We are beginning to see a major upsurge in visitors at the sites as we head toward Pageant in a couple of weeks. It has been great to meet people from all over and share our testimonies with them.
The Pageant work crew has arrived from all corners of the country and they are beginning to put up the stage on the Hill Cumorah. Most are young men just out of high school who are called on three week missions just to be here to construct the stage for Pageant. Huge light towers were erected a couple of weeks ago so things are moving forward. The costume crew is here working on costumes - we've been invited to go over and check that operation out. The cast of over 700 arrives on Friday to begin rehearsals. These photos were taken with my IPhone, rather than my camera, which I did have with me - I've discovered it pays to check that you have an SD card in the camera before going on a shoot...
We're getting more and more acquainted with our ward. We spoke in church on Sunday, so that will help. The ward has so many visitors each week it's hard to tell who belongs and who is passing through. We've been able to do some teaching with the other missionaries, which has been great.
On a P-day we drove over to the little village of Fayette, near the Peter Whitmer Farm. There isn't much left these days, however the German Reformed church the Whitmer family attended is still standing on the main street and is pretty cool. It wasn't open, so we couldn't go in, but poked around outside for a while
We then headed down to a place called Taughhannock State Park, which has the highest waterfall in the Northeast (not sure exactly what that means, but it was pretty). The falls are almost on the shore of Lake Cayuga (one of the Finger Lakes) about 50 miles from here.
A little further south was the city of Ithaca, which is at the southern edge of the lake. It is a nice little place, with two colleges: Ithaca College and Cornell. Cornell is one of the top rated schools in the world and is pretty impressive. It sits on top of a steep hill in the middle of town and the tower in the picture can be seen for miles around.
On one Saturday our upstairs neighbors, the Bean's, invited us to go to a town called Penn Yan to a Mennonite auction. Penn Yan sounds like it should be in Cambodia or someplace, but it's smack in the middle of a large population of Mennonites and Amish in New York. The founders apparently couldn't agree on a name - some wanted to call it "Pennsylvania" and some "Yankee" So they compromised on "Penn Yan." Clever, these New Yorkers...
In any case the auction was fun. They had a great breakfast, with all kinds of homemade stuff and then the auction began. They were raising money for Haitian relief and had lots of things to auction off, including a brand new buggy ($7,000 - set price). There were many "Traditional" Mennonite families there. This sect uses buggies like the Amish, but dress a little differently. The men all wear plaid shirts and are clean shaven, with little hats. The women all wear long print dresses and the older ones (after baptism, usually) wear the Prayer Veil on their heads. There were also some non-traditional Mennonites there who drive cars, use electricity, etc. A few Amish attended as well. The Amish men all have beards and big round hats and the women wear long, very plain, solid color dresses, along with the Prayer Veil. The kids were really cute.
They had dozens of beautiful hand-stitched quilts up for auction. They sold for ridiculously low prices of $150 - $500 dollars. I told Ann we should buy them all next year and open a quilt store in Colorado Springs, where I'm sure we could sell them for four or five times that much.
Your latest ride: The cockpit of a brand new, state of the art Mennonite/Amish buggy. You have to provide your own horsepower...
Ann was the happy winner of the auction for this chair. She was a determined bidder! Ed now has to figure out how to get it home to Colorado Springs. Luckily he has more than a year to work on that.
Looks like volleyball is the game of choice for Mennonite girls with long dresses. I think they had four games going on (the boys were also playing).
We've had several unexpected visitors in the last couple of weeks, which has been really fun. This included our son, Ben and his family. They were in Nauvoo, Illinois for Heather's family's reunion and decided to drive east instead of west after it was over. They called on Monday and got here on Tuesday. We had a good visit. Heather's sister Sarah and brother Steve brought their families as well and we had them all over for dinner one night. Luckily the weather was good - it would have been a bit cozy in our little apartment!
We also got a visit from Kevin Schlag, who was one of my young men when I was a Young Men President years ago. He is now the CIO at BYU Hawaii. It was good to see him.
The American Heritage Youth Chorus came to see the sites. They're from American Fork, Utah. They sang for us at the Hill Cumorah Visitors' Center and were fantastic!
Sister Stoddard and Sister Jones are the Site Training Leaders and help to train all the other missionaries here. We all showed up for a shift at the Book of Mormon Publication Site in coordinating teal outfits totally by accident...
Our good friend Dale Samson stopped by the Hill Cumorah Visitors' Center where we were working last week. He had been at the temple with his mother. He and his wife, Yvette and their children lived in Colorado Springs for many years and Dale and I worked closely together in several church capacities. It was good to see him. They now live in Syracuse, NY, about 60 miles from here, so we hope to see them often when they come to the temple.
A few more shots around the Smith Farm:
We've decided to try and identify all the trees varieties that grow in the Sacred Grove while we're here. There are over 30 varieties of hardwood trees alone that grow there, so it will take us a while...
Tree leaf lesson of the week:
Only 29 more to learn. There will be a test.
On a P-day we drove over to the little village of Fayette, near the Peter Whitmer Farm. There isn't much left these days, however the German Reformed church the Whitmer family attended is still standing on the main street and is pretty cool. It wasn't open, so we couldn't go in, but poked around outside for a while
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| German Reformed Church in Fayette |
We then headed down to a place called Taughhannock State Park, which has the highest waterfall in the Northeast (not sure exactly what that means, but it was pretty). The falls are almost on the shore of Lake Cayuga (one of the Finger Lakes) about 50 miles from here.
A little further south was the city of Ithaca, which is at the southern edge of the lake. It is a nice little place, with two colleges: Ithaca College and Cornell. Cornell is one of the top rated schools in the world and is pretty impressive. It sits on top of a steep hill in the middle of town and the tower in the picture can be seen for miles around.
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| Cornell University |
In any case the auction was fun. They had a great breakfast, with all kinds of homemade stuff and then the auction began. They were raising money for Haitian relief and had lots of things to auction off, including a brand new buggy ($7,000 - set price). There were many "Traditional" Mennonite families there. This sect uses buggies like the Amish, but dress a little differently. The men all wear plaid shirts and are clean shaven, with little hats. The women all wear long print dresses and the older ones (after baptism, usually) wear the Prayer Veil on their heads. There were also some non-traditional Mennonites there who drive cars, use electricity, etc. A few Amish attended as well. The Amish men all have beards and big round hats and the women wear long, very plain, solid color dresses, along with the Prayer Veil. The kids were really cute.
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| Rides for the kids |
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| Ann and Marsha Bean checking out the Whoopie Pies |
They had dozens of beautiful hand-stitched quilts up for auction. They sold for ridiculously low prices of $150 - $500 dollars. I told Ann we should buy them all next year and open a quilt store in Colorado Springs, where I'm sure we could sell them for four or five times that much.
Your latest ride: The cockpit of a brand new, state of the art Mennonite/Amish buggy. You have to provide your own horsepower...
Ann was the happy winner of the auction for this chair. She was a determined bidder! Ed now has to figure out how to get it home to Colorado Springs. Luckily he has more than a year to work on that.
Looks like volleyball is the game of choice for Mennonite girls with long dresses. I think they had four games going on (the boys were also playing).
We've had several unexpected visitors in the last couple of weeks, which has been really fun. This included our son, Ben and his family. They were in Nauvoo, Illinois for Heather's family's reunion and decided to drive east instead of west after it was over. They called on Monday and got here on Tuesday. We had a good visit. Heather's sister Sarah and brother Steve brought their families as well and we had them all over for dinner one night. Luckily the weather was good - it would have been a bit cozy in our little apartment!
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| At Chill and Grill - best ice cream in town! |
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| Heather with a bunch of happy cousins |
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| Heather's brother Steve and family and Ben's clan |
We also got a visit from Kevin Schlag, who was one of my young men when I was a Young Men President years ago. He is now the CIO at BYU Hawaii. It was good to see him.
The American Heritage Youth Chorus came to see the sites. They're from American Fork, Utah. They sang for us at the Hill Cumorah Visitors' Center and were fantastic!
Sister Stoddard and Sister Jones are the Site Training Leaders and help to train all the other missionaries here. We all showed up for a shift at the Book of Mormon Publication Site in coordinating teal outfits totally by accident...
Our good friend Dale Samson stopped by the Hill Cumorah Visitors' Center where we were working last week. He had been at the temple with his mother. He and his wife, Yvette and their children lived in Colorado Springs for many years and Dale and I worked closely together in several church capacities. It was good to see him. They now live in Syracuse, NY, about 60 miles from here, so we hope to see them often when they come to the temple.
A few more shots around the Smith Farm:
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| Stafford Road and the Barn |
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| Crooked Creek |
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| The Cooper's Shop |
We've decided to try and identify all the trees varieties that grow in the Sacred Grove while we're here. There are over 30 varieties of hardwood trees alone that grow there, so it will take us a while...
Tree leaf lesson of the week:
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| Silver Maple |
Thanks for the great update. And Happy belated birthday Ann!!
ReplyDeleteLove seeing all the pictures- looks so beautiful! Glad Ben and family could come! Love you guys!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you've been doing all sorts of great stuff-and fun that you've had so many visitors! I like your chair Mom- Dad will figure out how to get it home. He's an excellent packer. Also, we have a couple of girls in our ward who were in the choir that came (they go to American Heritage). I'll have to let them know that you thought it was great.
ReplyDeleteThe American heritage choir was actually on a two week choir fireside mission....no competition happened the student save and pay to go on tour to sing and outreach the gospel your daughter is in the ward of three of choir members in Lehi I was also on tour as a chaperone....glad you enjoyed the singing that means all their hard work was worth it...if we make one person happy each time err sing we hit our goal.
ReplyDeleteAnn and Ed. I do so enjoy your blog. It appears that you two are having a great time. Love the pictures and am happy that all is going well. Love you both so much.
ReplyDelete