Our Appleton meeting last Monday with Elder Walker was fantastic. He took command of the conference right from the start giving us great counsel and encouragement. His experience as a Mission President in Tokyo gave him unique insights and abilities to talk to the young missionaries on their level. They loved him. He had a Q and A at the end of the day where he told us how the brethren decided to have the Provo Tabernacle become the Provo Temple. After the engineering studies were done and came back positive; the First Presidency talked about the temple concept for about 30 minutes then President Monson raised his arm and said I think we need to do it. By raise of hands the counselors agreed and it was announced at conference a couple of weeks later. So there you go. I visited with him after the meeting and asked him to say hello to Dave Burdett, my former Home Teaching companion, when he got back on Jon Huntsman's plane.
Tuesday was Sister Johnson's birthday. We celebrated by attending the Chicago Temple. We were the only couple there on that weekday morning. It was a very pleasant and comforting session. After the session we drove all of the way back to Kingsford. Continuing the birthday theme we stopped at a roadside attraction, Apple Holler (look online), where practically everything on the menu contained apples in some form or another. The food was delicious. I bought her a bottle of apple butter which was incredible. (So...it wasn't all for her)
Wednesday saw the first big snowstorm of the year. Before the blizzard got going in a serious way we visited our LA family in Crystal Falls and tried out the new snowtires I purchased. The mother had forgotten we were coming and I think because of the weather she was somewhat surprised. We stayed awhile and by coming through the storm we let her know we were serious about keeping our appointments. Upon returning home we exercised the Senior option and stayed in the rest of the day and watched it snow, and snow, and snow. We ended up with about 5 inches on the ground. Our landlord came and shoveled for us. Hooray!
Thursday morning was pasty making day. These great seniors have some fantastic stories...like, "the time our "gang" was riding motorcycles in town and our leader on a BSA said watch this and rode his bike through town on the back wheel. This happened in front of the town cops who were eating lunch. The chief was annoyed and told a rookie cop go and get him. They chased him to and around a local lake but lost him. His gang waited for him to show but he didn't. They got on their bikes and looked for him. They finally found a track heading off of the road. He had missed a curve, flown over a barbed wire fence and hit the only tree in a farmer's field. After hitting the tree he had fallen and hit his head on the only rock exposed in the entire field and knocked himself out. He was the only guy in the group that wore a helmet and it was cracked like an egg. When he came to they picked up his bike and they all rode back into town". This probably happened in the 60's. The talk is always around mechanical things like, "the great log splitter I had with a Model A engine or the 24 motorcycles I have owned'. H. was a professional driver with over 5.5 million miles driven before he retired from that job. I asked him about hitting deer with a big rig, he said that deer were no problem but moose can really ruin your day. I feel right at home in this group.
Later we were able to teach another lesson to Jason after which we drove 45 miles to meet with an 82 year old member who came originally from SLC. We had a great visit and will see her again, we hope we can get her to come to church.
We planned for Friday morning to look at our health insurance situation since we will have to stay with what we currently have or switch before the deadline. We made some progress but we forgot that Friday was a Holiday and some of the government offices were closed. We will continue on Monday. Sister Johnson did her pasty making thing in the afternoon. After she was finished we went to the church so she could practice for the memorial service on Saturday. While she was there I went over to Jason's to give him an asked for blessing. His friend Colette was there and before we did the blessing I was able to teach her the Restoration and give her a B of M. I did this to give her a little background so she wouldn't think we were too wierd. In church today Jason said she enjoyed the visit. It was a special experience.
We ended the week by finishing our pasty obligation, we then went to Wausaukee for a memorial service for Sister Aubel who passed away this week in a nursing home at 87 years of age. Two of her daughters live in the Branch. It was a rather large boisterous service. Sister Johnson played for the congregation to sing. It was nothing like you can imagine. You've got to love country people and their traditions.
With love, The Johnsons
Tuesday was Sister Johnson's birthday. We celebrated by attending the Chicago Temple. We were the only couple there on that weekday morning. It was a very pleasant and comforting session. After the session we drove all of the way back to Kingsford. Continuing the birthday theme we stopped at a roadside attraction, Apple Holler (look online), where practically everything on the menu contained apples in some form or another. The food was delicious. I bought her a bottle of apple butter which was incredible. (So...it wasn't all for her)
Wednesday saw the first big snowstorm of the year. Before the blizzard got going in a serious way we visited our LA family in Crystal Falls and tried out the new snowtires I purchased. The mother had forgotten we were coming and I think because of the weather she was somewhat surprised. We stayed awhile and by coming through the storm we let her know we were serious about keeping our appointments. Upon returning home we exercised the Senior option and stayed in the rest of the day and watched it snow, and snow, and snow. We ended up with about 5 inches on the ground. Our landlord came and shoveled for us. Hooray!
Thursday morning was pasty making day. These great seniors have some fantastic stories...like, "the time our "gang" was riding motorcycles in town and our leader on a BSA said watch this and rode his bike through town on the back wheel. This happened in front of the town cops who were eating lunch. The chief was annoyed and told a rookie cop go and get him. They chased him to and around a local lake but lost him. His gang waited for him to show but he didn't. They got on their bikes and looked for him. They finally found a track heading off of the road. He had missed a curve, flown over a barbed wire fence and hit the only tree in a farmer's field. After hitting the tree he had fallen and hit his head on the only rock exposed in the entire field and knocked himself out. He was the only guy in the group that wore a helmet and it was cracked like an egg. When he came to they picked up his bike and they all rode back into town". This probably happened in the 60's. The talk is always around mechanical things like, "the great log splitter I had with a Model A engine or the 24 motorcycles I have owned'. H. was a professional driver with over 5.5 million miles driven before he retired from that job. I asked him about hitting deer with a big rig, he said that deer were no problem but moose can really ruin your day. I feel right at home in this group.
Later we were able to teach another lesson to Jason after which we drove 45 miles to meet with an 82 year old member who came originally from SLC. We had a great visit and will see her again, we hope we can get her to come to church.
We planned for Friday morning to look at our health insurance situation since we will have to stay with what we currently have or switch before the deadline. We made some progress but we forgot that Friday was a Holiday and some of the government offices were closed. We will continue on Monday. Sister Johnson did her pasty making thing in the afternoon. After she was finished we went to the church so she could practice for the memorial service on Saturday. While she was there I went over to Jason's to give him an asked for blessing. His friend Colette was there and before we did the blessing I was able to teach her the Restoration and give her a B of M. I did this to give her a little background so she wouldn't think we were too wierd. In church today Jason said she enjoyed the visit. It was a special experience.
We ended the week by finishing our pasty obligation, we then went to Wausaukee for a memorial service for Sister Aubel who passed away this week in a nursing home at 87 years of age. Two of her daughters live in the Branch. It was a rather large boisterous service. Sister Johnson played for the congregation to sing. It was nothing like you can imagine. You've got to love country people and their traditions.
With love, The Johnsons
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