The Tabernacle Choir/Hill Cumorah Pageant

THE TABERNACLE CHOIR

Friday we had an opportunity to listen to the Tabernacle Choir at the Joseph Smith frame home.  They were passing through from Williamsburg on their way to their performance on Saturday at Chautauqua, NY.  They sang a couple of songs after they had an opportunity to walk through the Sacred Grove.  They sang "Oh How Lovely Was The Morning" and "God Be With You Til We Meet Again".  It was amazing how beautiful the sound carried, even in the open area where they were standing.

It rained almost all afternoon and then cleared up about 10 minutes before the buses arrived.  There were a couple hundred members who had come out to see them. They had to wait for over an hour as two of the buses had problems which delayed their travel.  Elder Jensen of the Seventy and his wife were traveling with the Choir.  They stopped, shook our hands and talked with us a bit while we were waiting for the Choir.

Then, two days later in church, we had several members of the stage crew who were driving the semi trailers with all their stuff.  Chautaugua is only about 30 minutes away from Fredonia.  There were also a couple of other families attending the branch who had been at the performance the night before.  One was our Area President, Elder Cook of the Seventy.  He was the concluding speaker at sacrament meeting.  It was the largest attendance we have seen at the branch.

HILL CUMORAH PAGEANT

Saturday, our branch had an assignment to provide 4 brethren at the Hill to help in unloading the buildings and setting up the cast team tents.  It was nice to be back there and helping in a small way as they were getting ready for this year's pageant.  Work crew had just arrived and they were putting up the stages.  The light towers had gone up early in the week.  Suddenly the Hill Cumorah is looking like pageant time. 

We will be on a totally different schedule in the temple during the two weeks of pageant.  We work essentially every morning of the week from 7:00am til noon.  We have the afternoons and evenings free.  The temple is closed every evening after the 5:00pm session is finished.  We will probably spend a fair amount of time at the hill.  We will be taking Kelly Schmelzer with us on both Friday nights.  We have been taking her out to lunch once a month since we have been here.

We love you all and hope you are all having a great time preparing for the family reunion.  God bless you all.

IT IS SUMMER HERE

NEW CAR

We finally got our new car this week.  But for the 1st time in 20 years we have car payments.  There is always 2 sides to a picture.

We are enjoying the over 50 mpg however.

PRETTY FLOWERS

Here are the beautiful flowers in front of our kitchen window.  They are a single peony.  I have never seen anything like them.  They are georgous.  They had to measure 6-7 inches across.

NEW CALLING

We got a new calling in the branch this week.  The youth didn't complain enough when we substitute taught in Sunday School,  So now we are the permanent youth Sunday School teachers.  We do enjoy the class.  They are good kids.  Ages range from 12 to 18.  It is a bit of a challenge keeping the oldest ones interested, but we need the challenge.  Two weeks ago we were able to be in the baptistry with them and that was nice.

We are still teaching Bethany, which means now we prepare two lessons each weekend.  One for her and one for the class.  She and her mother are still attending church regularly and we pray we will get her father coming. 

We love you all and look forward to hearing from you on your blogs, calls, and emails.