Thanksgiving stuff...ing!

This is Ken doing the up to date report of the goings on in the Manchester New Hampshire Mission! ( I guess specifically the Northern Vermont part). Sister Swenson and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our place for the two elders in our area and some "homeless" YSA's. There only ended up being seven of us but it was a great time. One of the YSA's, Rose said that she had to bring her special recipe of Bacon wrapped maple syrup carrots. These folks slip "Genuine Vermont Maple Syrup" into everything. We even had a maple syrup cream pie. (And roasted maple sweet potatoes--which were delicious!) As usual Debbie cooked almost everything and did decorations but the kids each helped a little. I would have helped but the Bears were playing the Lions....well you know? Jimmy Fallon said that in a survey men reported that they helped with Thanksgiving Dinner 85% of the time, if you count saying "that smells good" as helping! Everything is soooo far away here. On Thanksgiving I drove 50 miles to pick up some and then had to take them back the same 50 miles home after dinner. We drive 100 miles round trip each week to Church. We've been here for 4 months now and have put 10,300 miles on our car.

Oh,  I almost forgot that this was our SECOND Thanksgiving Dinner.  Our neighbor, Jillian, invited us to her "early" family Thanksgiving dinner.  It was SO yummy and the people were so warm and welcoming.  This is a really special family and we grew to love them very much.  Jillian is a really amazing young woman.  I wish I had a photo, but I haven't gotten one yet from her.

We finally broke down and bought snow tires for our car but Costco can't put them on until December 19th. Seems like every time it rains or snows even a little bit it immediately freezes. We drove to Sharron the other day and cars were slid off the road all over the place.

Normal Vermont winter roads.  Snow tires are not a luxury!

Speaking of driving we were doing "finding"last week right up on the Canadian border. I decided that I wanted a picture with the welcome to Canada sign. I casually drove through the border crossing and found out that it's not as easy as you think. We didn't have our passports and soon found out that just getting to the point to say "Hello" to the guard, you're already in Canada! By this time he told us that we could't be in Canada and needed to leave, but not just a "U" turn. Because we were in the country we had to have a complete vehicle inspection and answer two sheets of questions. Well, we got that done and flipped the U turn. Not so fast! Now we had to enter the United States and had to go through the same thing. (when they found out that Dave was my brother and his picture was hanging on the wall it added to the problem) It was all worth it because I got the picture! I had to take a selfie because Debbie was intimidated enough by the guard that she wouldn't get out of the car.

We had our YSA Christmas party November 30th at the Joseph Smith Memorial. We scheduled the cultural hall and had a wonderful party. We chose the 30th because it coincided with the flipping of the switch for the Christmas lights. Governor Scott of Vermont came to do the count down and switch the switch. The lights are not quite temple square but they are really beautiful. We played two really fun games 1) "Don't say that word--"I"  and (2) Straight face. (*note from Debbie:  I was really bad at both!)

Our attempt at a selfie.  I can't get my flash to go off!

Elder Ellsworth and Elder Edstrom 

We continue to be involved in an array of service projects. When I see how much the bills are for commodities in the Bishop's Storehouse each week for our single Stake I'm flabbergasted at the costs of the welfare system of the Church worldwide. The Bishops and Relief Society Presidents of the wards fill out orders and then submit them to the Stake President. He reviews the list and then sends it to us to purchase at a local grocery store for distribution. We set up the cultural hall just like a grocery store and the members needing assistance come and get their orders filled. It's an amazing program that helps feed so many people.

Ken with Andy Bessette at the "Bishop's Storehouse"

Two weeks ago we joined a multi congregational Church group that had  assignments throughout the State of Vermont helping in the clean up of 1500 homes that had severe flooding from the Halloween rain deluge. The Southern Baptist Disaster Clean Up crew were in charge. We had twelve people assigned to our group including Catholic, Baptist, Buddhist, LDS and Evangelical members. We met a lot of new people and hopefully did some good for the flooded folks.

Last week I had a special opportunity. When the Elders go into the home of a single mom they need to take an older Brother with them. I went along to a teaching assignment. The lady was an incredible person who is very interested in the Gospel. She lives in a "tiny" apartment with one small two person couch. I looked around and took a seat on the couch. One of the Elders sat with me and the other on the floor with the sister. (here's the catch). She LOVES animals! There were two big pit bulls, three big cats, four big rabbits and a new litter of bunnies that share the apartment as open range. I've never made so many new friends at once. While I was petting something with my hands I was getting "wet willies" in my ears. The sister was really special and even offered to give the closing prayer, first time ever! I really had a wonderful time and even got a new fur jacket out of the deal😂 (rabbit, cat, and pitbull.)

Debbie:  "I have been looking for a decent donut ever since Halloween.  There aren't any here in Vermont as far as we have found.  They really love their "cake" donuts but I wanted a yeast glazed variety.  So I decided to try and make some.  They turned out REALLY good.  So if you ever feel like making good doughnuts, look up the Pioneer Woman's recipe.  It's a keeper.  Just remember that one of the secrets is to refrigerate the dough overnight."

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving we joined Sister Harrison and Sister Campbell in Lamoille to go to a little town called Morristown. Their idea was to set up a table in a park or somewhere else to do some "finding".  It was a cold day and to say the least people were not out enjoying the day. Sister Swenson took a big Igloo cooler with hot water for hot chocolate with cups and stir sticks. To be honest I really had my doubts! We went to a park and took a look around but didn't see a single soul so we scrapped that location. We finally found a spot that the city would let us set up right in front of the Post Office...even on cold days people go after their mail. The sisters made a huge sign that said "What are you Thankful for?" with a big Turkey picture. People were supposed to come by and write on sticky notes something that they were thankful for. People started coming from everywhere! Everybody wanted to write on a note and stick it to the poster. The sisters were busy taking names and phone numbers of families that they could meet with. People with kids even came across the street to get the free hot chocolate and write notes. It was a huge success. They have appointments to teach at least one family and several other individuals.  I'm sure that some of those folks were led to us by a loving Heavenly Father who was proving to those dedicated sisters that He can make anything happen with enough faith.

Our YSA Branch continues to grow and the kids have strong testimonies of the Gospel. We do have some who are baptized, stay active for a while and slip away. These break our hearts but you know how that darn free agency works!