Mother Nature Delivers

Mother Nature delivered a beautiful snow storm just in time for our P-Day!  And that meant that we could get some lovely photos of some of our favorite places in the snow.  We started out our day and headed to Clinton to grab my favorite little farm.  The snow plows were out all over the place. As we were heading down the road I saw a flag, hanging on the side of a barn and, of course, I had to grab a photo.

As you can see, the snow was heavy in the trees, making everything magical.  When I say heavy, though, it was actually light and fluffy snow and so deep in some places.  As we came into the town of Clinton, I remembered the gazebo in the town square.  Last time we saw it, it was decorated for Christmas.  I told Mike that if it was still decorated that we would need to stop and get a shot. Every little town in Upstate New York has a town square and they all have gazebos in the center.  Just like in the Hallmark movies. Isn't it cute?  Now we were ready to go find our farm.

As we came over the crest of the hill, there was the farm, the road had been plowed but had the coolest look to it.  Mike stopped and I shot from the hill above, we drove a bit closer and shot at half way up the hill and then to the opposite side through the trees.  There is just something about red structures in the white snow that pops and warms my heart. There are lots of red barns and red houses.

We continued through beautiful countryside, heading to a place called Salisbury Center to grab my favorite covered bridge.  In good weather, this bridge is open for traffic but in the winter the snow plows plow the snow right up to the entrance to block it on both sides so no one can use it.  I got out of the car and hiked through what the plow had left and found a little trail made by a deer to the water.  I followed it and the snow came almost to my knees.  I grabbed some shots but really liked the view better from the other side.  We climbed back in the car and drove around the town (which is two streets) to the other side of the bridge.  (Some of these pictures are rivers and trees and streams along the way.)

We next headed to another covered bridge that we have photographed before.  It is called Hyde Hall and it is not a working bridge any longer! It's just really pretty.  It is in Glimmerglass State Park and luckily the park was open.  In fact, lots of cross country skiers were out enjoying the new snow.

We headed to Cooperstown and we were so excited to visit this little town.  It is the quintessential cute little old fashioned New England Village that you dream about.  In fact, for those who are baseball fans, Cooperstown is home to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The man who founded the Hall of Fame and Museum claims that Abner Doubleday invented baseball on a cow pasture in the village in 1839.  Most experts don't really believe that story but Doubleday Field and the Hall of Fame is here.  

We saw some churches here and some in other places too but thought I would share them on a page all together.  It is a known fact that I love these little churches that dot the countryside.

By the end of the day we were tired and ready to head home but so exited to share this beautiful place with all of you.  Our week was a great week.  We had the opportunity to do apartment inspections of the Sisters and Elders in our District.  We had some cookies that we packaged up to take to them and off we went.  We visited with our Sisters in Hamilton and Rome.  They were actually pretty clean and tidy and it was fun to see where they live.  On Wednesday, we went to Elder and Sister Parks home (they are the new Senior Couple in Utica) and we made big snowflakes out of white lunch bags for our table decorations for Zone Conference. They invited us to stay for lunch and we had a bowl of wonderful soup and so enjoyed visiting with them. We headed to the Elders apartments and they were interesting.  Not dirty,  just not as tidy as the Sisters.  But they are guys, right?  Because of snow everything in our ward was cancelled for the evening so we hunkered down to get ready for Zone Conference.  

We got a text asking how our weather was in Rome and then shortly after the text we got a message that because of the weather our Zone Conference would be pushed to Friday instead of Thursday. (Everything is always cancelled here because of the weather-not something we are used to.) President has to be concerned because the young missionaries drive from far away to get to ZC.  We worked on our Book of Mormon class and was determined that we would not cancel it because we had cancelled the week before. Class was awesome.  We taught 2 Ne 28 and had such great participation.  Aren't we so blessed to have our Savior's blue print right at our fingertips and prophets, like Nephi, who reveal Satan's tactics so we know how to protect ourselves from his lies?  That's what we learned about and it was awesome.

Friday brought Zone Conference.  We love to be with the young missionaries and to learn at the feet of our amazing President and Sister Gentry.  We spent a little time learning and talking about Moroni and the Title of Liberty.  One of the goals of our Mission Leaders, and the Mission Leadership Council is to help us commit to being life long Disciples of Jesus Christ.  They decided that we needed our own "Title of Liberty" to sign, committing to our Discipleship. The spirit was strong.  The missionaries all over this mission are strong and obedient.  They were all excited to sign.  I also included some photos of our cute snowflake decorations that Elder and Sister Park and Mike and I made.  I also wanted to show you how well fed we all are at Zone Conference.  During lunch, we celebrate the birthdays and that is what the table with treats on it is for.  The birthday missionaries can choose something to take home with them.  Our car Tzar also gives awards to the missionarie companionship who keeps their car neat and clean.  This Zone Conference, one of the Senior Elders challenged any missionary that wanted to have a push up war.  Wow.  Elder Koyle is great at pushups. The young missionaries, including one Sister gave him a run for his money.  He set the pace and the young missionaries followed. What an experience.

Saturday was a day of helping our former Branch President and his wife move into a new home, cooking for Sunday and falling into bed.  It's amazing how much preparing a meal can take everything out of you.  We were pretty exited because President and Sister Gentry were coming to speak in our ward and we had invited them to come to our home for lunch afterwards.  They accepted so we wanted to make something yummy but fast so we worked ourselves like crazy to make sure everything was perfect.  We made a recipe called Discada that we had learned how to make from our Alan.  It is a Mexican meat dish that you serve on street tacos.  It is so delicious but it takes a ton of prep work.  We had invited the Sisters to come over for dinner Sunday evening so we just figured we'd make enough for two meals.  It's a good thing we did because our Bishop's wife invited us to come to their house for dinner.  I told them that we had already invited the Sisters for dinner and asked if they would like to join us and they said yes.  Yay!  Poor Mike stood at the counter cutting lots of meat and onions and peppers and it took a very long time.  I made a yummy chocolate cake, homemade salsa, put together the Discada, made a green salad and set the table so that everything was ready for us to just walk in after church, get the food on the table and eat.

Sunday was a beautiful day.  The Gentry's always bring the spirit and they stayed and enjoyed our 5th Sunday lesson.  They visited with the people just like they have always known them.  They have such a way of making people feel comfortable.  They followed us home and we had a wonderful time with them (and their 15 year old daughter) and sharing yummy street tacos.  They are from Southern California and they have really missed tacos. (You don't find much Mexican food in Upstate New York).  Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of all of us-not sure why I zone out when I'm feeding people. Oh Well.  We cleaned up lunch and got everything ready for dinner.  I have to admit, I had to close my eyes for a couple of minutes.  We had a great time with dinner.  The Sisters can only be here for one hour and then they are off doing missionary work.  Our Bishop's little family stayed and visited and it was so nice to get to know them better.  We jumped on a Zoom call with all of the Senior Couples and had an hour to visit.  We met a new couple who will be here the end of February.  They will be in the office and will be trained for two weeks before the Koyle's leave to head home.  We also talked about things we do as couples to stay sane and keep our relationships happy.  We have a zoom call with them every last Sunday of the month. To say we had a busy and great week is an understatement.  We feel so blessed to be missionaries.  We look forward to a new week and the blessings that will come.  We hope you are all healthy and happy.  Know that we love you and pray for you!  Have a wonderful week.