Furniture Finally

We had heard that Brother Valois had a truck.  We called him.  He explained that his truck was only a 5 ft. bed with a tool box on it and there was no way two couches would fit.  He suggested we call Pres. Portwood (our branch president).  We called Pres. Portwood.  He has an old truck that has no license plates and no insurance that he uses to haul hay up from the barn.

The problem is that the furniture store in LaFayette won't deliver to Rensselaer, oh maybe because it is 50 miles away.  So, how to get the furniture home?  We decided to rent a U-Haul trailer.  Well, come to find out, U-Haul will NOT rent to Ford Explorers older than 2009.  Say what????
OK, now what?

We decided to rent a U-Haul truck.  $40 a day PLUS $.99 a mile PLUS gas.  So if you are doing the math, we figure it will cost about $170 for the truck.  We didn't see any other choice.  As it turns out, there was an inactive family in the ward who needed to move out - immediately.  They had no money and no idea how they were going to do it.  The four sister missionaries, Craig and I, and one other sister from the ward worked for two days to get them moved.  We were able to use the truck to make 6 - 7 trips back and forth from their trailer to their new house.  The mom was so impressed. Not even her family came to help.  We talked a lot about giving service and how much we needed them to come back to church.  She vowed she would, and the sister missionaries promised to go over early in the morning and help her get the kids ready.  She didn't answer the door.  Sister Cameron went over at 8:30.  Still no answer.  They did not come.  Welcome to missionary work.

Here is the couch and love seat we bought.  Not bad for $300.  They are super comfortable, as you can see below.

He worked VERY hard yesterday, lifting furniture and carrying boxes.  PLUS, we had to be at church at 8:15 for MCM (missionary correlation meeting, I think).  This is a well-deserved nap.

You can see we also bought a rocking chair.  It was brand new, in the box for about $100.  

After having the computers on the kitchen table for a week, we finally got a table.  It is now the "office".  

And yes, we finally got a bed.  We also got the small dresser on the side.  There is another dresser, a little larger, but we needed just a few more drawers.  When we tell people what our mortgage payment is in California, they are incredulous.  Average rent here is $400-$600.

While we were driving around town (this doesn't take too long to do) we found a quarry.

It's hard to see, but the gray wall on the left is about 4 - 5 stories deep.  It almost gave me vertigo looking down into the pit.  That's beige muddy water at the bottom, and on the right a road that winds down.  They are not mining rock - maybe clay?  It was just so unexpected to come upon this.

It's 3:30 and Craig is preparing to leave for a 5:00 meeting.  He has to pick up Brother Reichert who lives 30 miles away.  From there, they will go up to the Stake Center, another 20 miles away.  

We met with the bishop.  He gave us the names of 13 branch members that he would like us to focus on.  Here we go.

Rain

Rain.  At least it's not snow.
So, because yesterday was wet and drizzly, and because we are fair-weather missionaries, we decided to paint.

Craig is so good at this.  He had the room prepped, painted, and finished in no time.  He painted the living room, eating area, and bedroom.  That leaves the kitchen and bathroom.  Not sure if we'll get to those.

 All done.  As you can see we are sparse on furniture.

It's raining again today.  We are still looking for a truck to borrow to go get furniture in LaFayette.  We called Brother Valois, but his truck only has a 5 ft. bed and there is a tool box attached.  He suggested we call the Branch President.  So we'll do that today.  You'd think EVERYONE around here would have a truck.  Evidently not.

Craig went to town yesterday to get paint brushes and a roller and stopped in at the gun shop.  Picture, if you will, a small town store, with two old men playing checkers on top of the pickle barrel, and you will have an idea of what the gun shop is like.  People, okay mostly men, just go there to hang out.  Craig claims to now know half the town.  Craig told the clerk that the guns were about the same price as they were in California.  The man was shocked?  "They let you buy guns in California???"

I made a map of our branch and where all the members live.  The Rensselaer Branch has people that live in Rensselaer, Wheatfield, Wolcott (pronounced Wool-cut), Francesville, Kentland, Monon, Brook, Lake Village, Remington, Demotte, Morocco, Goodland, Mount Ayr, and Medaryville.  How do you know they are separate cities?  Well, there is about 1/2 hour of farmland between them, and they all have a water tower with the town name on it.  We have 80 families on our ward list:  16 are active, 13 do not live there anymore, and 10 are listed as "Do not contact, they will run you off with a shotgun."  The rest are inactive and don't attend because a) they live too far away b) they got offended c) they don't like Joseph Smith d) their spouse is Catholic or Lutheran, or whatever.

Oh, yes, and we don't have a garbage disposal.

In Chicago!!!

We finally made it to the big city.

It took about 2 hours to drive to the Mission President's home.  He lives 115 miles from our home.  We had a nice lunch and visit with him and his wife.  We found out that we cannot babysit for anyone (even the single father of four that we really wanted to serve!) and we cannot hold babies - ever.  We can help out with kids if at least one parent is home to supervise.  Sheesh.  The rules are because of lawsuits that have been filed against missionaries - founded or unfounded.

We then went to the mission office and dropped off all the accumulated junk from our apartment.  You'd have thought it was Christmas.  The six senior couples and two elders were combing through the boxes, pulling out pizza cutters, neck scarves, etc. and oooohhing and ahhhhing over everything.  We were all laughing.  The adults were laughing at themselves as well.  One of the senior elders said, "Look what we've been reduced to!"

We met with the mission "accountant".  We found out that our rent is $410 a month, the lowest in the mission.  (That's because no one wants to live in the middle of nowhere.)  When they added our average utilities, and the rent on the furnishings (which we still have not bought), our total bill that we will pay to the ward will be about $610 a month.  This is great because we are filling up on gas every other day!  Other than this expense, we have an internet bill, food, and gas.  That's it.  We had hoped the cost of our mission would be less than what we are renting our house for, and it is looking like it will be.

Then, before coming home, we visited the Chicago Temple.

It is different from the other temples (on the outside that is), but still very beautiful.  We talked with the Mission President AND the Temple President and there is a very good chance they will let us work two days a month.  We would love that, even though it is 230 miles round trip.  Like driving to Vegas every other week.  I think they are very short-handed.  When the Temple President is manning the recommend desk, you know they could use some help.  We met some workers who have a winter home in Menifee (neighbors to Murrieta).  Small world.

We took the toll road all the way home.  The senior couples get a free I pass (similar to Fast Track).  We stopped at a "rest station."  You pull off the road and there is a parking lot.  Then you go into a mall type structure built over and across the freeway.  They had pizza, McDonalds, Taco Bell, Dairy Queen, KFC, Panda Express, Starbucks, etc.  We ate at a table overlooking the freeway, watching the cars drive under us.  Then you get right back on the expressway.  Kind of cool.  Craig was getting tired on the way home.  It had been a long day.  I reminded him that although we were nowhere, we were not yet in the MIDDLE of nowhere and he had to hang in there for another 20 miles.  Didn't get home until after 9.  

Still haven't had Chicago pizza or a famous hot dog.  Chicago is big and scary.

Getting Used to Small Town Life

When we unpacked the car, we were missing the most random things.  We thought we had a blow-up mattress.  We slept on it in California the last two days before leaving.  But when we unpacked here in Indiana, no bed.  The first night we slept on the floor and it was most miserable.  We have a small hand mixer, but no beaters.  We have the Cutco knives, but no silverware.  We decided NOT to bring the two-man tent, but ended up with the tent stakes and ropes.  We decided to go to the store on Sunday (but don't worry, we took off our missionary badges first) and  we bought another Coleman mattress, dishes, milk, and some other necessities.

Missionaries have been living in this apartment for about 5 years now.  We cleaned out all the closets, drawers, and cupboards and put several boxes of junk in the car to return to the mission home:  puzzles, a basketball, a football, a bike helmet, misc. articles of clothing, pots and pans we didn't want, clocks that tick so loudly I can't sleep at night, and stuff like that.  Craig told the landlady that if she'd buy the paint, he would paint the apartment.  The walls have had lots of nails, screws, and tape used on them.  Generally, we are pleased with where we are living, but every place has its idiosyncrasies.  When you use the washer, you set the water level on high, and it fills up about 5 inches.  Then you start the cycle over and it fills up another 5 inches.  You just keep doing this until you have the right amount of water and let it wash.  The dryer has to run at least 2 cycles to dry the clothes, sometimes more.  THERE IS NO GARBAGE DISPOSAL.  Who builds a house without a garbage disposal.  I really haven't complained about this, however, because I see pictures of where other missionaries live and I know it could be worse.

Now, let's talk about Rensselaer.

It is in the middle of nowhere.  About 1/2 way between Chicago and Indianapolis.

Everyplace you may have to go is far away.  The stake center is about an hour and 15 minutes away, so we went to Stake Conference at the nearest chapel, about 45 minutes away.  We do have a place to meet here in town, but it is a converted office building, not a chapel.  Our ward has about a 60 mile radius.  Rensselaer is in the middle and every small town is around us like spokes on a wheel, each one about 35 minutes away.  Here is what it looked like tonight driving out to meet Miguel, who lives in Goodland.

Scenic, huh?

 Oh yeah, this was me in the car.  It was about 27 degrees with a wind chill factor of who knows what?  

And the best thing of all, is that 1/2 of the branch is on Central Time and 1/2 is on Eastern Time.

The locals call it fast time and slow time.  We are on slow time.  When we went to Lafayette, they were on fast time.  Our phones said it was 4, but our watches said it was only 3.  So if you want to meet with someone, you have to find out if they are fast time or slow time so you will show up at the right time.

So here is what we do for fun.  We sit on the tracks and 

try and dodge the trains.

So as of tonight, we still don't have a couch, or a real bed, but today we got our TV hooked up and WIFI, so we are happy.

At home in Rensselaer, Indiana

Greetings from nowhere.  Really.
Rensselaer (pronounced Rencil - rhymes with pencil - eer) is the biggest city (said in jest) for about 50 miles in each direction.  We have a high school, a private college, 6 movie theaters, a Walmart, a grocery story, a few gas stations, and about 80 auto, truck, and tractor stores of all varieties.  But before I tell you of the wonders of this town, I want to back up a little.

Before we left St. Louis, we visited the arch.

  When I last visited here, the monument was closed because it was too early in the morning.  This time it was open and buzzing with activity.  It's really, really high.  Craig and I both chickened out and decided NOT to go up to the top.  Besides there was a line (poor excuse but it worked at the time).  

Oh, I  included this picture because of the road signs.

See the MM sign?  All over Missouri, there are road signs with letters like this.  

AF, AA, MM, ????  I never could figure it out.  Anyone?

Then it was on to Nauvoo.  We got there about 4, just as all the stores and houses were closing.  Winter hours are 10 - 4.  So we decided to visit the temple.

The temple is beautiful inside.  Rich, dark wood everywhere.  Beautiful colors.  Circular staircases that ascend 7 floors.  The largest baptismal font of all the temples.  (When they were excavating the original site, they found the original font, and President Hinckley wanted it recreated as close as possible to the original.)

The temple sits high on the hill, overlooking the Mississippi River.

 

  This statue is down the hill from the temple, near the river.  It depicts Brigham Young facing west, announcing the people were to leave the city and head out.  Joseph Smith is behind him.  He had been killed by mobs, but is shown guiding President Young.  

There was a lot to see in Nauvoo.  It is a historical city where all the volunteers dress up in period costumes.  We saw:

  The blacksmith shop.  The wheelwright shop.  We learned how wagon wheels were made.  Very interesting.

 The print shop.

  The gun shop.  I did not know that Browning, inventor of repeating guns and even a machine gun, was a Mormon and lived in Nauvoo.  The gun collection is beautiful.

We also visited the bakery and a few of the homes.  There was much we didn't get to see.  We wanted to get to Rensselaer by 8 and it was a five hour drive.  We made one stop along the way to Carthage, Illinois.  This was where Joseph and his brother, Hyrum, were shot by a mob.

The drive to Rensselaer was across vast expanses of flat farmland.  We would turn on a country road and the GPS would say, "Drive 23 miles on this road."  I told Craig, this road doesn't even have a name.  It's like Bob's road.  Sometimes there wasn't even a stripe down the road.  He announced that when the road became dirt, he was turning around.  But we found the town and our apartment.  By the time we unloaded the car, our neighbor had dinner waiting for us.  What a nice way to be welcomed.

Missouri

Here is what Missouri looks like:

A lot more trees than Kansas

As you can see, the weather was beautiful, but windy.

There is a lot of history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Missouri.  We were not able to see all of it.

We first went to Liberty Jail.  Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?  The jail is in Liberty, Missouri.

There is a visitor's center built on the exact spot of the original jail.

Joseph Smith and five other men were imprisoned here for about 6 months.  The members of the church were experiencing much hardship at the hands of the Missouri people, being driven from their homes by mobs.  The most difficult part for Joseph was not knowing what was happening or how to help his people.

This is a model of what the circumstances would have been like for them.

He received many revelations here in the jail.  These two verses are my favorite:

"And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be case into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good.  The Son of Man hath descended below them all.  Art thou greater than he?

After leaving Liberty, we visited Independence, Missouri.

The Prophet Joseph Smith dedicated a plot of land here for a temple to be built.  The church has not built that temple yet, but everyone is looking forward to the day it will be done.  

There is a visitor's center there with several tableaus depicting what life was like for the early members of the church that settled there.  

This is the printing press of W.W. Phelps.  He was a convert from England.  The press was used to print many of the revelations that Joseph Smith had received.

In addition there is this beautiful statue of the Christ.

After leaving the greater Kansas City, Missouri area, we headed for St. Louis.  We got to the St. Louis temple about 6:00.  We found out that the temple was closed for cleaning.  So..... we went in and cleaned!!!  Every temple closes 2 - 3 weeks twice a year for cleaning.  We cleaned woodwork, bathrooms, chairs, lockers, and even vacuumed.  In the celestial room, I learned that the chandelier is lowered and every crystal taken off and polished.  There are 60,000 crystals.  It takes two days with a crew of about 20 people to get it done.  It was a privilege to work in the house of the Lord, to keep it clean and unspotted from the world.

Entrance 

Side View

Like many temples it is right off the freeway and stands out at night.  Beautiful.

Central Standard Time

Before leaving Denver, we visited the Denver Temple.  We met Shalyn Larsen there.  She lived in our home in Murrieta while she was on her mission to our area.

As you can see, it was cold and cloudy.  Did you notice Shalyn has bare legs.  I wished I'd had sweat pants on under my skirt.  It was COLD!!

This is what the rest of Colorado looked like:

When we got to Kansas, it was snowing so hard that often we couldn't see 100 feet in front of the car.  The snow was blowing horizontally across the road.  We would get behind an 18-wheeler and stay there, letting them break the storm ahead of us.
We finally gave up in Colby, Kansas and hunkered down.  As we entered the little store by the hotel, looking for munchies, we ran into two sister missionaries.  How fun was that!!!!
This morning we woke up to blue skies and sun.  It was beautiful.

We got a call from our mission president.  We will be stationed in Rensselaer, Indiana (pronounced like rencil - eer.  Rhymes with pencil-eer)  It is a small branch made up of dairy farms and corn fields.  Two city-slickers like us will fit right in.

Most of Kansas looks like this:

You may think that it looks exactly like Wyoming AND Colorado, and it does a little.  But whereas Wyoming was just empty space, Colorado had grazing land, and Kansas had farms.  

We found the Kansas City Temple.  It is very beautiful.

The freeways here are crazy.  I'm so glad I'm not trying to read a map, but I'm using the GPS on the phone instead.  You'd think coming from Southern California, I'd be okay driving freeways, but these roads really intimidate me.

Tomorrow:  visiting Independence, Missouri and on to St. Louis.