Piper Aircraft Museum

Hi All! The horrid and hated humidity hit full strength this week, and poor Abby just about expired.  Then magically it disappeared and we are having fabulous temperatures and hardly any humidity right now.  Guess that is the norm around here.  We are having a good week so far.  We are now doing our volunteering at the Piper Aircraft Museum here in town.  Piper planes are those small passenger planes that became popular in the 50's.  Piper Cub is the most famous.  So they have a nice museum here because this is where they were manufactured back in the day.  They have asked Dad to help write and
design informational brochures for each of the nine or ten classic planes they have on display here.  He has done lots of that for computers, so he will have no problem.  I will assist as needed but there is another project having to do with documenting old photos and original drawings of the planes that I will be working on.  Later this month there is an annual event called "sentimental journey" and it is a "fly in" where people who fly these planes all gather here in Lock Haven for a big celebration with music, food, displays, etc.  It lasts all week and we will be helping a lot with that. Should be fun and interesting.  The locals say that the sky above our little town is full of colorful planes landing and taking off.  That should liven things up around here for a week at least!

We are teaching the Hanna Family for the first time tonight.  Hope all goes well - they have had lots of conflicts, but hopefully tonight will happen.  We have great hopes for this family.

Love to all,  Mom and Dad

Daytripping along Pine Creek

Memorial Day dawned hot and muggy.  Our friends, Robbie and Carol Brusman, invited us to go with them on a drive up to Pine Creek (pronounced “crik” in these parts).  An air conditioned drive sounded great and the day turned out to be lots of fun.  Brother Brusman is from Idaho, Sister Brusman grew up here in Central PA.  They have lived here for years, and they built the most amazing 5000 sq ft. log home which they are trying to sell to move back to Idaho where their children and grandchildren now live.  Brother Brusman has a fun sense of humor and Carol is a very sweet and caring person.  They seemed to enjoy our reactions to the gorgeous scenery as we traveled up the winding roads along the creek.  We shared stories about our lives and children and Robbie told us lots of interesting things we didn’t know about Church History, which is his passion.

We made several stops: The lake, which was all brown and muddy from too much rain:  Several trail heads where we got out of the car, took a picture or two and hurried back to the air conditioning – Dad and I would have liked to hike a little, but it didn’t happen:  The campground which was awesome-we walked down to the water’s edge and saw bald eagles soaring and resting in the treetops:  The old historic Pine Creek Inn where we had lunch overlooking the water:  the little town further up the road that is famous for ice cream.  Brother Brusman made us eat ice cream and it was delicious!  We went clear to the top of the mountain which overlooks the Susquehana River and enjoyed the awesome view from there.  This excursion was the perfect way to escape the heat and enjoy the day!

Learning Patience

Hi to All!  Another week has come and gone and things have been a little slow here in our little corner of the Lord’s vineyard.  We are still waiting to connect with the Hanna Family, one of our less actives is still in jail, and the other less active family just hasn’t had time for us this week.  It has been a difficult lesson for me to learn that our effort to find and teach does not happen according to my timetable, but Heavenly Father is in charge of these things.  We just have to be ready to act whenever and wherever the Lord directs.  We have been searching out the members on our Branch List that haven’t been to church for years, and we have met some very interesting people.  Brother Murray lives quite a drive from the branch and was baptized many years ago.  He lives with his two grown sons in a very run down house (putting it mildly!) that hasn’t seen a woman’s care in many, MANY, years.   He has a long gray beard and spends most of his time sitting on his porch and cooking strange animals like “snappin turtle”, rattlesnake, etc.  He has no interest in the church, but we had a good visit with him and one of his sons.  I came away with a realization that my standards for cleanliness and even general happiness is not the standard for Brother Murray, yet he was happy and content with his life as it was.  I have a lot to learn……and I am reminded of that every single day.  We also visited a couple who were baptized 40 years ago, and have never come to church – they have been visited a few times over the years by missionaries.  We were greeted at the door by Brother Rogers and he seemed like a kind man – he took us into the dark back room of the home to visit with his wife, Linda.  She was bedridden with complications of diabetes and very depressed.  We had a short visit and I held her hand a lot as we talked about her life and the challenges she was facing.  They both spoke about their faith and the fact that their trust in the Savior was the only thing that kept them going – it was touching to me to see what tender care Brother Rogers took of his wife and how concerned he was for her welfare.  She agreed that she needed some “sunlight” in her life and we promised to visit again next week.  I felt the impression that sometimes all we can do is to minister to people, try to bring some cheer into their lives, and leave it at that.

We had a fun day yesterday and took a short daytrip to Boalsburg – never heard of Boalsburg?  This is where Memorial Day originated!! Or so they say!  It is a charming old town, not far from State College and of course they were having all sorts of activities this weekend.  We watched a WWII reenactment, walked through a bivouac camp, and then we took a tour of the Boal family mansion.  The family has connections clear back to Christopher Columbus – there is even a chapel that was sent to PA from Spain in the early 1800's that has some very old artifacts that belong to the Colon (Columbus) family.  The most impressive to me was the ship’s writing desk that belonged to Christopher Columbus and used on his travels.  The chapel was dark, but hopefully you can see it in the pictures we sent of our weekend.  The wonders never cease around here!
The drama of the week was discovering we have a mouse in our house.  I love my ducks and birds, but not so much a mouse!  Haven’t seen him lately, so maybe he has left us.  I can only hope.  Today we are having a few people for dinner – one couple is bringing shoefly pie which is a common Amish dessert.  Another first for us!

We miss all of you, but we continue to stay focused on missionary work.  Dad is the eternal optimist and looks at everything with wisdom and logic – I am trying to be more like him, but I need a few hands to hold along the way.  This week it was Sister Rogers, and I am happy with that.

We love you all,  Abby and Papa

Aloha from PA?

Aloha everyone! Who would think that we would come to Pennsylvania and attend an authentic Luau? Well it happened this past Saturday! Our friends in the Branch, the Jensens, had a son who graduated from Lock Haven University recently and the tradition in their family is to put on a big Hawaiian party. The graduate, Ben, grew up in Hawaii because Brother Jensen taught at the church college for several years. So we were invited to the celebration. A huge tent was put up on their massive front lawn and the tables were set with simple, but exotic Hawaiian flowers. The whole pig had been roasting in a pit in the backyard since 4:00 am, and a friend from Hawaii had come from Washington D.C. to help cook the many courses. First Ben was given two beautiful leis from his parents which is traditional for a Hawaiian graduation. They smelled fabulous!! Almost as good as the food!

The menu was completely authentic: roasted pig, two kinds of chicken, a hash soup, sticky white rice, silky rice noodles, raw salmon salad, creamy sweet macaroni salad, lots of fresh fruit, and Hawaiian rolls. There were only four desserts(!): guava cake (delicious, cool, light and creamy), coconut milk jigglers, hawaiian sweet rolls covered in coconut milk and sweetened condensed milk, and authentic Hawaiian shave ice with every flavor you could imagine!!! A feast!! We stayed four hours and ate and chatted which is usual for such events. It was such a nice occasion – the only disconnect was when an Amish buggy came by! I could only imagine what that Amish man was thinking as he saw all the hoopla!! Only in Pennsylvania could those two worlds intersect! Aloha to you all.

Penn State

Hi Family! It was wonderful to talk to so many of you on Mother’s Day. Thanks for all the cards and gifts. I felt well celebrated from all of you! It was great to talk to Tyler and find that he is happy and excited about Missionary Work – we had lots of common experiences to share which was pretty unique. Mother’s Day reminds me that I am a fortunate lady to have so many people in my life to love.

We have had lots of dreary days lately, so when the sun came out full blast yesterday, Dad and I decided to visit Penn State University which is about a 45 minute drive. The college is on the outskirts of the town. The campus is huge and the student that took us to see the massive football stadium told us that on game days the little town of State College, Pa grows to over 130,000 people, making it the third largest city in the state!! The football program is legendary as you know, but the school has state of the art venues for almost every sport you can think of. Each sport has its own arena – there were individual fields for baseball, field hockey, soccer, that sport that Daniel Dekker plays, an outdoor pool, a diving pool, and indoor pool (did you know that an indoor pool is called a “natatorium” (I’m a 64 year-old well educated woman that loves words and I have never in my life heard that one!), a big arena for basketball which they use for concerts throughout the year, the big football stadium which is only used for the 6 or 7 home games each year, an indoor and outdoor football practice field, and they are building an 80 million dollar ice hockey arena. It was amazing and impressive to stand at the top of the Penn State Football Arena and look out on all these other fields and buildings for every sport you can name. Oh, the school also owns its own golf course!

We walked around campus and found it very pretty, but not nearly as impressive as the athletic venues. Penn State started as an agricultural school, and they still have a renowned program of dairy science – the creamery is a favorite spot and we stopped and shared a big bowl of ice cream made on site. Yummy!! It was a great day and it just felt good to be in the sunshine out of doors.

As you know, we have been excited to teach the Hanna family. Our appointment last week was rescheduled for this Monday so that their friend who introduced them to the church can be there. We were disappointed, but that evening we decided to visit a family we hadn’t met yet, the Shears. Brother Shears is a member, Sister Shears is not. She has severe anxiety trouble, and almost got baptized but freaked out at the font and the whole thing was postponed. They were in the middle of being taught by a new set of elders before Christmas and Brother Shears and one of elders had a major confrontation that ended badly. The Shears have avoided coming to church since then. Brother Shear seemed really happy to meet us and said he would love to come back to the branch, have his children taught the gospel, and maybe get some help for his wife. Now if we had been teaching the Hanna family that night, we would have missed this visit with the Shears. We plan to go back on Saturday and meet the rest of the family and hopefully teach them.

Dad is mowing the lawn of our apartment – it sounds like it should be a small lawn,\ but it is every bit as big as our Yorba Linda yard. Front, back and two sides of grass! I am going to plant my Amish tomato plant in my self-watering bucket that we made in Relief Society last week, then we are heading to a nearby park to help with a cancer relay event. Another beautiful day in PA.

We send our love to each of you, MOM and DAD

Trip to Palmyra, New York

Last Thursday we had the chance to go with Sister Neff to Palmyra. The drive was beautiful – through Northern PA with rolling green hills, meandering streams, and acres of farmland with perfect red barns and silver silos. Once we got into upstate NY, we traveled along the Finger Lakes which were amazing. The water came almost to the highway because of all the rain we have been having. It was over three hours of driving, but it didn’t seem to take that long because there was so much to see. The Palmyra Temple is pretty – small and stately, made of gray colored granite. It sits on a big piece of property outside of the small town of Palmyra. The most spectacular thing about the temple is the many stained glass windows that depict the sacred grove. There is a large clear glass window at the back of the temple that looks onto the Sacred Grove. President Hinckley wanted it that way, and it is very beautiful. The day was cold and dreary in Palmyra, but the grove looked wonderful. I imagine it changes with the seasons, making that viewpoint a very special place. The session was nice. Dad and I were the witness couple, and I am happy to say my knees held out pretty well.

After the temple, we had a quick lunch at Subway and then headed to the E.B. Grandin Print Shop to take the tour where the first 5000 copies of the Book of Mormon were printed. The sister missionaries showed us around and we saw a first edition Book of Mormon that someone found recently in a relatives garage and donated it to the site. The sisters told us it was worth $300,000. Mr. Grandin was not a member of the Church and he was hesitant to print a book that might lead to controversy, but Joseph Smith paid him cash and he agreed. It is remarkable that Mr. Grandin soon went out of business and on to another career, but he was there at the right time to print the Book of Mormon. We drove over to the Smith Farm next. As we walked in the door, a sister missionary was answering the question of another visitor who asked her where she is from. She said, “Yorba Linda” and Dad and I couldn’t believe it. We said we were from Yorba Linda and when she saw our tags she asked us if we knew Tyler Abbott. She and Ty went to Esperanza Prom together – her name is Maddie Larson and she was in seminary with Ty, Rick, Drew and the rest. She’s in the YL Ward and has been out for five months. She became our tour guide and she did a good job.

Our last visit was to the Sacred Grove where the sun came out and filtered through the trees right on cue!! It was beautiful – and that word isn’t adequate enough at all. We were the only ones there, except for Mr. Parrott, the caretaker who was lovingly grooming the trees. There was a recent talk about the grove and its symbolism given by Elder Jensen of the Seventy (click here), and Mr. Parrott was introduced as having been responsible for helping the grove come back to life after some hard years. The talk also spoke of “witness trees” that are old enough to have been witness to Joseph Smith’s First Vision. We introduced ourselves to Mr. Parrott (not a member of the church) and asked him if he could show us the three witness trees. He said he could but then he would have to kill us (joke), but he did say they would be bigger around and taller than most and he pointed us in the general direction where we should look. He said the Church wants to protect these three special trees, so the info is not given to visitors. We had fun looking and guessing, but I don’t think we found them. We really felt blessed to visit all these areas and meet Sister Larson and Mr. Parrott – the timing was perfect to meet these two, and we feel it was a specific and special event for us. We are sending some pictures for all to enjoy – wish you all had been there with us. Love, Mom and Dad

Lucky Ducks

It has been fun sharing our neighborhood with a huge community of ducks. I see them every morning on my walk, and my favorite thing is to check on the baby ducklings to see how they are growing. There are several families of Mother, Father, and eight to ten baby ducks. The ducklings are so adorable, and so funny in the water! They look like they are racing each other – their little webbed feet look like little propellers as they jet through the water. They are amazingly fast and they obviously love being in the water. Last week, Papa and I were watching the ducks in a nearby town. It was a beautiful park with lots of green grass – there was also a lovely stream right next to the grass, and a little farther down, there was a small waterfall/dam where the water was running fast under a bridge. We watched a family of about 12 ducklings with a mother and father duck trying to keep the little ones out of the water. The older ducks knew that the water was a dangerous place if the ducklings got in – they would be swept toward the waterfall and to the fast water. The ducklings didn’t know this, and they were determined to go swimming. Pretty soon, a group of adult ducks began to help the parent ducks. It was like a duck “cattle drive” and the adult ducks were dividing up and going after the determined ducklings. It was impressive to see how hard they were working for the safety of the little ones. Papa and I walked around a little bit, and as we were walking over the bridge, we saw that most of the ducks had jumped into the water, slid down the little waterfall and were having the time of their lives riding the fast water. The older ducks were all swimming behind, still keeping a close eye on the ducklings, ready to rescue them if they needed it.

Watching this all unfold, made me think of my children and grandchildren. We “old ducks” love you so much and want you to be careful and safe – we sometimes forget that life is to be experienced and enjoyed. Little ducks grow up fast and once they are ready to experience life and all it’s waterfalls, the older ducks just better hope they have taught the ducklings well and get out of their way!!!!

Enjoy those waterfalls!! We love you, ABBY and PaPa