Early Spring (for Kentucky)

The weather is infrequently hospitable for outdoor activities (such as gardening) but we have done quite a bit of it anyway (gardening).


When we arrived last summer, our gardens were basically untended. The people who we bought from just weren't able to do much. This first picture shows the front of the house and what were described to us as Dogwood trees. We were told that they are the wrong kind of Dogwoods for Kentucky and that they wouldn't produce decent flowers in the spring time. But we pruned them some and hoped for the best.

Then came the winter and the cold weather.



A few days ago I flew to Provo to meet my brother Bob. Bob and I are trying to maintain a tradition of meeting in Provo near Mothers' Day and take our mom out to dinner and visit her. We had a great visit and an especially enjoyable Sunday afternoon at Our sister's home. She and her husband, Bruce, are so loving and hospitable. We were met by Karen (our niece from Southern Cal), Diana (our niece from SLC), Janette (our niece who is just settling in to SLC with her husband, Brandon Pace, and their four children, Craig and Andrea (of course since they live fifty feet away), Bob and Jean Wilson (Bruce's sister and brother-in-law) and mom. Julie and her children were also there.

I said all that to point out that upon my return to Louisville, the Dogwoods had quite suddenly come through big time.



We are still having some chilly spring days but this weekend is projected to be warm and sunny. It won't be long before we are longing for chilly weather again, but right now, the heat sounds pretty good.

An Evening at the Louisville Temple

I reported for my regular shift as an Ordinance Worker tonight and was assigned to the Baptistry. Crestwood Second ward brought about thirty five young people to do Baptisms for the dead.

Interestingly enough there was a Young Mens leader from that ward who looked like Elder Bednar of the Twelve. His name turned out to be Eric Bednar and he is the Young mens' President. He's also the Apostle's son and a very pleasant young man. He is married, an Orthodontist, has a private dental practice and is also on the faculty of the University of Louisville School of Dentistry.

Apparently his dad comes to visit from time to time and, of course, attends church in that ward. I wish I could think of a smooth way to find out when that might happen again so I could be there because David A. Bednar has become one of my favorite speakers.

More Mission Experiences

In our Mission Office we have, as I think most mission offices have, a Mission Secretary, Financial Clerk, Vehicle Coordinator, Housing Coordinator, Referral and Media Coordinator and Medical Adviser.

When we were called, Brother and Sister McClellan from Bear Lake, Idaho were serving as full-time Senior Missionaries. Sister McClellan was the Mission Secretary and Elder McClellan the Financial Clerk. These are two critical assignments that require full time presence at the office.

Another couple were serving as part-timers with the Elder Wright being the Vehicle Coordinator and his wife the Medical Adviser.

Cathy is the Referral and Media Coordinator. The Church has recently developed an internet-based referral program that is a part of lds.org but only accessible with an appropriate password. All referrals are entered into the system and then sent to the appropriate missionaries via text message on their cell phones. then the missionaries are supposed to update the status of each referral by calling an 800 number and punching in certain responses to specific categories. Cathy coordinates all of that for our 180 missionaries and it's a big job. The good news is that the system being internet-based can be accessed at home and that makes it very nice for her. plus she has a mission cell phone too with all the missionaries numbers pre-programmed into it.

Media means all of the pamphlets, DVDs, Books of Mormon, etc. that the missionaries order. She makes sure we are stocked and she sees that the missionaries requests are filled.

I have been the housing coordinator dealing with about 80 land lords of various types.

The McClellans were due to leave on March 1st but there was no replacements for them. The Mission President asked us to consider coming in full time and doing their work as well as ours. After a very cordial meeting he decided to bring the Vorheis' up from their assigned area in Campbellsville, Kentucky. I wrote about them earlier and they have been wonderful.

The Wrights are leaving at the end of this month. we got a single senior Brother in named Phil Cease who has a professional background in apartment management and so the President asked if I would switch to cars and let Elder Cease handle the housing so I'm learning yet more duties. I truly am enjoying it.

Yesterday, Andy Busby, the Area Vehicle Coordinator, came to Louisville to train me. He is a very pleasant fellow and it looks like We'll work well together (he's my boss other than the mission President).

It's great group of people doing great work and i really enjoy having the opportunity to serve.

I still haven't heard more from Elder Harmon of Flagstaff (in whose Great Grandparent's home in Berkeley my parents were married). But I reminded him that I would love to contact my sort of cousin, George Harmon, to reminisce.

No pictures this time. I have also been doing some additional work in the yard and will report on that next time.

Starting to Get That SPRING Fever

As you all know, every year on Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil pops up and looks for his shadow. If he sees it, there's more winter in store. Well he apparently saw it but mom didn't so she's shopping at Lowe's trying to satisfy her gardening withdrawals.




In her defense, we've had some really beautiful spring days even though it's snowing today.






On Westover Drive, the street you turn off of to get to our home on Autumn Hill, the Flowering pear trees came out in style.










We have one in our back yard too.













We took some time to tear into the garden area at the foot of our driveway and it is now looking good. We didn't really take any before pictures so the only people who saw it before we did our work are Jake and Meredith.












The final five photos are taken on our route to church and the Temple. Harrods Creek is where I will do most of my kayaking. In the summer it is like I would imagine Swanee River to be with lots of deer, turtles, squirrels and other wildlife and very quiet.












The water falls are on a creek that runs along Covered bridge Road and into Harrods Creek.

























The Daffodils grow like wild flowers here in the spring and in this case I think they are wild flowers. These were just growing in a horse pasture.

Time to Start Blogging Again or It's Springtime in Blue Grass Country

I've gone quite awhile without blogging. It's been cold and I've been busy but I have been encouraged to start up again.

So I'll start with mission related items.

An Elder named Nicholas Harmon came into the office the other day. I've seen him before but didn't get a chance to talk to him. He is from Flagstaff, Arizona and is the son of a Glen Harmon who is the son of another Glen Harmon and so on. Turns out he is the great grand son of Glen Harmon of Berkeley, California. I told him my parents were married in the Berkeley Harmon home and his parents were also married there. I told him to find out if his dad had an uncle named George because George and I went to Berkeley High School together. Maybe i will be able to hook with george some how and hash over old times.

My second item is about the Vorheis family from Fairview, Utah. Brother and Sister vorheis are serving as Senior Missionaries here in the Kentucky Louisville Mission. They were in Campbellsville but have now moved up to the Mission Office to take over for the McClellans who are leaving to go home.

The Vorheis' had a son serving a mission in Argentina about twelve years ago and he was shot during a street robbery. He has been severely disabled but was able to get married. It's a great story and is spelled out in much greater detail in one of the most recent Church News editions. i looked on line but couldn't find it to provide a link but i saw the article in the Church news and it's very moving.

I'm collecting some nice spring time photos of the Kentucky countryside and our neighborhood. I'll post some of those very soon.