Monday evening we had a wonderful time with The RS President and her husband. Their home is literally in the woods. Our "GPS" gave up when the road we were on turned into a logging road. Fortunately the lots all have their own numbers which makes it easy to find them. It is a large manufactured home that has been there around 30 years with a beautiful yard currently guarded by about 5 of the cutest Yorkies in existence. The people that live here are very self sufficient. They know how to plow their roads, cut wood, garden and do all of their own maintenance. Tom ended up giving me lessons in UP geology, geography and history, I ate it up. We saw deer all over. "They are like rats here" volunteered one member. And yes there is other fauna that you may not want to personally encounter like bears. While waiting for my car insurance to be transferred to MI the agent showed me pictures emailed to her of a bear lumbering across a friends yard last week. Speaking of fauna did I mention the wild turkeys everywhere, there are gobbles of them.
During the week we have been visiting "bad addresses" those on the branch list from which mail has been returned. Most existed but the members have been gone around 5 years. While thus engaged we have also met inactive members. One day way out in the country a Mustang passed us on a dirt road with UT plates. I thought to myself, I wonder, and sure enough she was headed to the same members house we were looking for. Turns out she married one of the sons of that member and was here helping her father-in-law cope with his Parkinson's...his wife had recently died. She described herself as "inactive, I smoke" but I think she might be someone we could encourage back into activity. We will mention our encounter to the RS President.
We took time to visit a local museum. We saw the actual Cornish Pump (Wikipedia) and. learned that Ford built a plant here in Kingsford to build gliders that were used in WWII. They were made of fabric and wood of which there is an abundant supply around here. Thousands were built and even used in the D-day invasion of France, hence the name of the airport...Ford. Catch a flight it's about 3 miles from our house. The Ford company had such an impact on the locals the the mascot of the HS is the Flivver (look it up).
The biggest thrill of the week was stake conference held in Green Bay. A powerful spirit was at all of the meetings and with all of the speakers. The member's love for each other and for the gospel of Christ left a lasting impression on us. We received an invitation to speak at the Houghton branch, if we do we will probably need to do so before it snows as the stories about snow at that place are legend around here. We were very warmly greeted by everyone. Almost all say what a big impact we will have here in Iron Mountain. We are praying it will be so and do appreciate your prayers in our behalf.
The mini-record is done for this week, Sister J is making the official one because she can actually type.
So long...for now, Elder J
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