Leaf Peeping and other stuff

Life is getting really busy here in Vermont!  It's exciting to be part of the YSA Branch.  It's reminding me of the time we spent at BYU with the young married student stake.  I forget how much I love and learn from the amazing young adults in this church.  And you are going to see lot's of leaf photos cause I can't seem to quit taking pictures from the car.  

This is the picture from my kitchen window.  

 The Institute crowd is getting smaller with all the kids going to school.  There are three different institute classes taught in the stake because the travel distance is so far.  After the lesson and the dinner the kids like to hang out and play games.  They needed an extra player so Ken joined the games.  They were playing Codenames.  It was a lot of fun

Ken and Lucy.

Anna and Ashley.  Ashley is a master knitter.  I need to take a picture of the sweater she is knitting right now.  It is really amazing!

On Friday we had a wonderful District Meeting on Friday.  I'm so impressed with the power of the teaching of these young missionaries.  We studied a talk given by Elder Holland in the MTC called Feed My Sheep.  The talk was so powerful and I really was inspired by it.  The missionaries also had us to the Attribute Assessment in Preach My Gospel.  That was eye opening for me.  It's given me some things to work on personally and I am doing that.  After the meeting we drove to Newport, which is a beautiful city near the border of Canada on beautiful Lake Memphramagog. We had to do an apartment inspection there.  Wow.  What a beautiful place this is!

After the apartment inspection we got out our list of missing YSA's and started tracking some of them down to find out what they are up to.  A lot of them on our list are away at school, some are married and a few are just "lost".  We found the family of a couple of them on this lovely road.  We stopped at the bike shop for directions.  They give direction like this: "Go down the hill to the 4 square and then through the 4 square to the second drive on the left."  That is New Englander directions.  It was great.  (and hard)

Doesn't this look like a scene out of a painting.  It was late afternoon so the sun was low in the sky and the color was magnificent!

 We did manage to find Sarah (who I don't have a picture of) in a little town called Barton who was very excited about the new branch.  This girl is the youngest in her family.  She lives with her mother who  has recently been diagnosed with both diabetes and RA.  They live in a beautiful old house that you can tell was one time a true work of art, but Sarah's mother just can't keep it up anymore.  She really needs some help.  It made me sad.  She's younger than I am and has raised all of her children in that house alone because she came to Vermont to escape an abusive spouse. A very nice family and I hope that Sarah will be able to attend the branch.  One of the trials of being active in the church here is transportation.  There are SO MANY people who live without cars in this rural state.  Did you know that there are only about 624,000 people in the whole state of Vermont?  It's a state where there are people EVERYWHERE but spread out on farms or houses in the woods or small towns.  Every small town has a white church or two.  They have downtowns that have NO chain stores or restaurants, just local shops and diners.  It's really wonderful.  There are some chain restaurants and stores in the larger communities.  But I love the small quaint towns here.

On Saturday we had the very first Baptism in the new Branch!!
Desmond Avallone was baptized and it was a wonderful evening.  I took rolls and chicken noodle soup and carrot cake and everyone stayed and mingled for a while.

Desmond is the blonde hugging her friend Mia.  Rose is on the right and is a fairly new convert.

Elder Ellsworth, Avallone, Elder Edstrom

Sister Wharburton, Sister Foote, Avallone and the Elders.

 Today we drove to St. Albans to inspect another apartment.  It was a sunny day and the leaves were magnificent.  I couldn't quit taking pictures out the window of the car.  I am a true leaf-peeper.  Sunday on the way home from church in Montpelier the traffic getting off the freeway in Stowe was backed up with all the leaf peepers headed up the pass over Stowe and Smugglers Notch.

Not too bad for a cell phone camera and a moving vehicle.  If you'll look closely you'll notice that some of the roads are not even paved.  And it's a major road.  The thing that is amazing about Vermont leaves isn't the colors its the magnitude.  There are SO MANY TREES everywhere.  Also, part of the beauty of Vermont is the fact that there are absolutely NO BILLBOARDS of any kind, and absolutely NO LITTER ANYWHERE.  And I mean NONE.

This next week is going to be really exciting.  We have Elder Ballard and Elder Christofferson are coming to New England.  On Friday evening they will be at a small three ward/branch gathering at the Joseph Smith Birthplace in Sharon that our branch is invited to.  Then on Saturday morning there is a specially broadcast for just missionaries in New England.  On Saturday evening there is a North America Northeast YSA broadcast from Cambridge, MA.  And then on Sunday there is a Special Fireside in Boston for all the members, that will also be broadcast to the local buildings.  It will keep us very busy and we are so excited to be able to be a part of it.