to recover from health issues. We filled in for them and was awesome to see them come back, looking better than ever.

I called the pharmacy to refill the sensor prescription. They don’t usually have them in stock, so I call a few days before the last one ends. This way I should have uninterrupted usage.

It felt great to be back on the rebounder after our travels. Bouncing moves things in your body and gets the lymphatic system draining. Ten minutes on the rebounder is equal to 33 minutes of running (as for the benefits). I like to do thirty minutes on the rebounder and always feel great afterwards. One of my heel wounds from my wedding shoes is still not happy. The ankles are looking better but the poor achilles area is not healed. I’m back to putting a bandage on it. War wounds, I call them.

I had the opportunity to visit with my cousin, Shannon on Zoom on Thursday. It was so good to see her face and hear her voice. She has the most wonderful smile that reminds me of when we were children.

Friday took us to Auburn for me to get bloodwork done. The ladies who run the lab love me and told me that they wish all their patients were as pleasant as I am. I believe that when you treat others with respect and love, it will come back to you. We went to a very large Wegman’s for groceries. It was amazing! The managers do a great job at stocking the store.

On the way home, I said to Erik that it would be fun to stop in at a Bass Pro Sports in the USA to see the difference from Canada. Erik was able to purchase a couple of long sleeved shirts and I found some warm socks. We wanted to see the hunting area and headed to the gun section. My mind was blown with the array of arms. There is a handgun that I wanted to buy when I received my PAL but Lyndon reminded me that it was prohibited in Canada. Well, I got to see something very similar to “The Judge”.

It was fun to see the camping section with all the cooking opportunities; smokers, pits, barbeques and flat tops. We did see the salt guns to be used on flies, but as my cousin says, it’s not for her house because it leaves a little salt pile while doing the fly in. I did see a funny little shooter that has a string attached.

Isn’t that a hoot? It sells for $4.99. I’m not a fan of flies AT ALL and this is something that could be handy.

This past week has been difficuilt emotionally because of the passing of President Nelson but especially because of the hateful vitriol spewed at our church resulting in deaths and injuries and the loss of a building. Some days I feel like it’s getting more dangerous to be a Christian depending on what part of the world you live in. People are being killed who believe in Christ.

The best thing to happen this weekend was General Conference. While rage consumes extremists in Africa, Africa is also seeing huge growth in Christianity. In the past three years, nearly one million people joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints around the world. I have always felt that as Christians, we need to band together in prayer and love to thwart the advances of the adversary. If we struggle with what other Christians practice and believe, it’s harder to follow the Savior’s teachings. He taught us to love one another.

It’s cute to see the memes pop up immediately after a session of conference. People are paying attention and being filled with joy at the messages that are delivered. We love our leaders of our church and I look forward to each conference with such anticipation.

Families have conference traditions for snacks. We found a bag of churro chips made by Siete. They are grain free and were delicious for a little snack. Even the apostles have bowls of snacks for conference. There are always a few speakers who touch people’s hearts so strongly with their enthusiasm and “joie de vivre”. Are you a note taker? Sometimes I am and other times, I crochet while listening to talks. I love to ask people what their biggest take away is from conference. It’s great to hear someone elses’s perspective. Did you have a question and receive an answer? This conference I did not have a question. I felt that the question that I had was answered previous to conference.

Elder Cuvelier talked about being a disciple of Christ and being called by the name of Christ. He said that the greatest sermons are not heard but seen “in the quiet, unassuming actions and deeds observed in the lives of ordinary people who, trying to be like Jesus, go about doing good.”

“Our identity isn’t defined by the world,” he said. “But our discipleship is defined by the ordinances we receive, the covenants we keep, and the love we show to God and neighbor by simply doing good.”

I believe that we can continue to do good whereever we are and show love to the people we meet. I look forward to the conference issue where all the talks are printed. I felt like I needed to read some talks to unpack them more fully.

I have ordered these journals from Deseret Book, and they are great for making notes and studying the talks.

This painting by Julie Rogers shows the love our Savior has for us individually and I know that one day I will see Him face to face and will rejoice in our reunion. Meanwhile, I will try to live a life of charity and compassion until that time.

Have a great week and remember to choose God!