February 2015

In the month of January, we spent a lot of time visiting members in Ogdensburg and in Gouverneur, a town about 45 minutes away. Our routine takes us to visit lots of members and the investigators of the Church. On Mondays, we have what is called P-Day (Personal Day) and most of the time the Elders here in Ogdensburg come to our home where they can do their laundry and they cook a big breakfast for us complete with bacon & pancakes or waffles. We just love having our own personal chefs! Then on Thursday mornings, we attend what is called a District meeting where we join with other missionaries from the area for training. Those meetings are so spiritual & wonderful and we have come to enjoy the great work being done by these wonderful young people who seek only to serve Jesus Christ. They are spectacular!

 

One Wednesday in the middle of the month, we took a couple to Watertown, which is a little over an hour away from Ogdensburg. We went to dinner and a movie and had a great time. It is probably fortunate that we are in an area where there is no theater or we would be going too often.

 

At the end of the month, we were thrilled to take a little time to visit our good friends south of Syracuse, the Clays, and to go to the Palmyra Temple. Jim even had a chance to go snowmobiling with Marc. He said it was a hoot and that he had a great time. Who knew that he could enjoy the cold and snow of New York! Fun stuff! 

 

While we have had light snow storms off and on during the month, the real weather issue was the amount of cold weather we had during the month. Of course, the temperatures can be cold during the day and we have had numerous days when it didn't get out of single digits and then some pretty brutal cold has occurred during the night dipping to -20 degrees.  Even so, we haven’t been the recipient of the intense weather that has been reported so often in the national news.  Feeling blessed!

So far for the month of February, it's gotten even more cold. The temperature has been consistently below freezing, with several days below zero. Adding in the wind chill to those negative temperatures and it's just freezing. We can't really complain though, we know an elder in Boston from Red Rock. Poor Boston is really setting the records on the snow!

Steam coming off the river... it looks like the Arizona dust storms, but there's no wind!

Our squirrel figured out in seconds how to get to the new bird feeder. He would shake the house and the seeds would fall on the ground. Then he would climb down the tree and eat the seems off the ground. We bought a metal pole to put it on, but the ground is frozen solid... guess he'll stay fat until spring.

Crazy squirrel is a glutton!

 Playing French Bridge on P-Day & they're hooked!

Changes on the river.

Lights at a local park by the river.

 The children are drawn to Jim. He’s not complaining at all – a good substitute for our grand & great grandchildren.

"Playing" the organ on Sunday (pushing buttons only!) with Jim leading the music.

While eating at the Chili's in Syracuse, we noticed the mode of transportation for many in the area.

Jim getting suited up... to ride the snowmobile! 

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