Possibly the last...

Going on a Grove Tour with the Grove Forester...
Bob Parrott. He is the one with the beard. It was
a wonderful 3 hours!


Doug, you have got to learn to keep your nose clean.
(He was smelling the dirt!)


DnD in front of a Beech tree... A witness tree!
The next picture is of the inside of the tree...


Doug reached into a hole in this beech tree and took a
picture. It is of the inside of the living tree. Joseph knew
what kind of tree to look for when he needed to hide the
plates... We wondered how he could find one so easily... now
we know!


Standing with the oldest tree in the grove. It is over
300 years old. It was broken off many years ago and
it sprouted 12 new limbs... thus it is often called the
Apostle tree. It is old enough that some of those limbs
have broken off, too! It is definately a "Witness Tree."


The tree growing sideways (to get to the light) is
a black cherry tree. It is a lesson in perseverance!

The Grove from across the field. The outside trees
have changed, but the ones in the center are still green!


Smith Frame Home from across the field. The sky
was so pretty but the sun was setting fast! Lots of
long shadows.


Packing.... We figure if we pack things and hurry
and send them home we won't be able to open them
and get them out again! (One couple that is returning
the same time we are, keep having to unpack stuff to use.) It
it is packed, it is gone!!!


Resting after a morning of packing! Lunch and
Skip-bo go great together!


Beautiful place for a "picnic" The table we sat at is
directly in the middle of the picture. It was a large
park with plenty of room for everyone! And a
gorgeous view!


Eating our Chinese take out! Doug had sweet and sour
chicken... I had Shrimp with veggies..... Yummy!


Eating lunch with a view of Lake Ontario... Some view!
And yes... I have earmuffs on. They are an important
piece of outdoor gear in NY... Spring, Summer, Fall or
Winter!!!


Doug looks a little chilly doesn't he! That's because
he was. It was about 49 degrees or so with a pretty
steady breeze off the lake. Lake Ontario is big enough
that it looks like the ocean...


Looking West from the park... Pretty place. Nice in
the summer, but brrrrrrrr in the winter!


This house is along side of the park and at the very
edge of Lake Ontario. How would you like that! We
could enjoy living there... but the winters would be
terrible. Maybe Florida or Mississippi instead!?!


This is a tree in the parking lot of the Lyons Ward
building. It looked like it was "plugged in" it was so
bright. It doesn't show that in the picture.


Along the side of the road coming back from church...
It is supposed to rain for the next two weeks so the
blue sky is nice!


Hiking up Hill Cumorah on the "nature path". It is
much steeper than the other path... and I made it with
only one stop! Yipee!


Looking Southwest from the Hill Cumorah monument.
They took out all the summer flowers but did plant some
mums and pansies. They look nice.


Looking Southwest from near the monument on
top of Hill Cumorah.


Looking out to the Northwest from the top of the
Hill Cumorah.


One really beautiful tree on the Hill Cumorah.
Some of them just drop their leaves and some of
them give their all...

October 8, 2006
We have had a busy week or two here in Palmyra. The "leaf peepers" have come to town and so we have had some large groups in buses come through the sites. It is kind of reminiscent of summer! Yesterday they had around 320 guests come through the Joseph Smith Welcome Center. That keeps you hopping, but not crazy like heavy summer or pageant days. We have enjoyed these past few weeks. I think that the Lord really sends you some of your best experiences at the end of your mission and we have had some. (Read Doug’s letter… it always tells the "real" stuff!)

Last Thursday we were able to take a tour of the Grove in a very different way. Bob Parrott is the "Forester" for the grove. He is the one that is responsible for the "health" of the grove. He has to determine what to do in cases of trees breaking off in the wind, tipping over, getting ‘sick’, etc, etc, etc. He is not a member of the church, but I don’t think that you could find anyone who loves or knows the grove more than he does. Interestingly he lives almost across the street from the grove. They were searching all over New York for a suitable forester, and were very surprised to find the best expert that close. As a child he played in the trees in the area and knows lots of "history" about the area. As he talked to us about how he cares for the grove, our eyes were literally opened to things that we had never seen before. It was really amazing! I don’t ever think that I will see the grove the same again… I will see it with even more love, amazement, and reverence. I wish that you could all have a tour from Bob… We will try to show you with some pictures, but it just isn’t the same.

Doug and I sent three boxes of things home last week (Poor Steve… he offered to receive them and so he is the one that will be breaking his back getting them "here and there" for us!). We also were able to pack 4 more boxes Saturday. We will be sending them this week… Again, I sure hope that Steve’s back is strong… we already dislocated his shoulder once while he was helping us… if we injure him again we will never be able to live it down! Be careful Steve!
You would think that we are running out of things to pack, but everything has expanded since we got here. I don’t know how it can happen because we haven’t bought very many things… it just has expanded! (Like me!) We are just hoping that we can get everything in the Jeep and still have room for us, too!

After working and packing all morning, we had lunch, played a game or two of Skip-bo to "unwind" and I took my nap. (I’m just like having a little kid… I have to get my naps!) When I got up we decided that we had worked hard enough and we should go and see some things that we haven’t seen before. We stopped off to get some Chinese food and then headed North toward Lake Ontario. We found a beautiful park right on the lake and stopped to eat our dinner. It was kind of cold… only about 49 degrees (Andrea didn’t feel sorry for us at all when I told her that!!!) so we were happy to have our jackets and earmuffs! The wind never stops blowing across the lake! And it is usually a very cold wind, too. Anyway, it was beautiful and fun to get to spend some time in the great outdoors. As usual, the pictures don’t really show how pretty it was. For some reason, the colors just don’t seem as bright or bold in a picture.

Today as we drove to church we wished that we had had a minute to stop for a picture of the Erie Canal. It had about 1-2 feet of mist hanging over it and was so beautiful. The colors of the trees on the opposite shore just added to the beauty. By the time we returned… it was all gone of course. We will have to try to make it back to see if we can get the picture… it was neat!
There was a tree in the parking lot of the ward house that was really pretty… and I made Doug stop to take a picture of some of the hills… The leaves are changing color, falling from the trees and still green all at the same time. We have tried to get some pictures, but again, it just isn’t anything like the real thing. The colors are all muted in the pictures so you will just have to use your imagination! Think "bolder and brighter" and you will have it perfectly!

Late this afternoon we went for a walk up Hill Cumorah. I walked up the "wooded trail" for the first time. It is pretty steep but pretty. I would have never been able to do that before my surgery… I was really thrilled because I didn’t have one chest pain and I was only slightly short of breath (not much more than Doug). I may never be a mountain climber, but climbing the Hill was one of my goals. I wanted to be able to hike "right to the top" before I came home. I stopped once on the way up today, but that was close enough for me to consider that I had met my goal! As the saying goes, "I’ve come a long way baby!" Yippee!!!

The views from the top of the Hill were stunning… the sun was getting very low in the sky so we had to hurry to get a few pictures. I wish that you could all be here to see it for yourself. That would mean that you are here to see us, too!!! It would be wonderful to have you all here to enjoy our last few weeks with us. We hope that we can go on another mission someday. It will be hard to be home in some ways, and wonderful to be home in others…

We have grown in so many ways! We have grown to love New York and the people here. We have grown to appreciate the Prophet Joseph Smith so much more. We have grown in testimony of the restored gospel. We have grown more in love with each other! (I didn’t think that was possible…) It has been a year full of experiences that we were not expecting, but experiences that have blessed our lives. It has been an unbelievable year that we could never have envisioned or enjoyed if we had not come on this mission. We are so grateful that we have been able to come here to the "Cradle of the Restoration." What a blessing it has been in our lives!

We love you all and we will be seeing you very soon! DnD