Are You Kidding Me?

How many times do you say, "Are you kidding me?"  Well that is just a little pun for our title this week.  We had the chance to visit one of the members of our Branch and her grandkids have a bunch of animals-not a few of which are goats.  I couldn't help but smile when I took the picture of their menagerie and imagining the title for this week's blog.  Forgive me! But I kind of think it's funny!

There are colleges all over Upstate New York.  Lots of little towns are college towns and they are charming places to visit.  On Monday we went to one such place.  Clinton, NY is about 12 miles from where we live and we had heard from another missionary couple about a wonderful walking trail next to the campus.  We decided to go exploring.  The place is called Root Glen and it was full of flora that was new to these eyes. Root Glen has a couple of groomed gardens but the trails lead through lots of nature.  In the spring there are dozens and dozens of Peonies-some of the plants are almost 100 years old. We missed them but they are already on my calendar for next year!

 The college is Hamilton College and it's a private Liberal Arts College. It was established in 1793 as an academy and the charter for the college was established in 1812.  The buildings are amazing.  We went into the Chapel which is original and was built in 1827.  It was pretty plain but really pretty.  It is also  a memorial to all the fallen Hamilton men who have died in every war since the War of 1812. 

We wandered up to the third floor and found what is a library of sorts with a lounge for the students to hang out in. It was the original library back in the day-before the school's library was built.  They have a kitchen where the kids can eat anything they want.  They were working on cleaning the carpet but the guy stopped to talk with us and took us into a little room to show us a little piece of history that they found when they were working on restoring that upper floor.  It was a hand written message on the wall (that they have put a frame around it to preserve it) that said “V-E Day May 8, 1945 We rang this bell ALL DAY!  One of the students wrote that on the wall and the guy telling us about it said the students rang the bell constantly for 24 hours.  That brought tears to my eyes.  V-E Day was when America won the war in Europe in WWII.  It was a huge celebration and it's amazing that the students celebrated in this way. Can you just imagine the sound of that bell ringing through the countryside for 24 hours?

  

We wandered around, taking photos and could smell the most wonderful smell of food cooking. We were hungry but had packed a lunch.  Mike said we should go in and see if we could eat there.  I was worried that it was just for students but we ventured in.  They were just finishing up serving lunch so we didn’t eat but, wow were we wishing we could have stayed to eat.  The dining hall looked straight out of Harry Potter.  We will probably go back on another day just to eat there.  $8 for all you can eat is the best deal around.  What a fun adventure!

The town of Clinton is completely charming.  It is small, has a town square with a gazebo, like every little town in Upstate New York, and has cute little shops.  (In fact, it could be right out of a Hallmark movie- if it was autumn or winter) We walked around for a bit but the ice cream shop we had heard about was closed.  (Lot's of businesses are closed on Mondays)   The little store had cute birdhouses for sale and the new and used shop had shoes outside the door.  It was a fun way to spend a few minutes.  

We had Zone Conference this week in Albany!  It is always great to see new things while we are on the road.  Albany is about an hour and 45 minutes from our place.  The Stake Center, where we met, was in a neighborhood with the most beautiful homes.  But even better were the faces of all the Sisters and Elders at Zone Conference.  It's always a spiritual high to be with them.  The church is definitely in good hands.  Our Mission Leaders taught with power and the spirit was so strong.  We love them as well!  After Zone Conference we thought we would head into Albany to see the State Capitol Building.  Albany is a pretty city and we are always so thankful for GPS.  It gets us right where we want to be (most of the time).  We, or I, am always saying, "How in the world did we go on trips using a map?"  We only spent about an hour there and we couldn't go inside.  There is so much going on around the building though.  In Utah, our capitol building sits up on the hill with nothing around it.  This capitol building is right in the heart of town.  There are office buildings, monuments, a concert hall called The Egg which looks kind of like an egg up in the air, fountains, and sculptures.  

We had some great visits with the members of our Branch this week.  We had a wonderful Book of Mormon class learning about faith and hope and how they anchor our souls found in Mosiah 12.  

We had the privilege of teaching with our Rome Sisters on Friday evening.  We also had the chance to have them join us for breakfast this morning.  They have had an infestation of mice-they don't know where they are coming from.  They had torn their kitchen apart trying to catch the little monsters so they came here for breakfast.  It's always fun having them with us.

L-R Sister Sara Arkell, Sister Allison Aston, Me, Mike

We hope you have the most wonderful 4th of July weekend. We feel so blessed to live in this land of freedom.  We love you all!  Thank you for your support of us.  We know that our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ love all of us.  We are so thankful to be a small part of this amazing effort to gather Israel on both sides of the veil.  We pray God's greatest blessings to be on each of you.  Have a beautiful week!