Happy Valentines Day!

February 5th was our first big anniversary date. 6 months out! One year to go. The time goes pretty fast so the next year should be a blur. Especially when spring comes and the green grass and “P” day golf come back. Sister Swenson stays much busier than I do just by verture of her mom skills counciling some of the members of our branch. It’s amazing that I thought that I had more troubles than anyone on earth and it’s not true! Young people have so many issues both good and bad. Helping them make good life choices is such a blessing. (I haven’t talked anyone into the scrap metal business yet?).

Because I have a little extra time I decided to write a short story of my life. It’s really fun to stop and think about the past and the memories associated with it. I asked Debbie if she wanted to get on the pre-order list and she said no! Go figure! I just finished two more Church topic books and am in the middle of another Charles Dickens. President Nelson’s book Accomplishing the impossible is a very easy read but packed full of great Gospel message. Highly recommend even for young folks. The Lost 116 Pages was a much longer book but fascinating history about the origins of the Book of Mormon. The Old Curiosity Shop is a Dickens classic. We are also pursuing a bucket list goal of mine to read the entire bible cover to cover while we are here. We are just finishing Numbers.

I had a really funny thing happen the other day! I was checking up on my “facebook” account. I noticed on a page called “Fallen Dons” the obituary of my friends mother. I sent him a long condolence about the magnificent life of his dear mother. Turns out the listing was one of those “looking back” posts from 5 years ago. His sweet wife replied “Ken, that happened 5 years ago and you were at the funeral!” (Senility).

The local Elders that we work with here share a car with the sisters on weekly rotations. When they don’t have the car we are called on to Taxi them to appointments. We went with them the other night to meet a fellow that had called them about interest in the Church. We met Ben at McDonalds and he anxiously greeted us and we sat down. It was a really  interesting interaction for Debbie and me because we had heard about these sorts of “investigators” but never been invited to a lesson. Ben was very honest and forthright and started with “I’m a Baptist minister and I’ve been assigned to a retreat in St. George Utah this summer with my wife and child to spread the Gospel”. What he really wanted was to grill the missionaries with Biblical questions so to get an education in how to deal with the Mormons in Utah. He had no idea that we had brought our secret weapon..."Sister Swenson!” He asked question after question about Becoming a God, Modern Day Revelation, Prophets, apostacy, Priesthood.... and Debbie answered every question from the New Testament. Finally the young missionaries said what they needed to say about this not being a competition and that the only convincing witness of the truthfulness of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is in Reading the Book of Mormon and asking in sincere prayer if it is true. He had no interest in doing that and we parted. What a great lesson in missionary work we got! When we got in the car to leave the missionaries were laughing and said “Sister Swenson, YOU schooled him!”

One of our YSA’s is the baker at a company called “The Chubby Muffin”. Ironically Steven is the prep guy for all of the crepe batter at their other chain of stores called “The Skinny Pancake! We stopped there the other day for a muffin and took this photo with the Elders.  We love these new Elders who are serving in the Burlington Ward.  Elder Crum just was the AP and he is an amazing missionary.  Elder Sessions is a greenie and he couldn’t have asked for a better trainer.  He has grown so much in the past couple of weeks it's like he’s a different person.  A bold missionary with a strong testimony.

Elder Crum, Ken and Elder Sessions

The branch is growing and we have three more baptisms in the next couple of weeks. One of the baptisms is Myra, who has grown quite attached to Sister Swenson.  It’s amazing to see the changes in people when they leave their old life behind and begin a new one as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  We are getting an up close and personal look at the sacrifices that are made when people choose to be baptized.  And because our little branch is in Montpellier and the branch covers the entire state of Vermont some of these kids drive a long way to attend.  We are averaging about 30 people at the branch each week.  Last week I was sitting by a wonderful young lady. I told her that we had not met and introduced myself. She told me her name and I asked where she lived.  She told me and I said “That’s quite a drive?” She said “not really it’s only 2 hours each way”. What amazing testimonies and faith these young people have. When you hear the old analogy about 10% of any group of 100% carries the weight and accomplishes all the good of the group that is true with this bunch.

Today we are sitting home trapped by a huge snow storm/blizzard.  We are expecting up to 18 inches of snow and I’m thinking we are on schedule for that much.  All the missionaries are grounded--which means they are out on foot in a snowstorm doing the work of the Lord.  They will be blessed!  I’m grateful that we can hunker down and stay in today!